Scads of costumed ‘Oz’ characters turn out for FYI photo shoot

No doubt you’ll encounter quite an assortment of characters tonight, all demanding candy. Still, we bet you don’t meet 44 Wicked Witches and 30 Dorothys.

But on a sunny Saturday morning earlier this month at Legends Outlets in Kansas City, Kan., pretty much the entire cast of “The Wizard of Oz” was represented, including the Kansas lass’s farmhouse, the Emerald City and even that menacing tornado.

Heck, if we’d had a movie camera, we could have filmed a remake right there.

But The Star’s goal was to break a Guinness World Record set in June at an Oz festival in Grand Rapids, Minn., home of the Judy Garland Museum. The category: most costumed “Wizard of Oz” characters in one place.

The number to beat: 1,093.

Well, we didn’t quite get there at the Legends, but 259 “Oz” characters chatting with one another and taking pictures was still quite a sight. Unsuspecting shoppers couldn’t quite believe their eyes.

This year is, of course, the 75th anniversary of the release of the 1939 MGM classic, which was what inspired the whole thing.

Our thanks to everyone who took part and to Legends Outlets for hosting. As you can see here, we documented our world record attempt with a group picture.

This story was originally published October 31, 2014 at 2:00 AM with the headline "Scads of costumed ‘Oz’ characters turn out for FYI photo shoot."