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Paralympian wins Halloween with 'Beauty and the Beast' costume

The latest creative Halloween costume from Paralympian and motivational speaker Josh Sundquist is a "Beauty."
/ Source: TODAY

When it comes to show-stopping Halloween costumes, no one can hold a candle to Paralympian Josh Sundquist.

Known for his inventive creations, the motivational speaker and former ski racer has won Halloween yet again by becoming Lumiere, the beloved candelabra maitre d' from Disney's animated "Beauty and the Beast."

Sundquist, who lost his left leg to cancer at age 9, showed in a YouTube tutorial how he became Lumiere, the Casanova of candelabras from the 1991 hit.

RELATED: Paralympian Josh Sundquist turns disability into creative IHOP Halloween costume

It was a painstaking process involving papier-mache, modeling clay, metallic fabric, poster board, silicon, clown paint, and fluff from inside a stuffed animal.

"I’ve always wanted to try this costume,'' Sundquist wrote on his blog. "And as you probably know, there’s a live-action 'Beauty and the Beast' coming out next year. It’s unclear from the photosI’ve seen if Lumiere will still be a hopping monopod or if the new Lumiere (played by Ewan McGregor) will have bipedal locomotion. If the new movie changes the way we imagine Lumiere, this could be the final Halloween in which I could dress like him. So it had to be Lumiere in 2016."

The outfit came together with the help of Sundquist's assistant Lisa McLaughlin, whom he calls "a DIY genius." She has helped him create his costumes for the past five years.

Last year Sundquist transformed himself into an IHOP sign with his wife, Ashley, dressing as a stack of pancakes.

Sundquist's greatest hits also include a gingerbread man with a partially eaten leg, the famous "leg lamp" from "A Christmas Story,'' a flamingo and a foosball table figurine.

Now a member of the U.S. amputee soccer team, Sundquist did not celebrate Halloween until he was in college; his family did not acknowledge the holiday for religious reasons, according to his blog.

His costumes also show the progression of his comfort with being an amputee. "I used to be pretty self-conscious,'' he wrote. "In high school I wore a prosthesis all the time and didn’t want anyone to find out I was missing a leg. But now I’m more at ease with who I am and what I look like, and I guess with these Halloween costumes you could even say that I celebrate what makes me different."

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