Halloween Forum

Halloween Candy!

the big boo — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:17:35 GMT

O.K., I probably sound like a little kid, but tell me all about it. What's your favorite candy to hand out? What do you like to save for yourself?:D What do you secretly hope your kids bring home so you can snitch a piece?:) Oh, I know you do. Of course, I never do that......;) But then I haven't got kids. :D

Traumatized kids

MsMeeple — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:04:50 GMT

I just heard the stupidest thing on the news here tonight. The Heath Department started the mexican flu immunizations for children under 5 today. In order to soften the blow, they had St Nick in the room to help distract the children. Now all those poor children will associate St Nick with the flu shot!
When parents tell their kids to be good or St Nick won't visit, the kids will be especially bad to make sure he doesnt come lol

MsM

Gotta Get a Zhu Zhu Hamster for Halloween

Ghost of Spookie — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:49:51 GMT

So the big Xmas toy item this year seems to be the Zhu Zhu Hamster pets. Suppose to be like the Teddy Ruxpin or Cabbage Patch dolls of previous holiday seasons if you remember waiting in lines or searching for those. When I saw them I thought "that would be great to convert into a rat running in my Halloween haunt...maybe even running through clear horizontal pipes on the wall, in a scientist lab, or across the floor among my other mice and rats, etc.!" Something like $8-10 if they can be found at local stores. Anyone have any other ideas for them? At least after Xmas when the supplies get replenished they should be easier to get a hold of and in time for halloween. But if you find one for you kid for Xmas, you could always repurpose it later in the year. ;)

Here's a video of them from YouTube:

YouTube - Zhu Zhu Pets Ad

Mechanical: Advice

the halloweenie — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:41:36 GMT

If I posted a used "midnight countess animatronic" prop which is still in good quality, how much do you think I could sell it for, here on the forum?

Come and Check out my new Pics..

yankeerebel — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:13:52 GMT

Hey YA'll!!! Hope YA'll had a good Halloween.Sorry I toke so long to do this I been busy getting ready for Halloween.:):D Thanks YankeeRebel

Glowing "hot" coals ...

LT Scare — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:41:34 GMT

I searched the site for all the key words I could think of but didn't find anything like this so here goes ...

First, want to give credit to someone named "Goldie" at Instructables . com for the basis of this idea. My changes are not earth shaking - more like adaptations to create a "heat" source for "cooking" up some goodies in cauldrons in our new Witches Coven.

Here is a pic of the final results in low light with Cauldons setting on the prop.

Materials:

A "fire bed" shaped per your needs, made of anything from foam board to 1" plywood. Whatever suits your needs and how well you want it to hold up year after year. - Craft store or Hardware store
Several strings of lights to your choosing. I used one string of 150 Orange lights with a controller (button selects differnt flashing patterns), two strings of 50 orange lights, two strings of 25 purple lights and one string of 50 orange and purple (same bulb) lights. I think that last string was not necessary. - available anywhere - got programmable lights off of ebay, be patient there
Wiffle balls of as many different sizes as you can find. I found softbal sizes, hardball sizes, and golf ball sizes. I also used a few orange pingpong balls. The quantity will depend on your taste and the size of your fire bed. I suggest you buy one package of each size and add more later as you like. - most came from Walmart
Fire grate - optional dependent upon your application. I used four tree supports landscapers use to hold up a newly planted "small" tree. - Landscaping section of a large hardware store
A few Screws. - hardware store
One piece of 3/4" plywood about 12" x 14" (very optional). - hardware store or your scrap bin
A small bottle of acrylic craft paint in gray - think ashes. - Craft Store
Great Stuff expanding foam - my "fire bed" required alomst all of two cans. - hardware store

Tools required.
Something to cut your "Fire bed" to the size and shape for your application. Could be an exacto knife or a Utility knife for cardboard or foam board to a circular saw or jig saw for plywood shaping.
A good Hot Glue gun and lots and lots of sticks.
What ever you need to cut your grate if you use one. I use my sliding compound miter saw and a drill press (for the vericle supports), but you could get by with only a hand saw.
Screw driver

Steps:

1. Decide / cut to size and shape, your "fire bed." Keep in mind that the larger the "fire bed," the more components you will need, but the greater the impact, IMO. Also, I think the programmable lights really improve the affect but should NOT be used without some other lights staying on all the time.

For the picutured prop, I used a rectangular sheet of 1/4" plywood about 4' 6" long by 20" ... because that's what fit the intended display space.

2. If you intend to use a grate, determine where you want the verical supports and mark those locations on your bare "fire bed" material. Our plan required extra support in the middle where we have a "boiling" cauldron of eyeball soup brewing - filled with water and floating eyeballs. Water is heavy and could ruin the prop if the grate breaks. BTW the pics don't show this well because the water was low and the mist was high at the time.

3. Cut your wiffle balls in half. If you want your surface to be uneven, cut some balls at 3/4 of their height rather than half.

4. Spreadout the lights on the "fire bed" in a very irregular. Take care not to infringe upon the vertical support areas. I tried to group a good mix of the different featured lights as much as possible, but some remained by themselves and that's ok too. Have one of the cut wiffle balls handy to give you and idea of the space needed for the groupings.

Most crutial here is the placement of the control box for the programmable lights and the accessability of the male plug that will power the strings of lights. Try to have enough length to it that it can extend away from the prop to better hide the power source ( I didn't do this well on mine).

More in the next post.....

Prop Showcase: Sidewalk of Doom 2009

ElPitchfork — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:37:17 GMT

Unfortunately, we had rain on and off all day for Halloween. Here's a link to photos of my yard dispaly.
ElPitchfork

Image hosting, free photo sharing & video sharing at Photobucket

Sidewalk of Doom 2009 pix

ElPitchfork — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:30:55 GMT

Unfortunately, we had rain on and off all day for Halloween. Here's a link to photos of my yard dispaly.
ElPitchfork

Image hosting, free photo sharing & video sharing at Photobucket

ScreaminScott here

ScreaminScott — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:42:29 GMT

Hi all,

I'm active over on HauntSpace and on the Halloween-L list.

I look forward to immersing myself in all the Halloween fun around here!

How I will be cooking my Thanksgiving Feast

HallowSusieBoo — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:47:48 GMT

YouTube - Ask a Ninja 48: Ninja Recipes

This is also the recipe for Prop Building!

Lessons learned from my haunted house in 2009

Pumpkin King — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:26:18 GMT

1. Fog machines don't work unless you turn them on.

2. Chances are, if you're carying a fog machine, 3 strobes, a Midnight Syndicate CD, 2 flood lights, and 2 strands of christmas lights, the CD is going to end up shiny-side down, out of the case on the snow covered deck.

3. CDs that fall in the snow don't work.

4. At 6:00 at night on Halloween a disfunctional CD can lead to screaming between you and your family.

5. It is asking too much to have to set up and decorate two wood rooms on Halloween.

6. People will break through caution tape and run from the haunt if a monster appears beside them.

7. First time monsters aren't scary.

8. A first time monster will interupt another first time monster to ask if they want to switch roles while the other first time monster is scaring a group.

9. A wood elf mask isn't scary in a doctor's office.

10. People can't read your sign unless you put a light on it.

11. Most teens squeeze behind a pine tree even when there's a traffic cone blocking them because it's "just crazy" that I would make them go through a mine as narrow as ours.

12. A plastic chainsaw isn't loud enough to be heard when ten kids are screaming as loud as they can.

13. If you bang a plastic machette on a piece of wood it will shatter.

Halloween Fonts and Halloween Dingbat Fonts

Smiter — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:35:32 GMT

Hi All,
Hope all are well today!

I found a great place on the web that has 6 pages of just HALLOWEEN fonts and dingbat fonts. Best of all .. they are FREE.

It even has a little contraption that you put your words in and for about half of them you can see how your words will look in the fonts. You can download each one that you like, and then extract them to your WINDOWS/Font folder. Do a refresh in the folder and they should work.

Two of my favorites are "Halloween Spider" and "Wild Wood.
Let me know yours!

Have fun!

LINK:
Holiday > Halloween fonts | dafont.com

Happy Birthday squatdaddy!!

maleficent — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:34:26 GMT

Happy Birthday Ruggerz!

Baron Samedi — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:26:07 GMT

Many scary returns of the day, my young friend!!!

:D:D:D

Leatherface animatronic and more props for sale!!!

horrortheme — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:03:06 GMT

Hello,
I am selling some of my Halloween props including my life size Leatherface! I have 2 of these props and I want to sell one of them! This prop is extremely rare and hard to find because ir has been dicontinued! I still have his original box! All work fine on him except for his head! It does not turn side to side anymore! And the chainsaw cracked but not the chain that still moves! The Leatherface still moves his chainsaw and the chains move and the eyes still shift side to side! He still also makes sounds! I am asking $350 plus shipping I will not go that low on that price but make me a deal and its yours! I will be putting out the rest of the props I have as well!

Attached Images

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