So…I’m driving back from the store, and I drive past a house that has the Home Depot red reaper prop. “Darn, I think to myself. We had the only one in the area last year.” Then I turn a corner, and there’s another one. And then I spy a third one the next block over …
Category Archives: 2023
“Stanley” 2023
Building a Haunt on a hill … where our house is … on a … house on haunted hill! Oh! I just got that. Anyway … when you build structures that are meant to go on an incline, you have to engage in some additional engineering to make them stand “up” (where up is based …
“Grim” 2023
One of our oldest props is “Grim”, a pneumatic pop-up that sits center-front in the display. Kids love him. Dogs hate him. We first built him back in 2006, and every few years his face – up until now usually a latex mask over a foam skull – rots and falls apart. We saw signs …
“Jack” in the (fire) box 2023
For the last two years, Jack was a pneumatic prop. He jumped out, made a big banging sound and then retreated — usually before the startled guest spotted him through the smoke. It seemed like he startled – but didn’t really scare. (see: Jack 2021, 2022 ) From a haunt-perspective, not the effect we were …
Angel Gravestone
Rebecca found a remarkably detailed doll on Facebook Marketplace. The doll is 33 inches tall and looks like the perfect starting point for a monster-mudded angelic figure on an ornate gravestone/base. The picture at the right is a reference photo of an actual grave that we’re basing the design on. Carving the Foam Starting with …
Lasher
Step by Step… So, there’s this prop called an Animated Swaying Zombie, that basically is an upper body swiveling around from the hip. By now, you’ve probably figured out that I like taking an idea, and “Yes and-ing” it until it turns into something no sane person would commit to doing. So this year, we …
RGB LED Eyes
After the second or third time you find yourself swapping perfectly good LED’s out of the skull of one of your older props — simply because you’re changing themes, you start wondering if there’s a better way. This method can allow you to “hard wire” some of the basic colors of an RGB by applying …
Upper Body/Shoulder Mech
Building from the torso up, how can we introduce some rocking into the shoulders…preferably, this would be a second motor that could run asynchronously to the lower pivot. This would introduce extra randomness in the prop’s motion. The motor is a simple DC gear motor from American Science and Surplus. They call it “Megan’s Favorite”. …
Rocking Torso Mech v2
I took elements I liked from the generic rocking zombie mech, and decided to try to solve the centering/binding problem. This version centers the load over the drive arm and incorporates nylon bushings to reduce drag in the rock and pivot joints. First Mod: I didn’t want to have to bend the pin to keep …
Rocking Torso Mech v1
Based on designs I’ve seen posed for a watchman prop. I first tried following the designs I’d seen online, adding a lazy-susan bearing to allow a frictionless swivel the two crosses. I did however keep the 1/2″ straight pipe spinning in a 3/4″ Tee concept. The main problem with this design is that the motor …