A certain number of people or their children decide on Medusa for a costume every year and ask us
questions. But we don't really have an answer, as everyone has a
different idea of the effect they want - from an incredibly heavy mass
of all different kinds of snakes, to a few snakes tastefully woven into
their hair. We have the R107 12" fully poseable snake that is
frequently used - it comes in black, yellow, and/or green - they do
have a little striping on them. Because it has a wire in it, it is
not as lightweight as some others. The R232 Painted Stretch Rubber
Snakes are also used (these snakes are quite small), sometimes
intermingled with the more easily-seen
12" poseable snakes. The full-bodied R414 and R415
baby snakes have open mouths and are quite
realistic and bouncy for Medusa - and $1.00 each isn't too awful (there
is also the R324 reddish snake with a closed mouth but otherwise the
same.) The
R310
vipers are relatively inexpensive and look menacing, and the R299
stripey snakes are also frequently used (none of these are full-bodied
underneath.) The R178 series of baby
snakes are not full-bodied underneath and are lightweight - they will
stay as
posed but have some bounce. Some people have used the R271 little
rainforest snakes - these are fairly rigid. People have surprised us
in the past by picking snakes we wouldn't think of using, such as the
hollow and fairly inflexible R228 Rainforest Snakes - this worked in a large hairdo with glitter
sprayed on. A few people have used the coiled R137A toy snakes woven
together into a cap, although this is not the effect usually wanted.
When you pick a
snake, it is important to take a piece of string the
same length as the snake and then lay it down and put a few curves in
it to get a valid idea of how big the snake will be. The snakes are
all pictured and hopefully clear on these pages -
http://www.veghead.com/reptiles/snakes.html
and
http://www.veghead.com/reptiles/funsnakes.html-
and we have pictured many of the larger snakes being wrapped around a
person and shown hanging at
http://www.veghead.com/reptiles/snake-display.html. Many of the smaller snakes are also shown in a medium-sized female hand at the bottom of the page. If
you have a question about particular choices, let us know, and we'll
try to answer.