Thread: First Halloween sighting in stores...

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Originally Posted by Shellyfish

By the time they got him to me they had taken him apart at the waist. When I got him home it seemed straightforward enough that the springs go into the holes, but there is a short bungee cord back there too and I'm not sure if I'm supposed to attach it somewhere or if it's something the people at Homegoods put there? It doesn't particularly look like it's part of him, but it could be.

The second issue is that he has a crack in one ankle. Does anyone have a recommendation for what type of glue would be best for the rigid foam material?

The third issue is that he didn't come with a CD. I went back had them look for it, and they said they looked all over and he didn't come with one. They credited me back $10 and suggested I buy a sound effects CD. I am just wondering what it sounds like. Am I missing anything?

Thanks for your help!

The bungee cord goes up between his shoulder blades. There's a silver circle the cord hooks through. The CD isn't anything special, I'm sure you can come up with something better. I doubt I'll use mine. If you'd like I can take a picture of his back and post it.

Originally Posted by Shellyfish

I have a few questions for the Scaretaker owners out there. I managed to snag one from my HomeGoods a couple of weeks ago, and he looks great, but he has a few issues.

By the time they got him to me they had taken him apart at the waist. When I got him home it seemed straightforward enough that the springs go into the holes, but there is a short bungee cord back there too and I'm not sure if I'm supposed to attach it somewhere or if it's something the people at Homegoods put there? It doesn't particularly look like it's part of him, but it could be.

The second issue is that he has a crack in one ankle. Does anyone have a recommendation for what type of glue would be best for the rigid foam material?

The third issue is that he didn't come with a CD. I went back had them look for it, and they said they looked all over and he didn't come with one. They credited me back $10 and suggested I buy a sound effects CD. I am just wondering what it sounds like. Am I missing anything?

Thanks for your help!

Perhaps I can answer this. Im sure you did this already but did you look in the scaretakers back?
Mine had the cord to plug him into a wall back there along with a manilla envelope with a cd and
instructions inside. The instructions state that he can be further dissembled by unscrewing the nut bolts
inside the torso for his arms and if you gently wiggle (back and forth motion) back and forth on his wrists and neck his head and hands
come off too.

It advises to do all this gently so you dont strip the foam out but mentions that with adjusting the
arms with unscrewing and screwing back the arms you can get different jittery shaking motions from your scaretaker,
to kinda personalize him. Did you check inside your car in case his envelope fell out from his back? I might venture
to return to the store (again) and ask about a manilla envelope (mine was folded once) in the back area in case it fell out
back there. It possibly could have fallen out in transit which would be poo but I guess is possible since he didnt come in
a box or anything.

The bungee cord is supposed to be there and it attaches to the zip tie. The instructions I have say " set the
torso on top of the legs so that the plastic tube goes over the front guide post and the springs go into the holes in the torso.
Connect the Bungee cord at the bottom to the black nylon tie (mine is clear zip tie), and to the bolt eye at the top of the torso."

Im not sure what they mean to the bolt eye at the top of the torso. My bungee cord seems to be fine with just hooking up to the zip tie for proper
jittery motion. Theres a caution in this paper that reads- " use care when attaching the hand with lantern so that you
do not pull down on the arm stripping the square end that holds the arm up. By tightening or loosening the wing-nut that holds the arm you will get slightly different head and jaw movement"

Further down the paper is suggests to pull the cape out over the arms for best look and moving the head forward or
back to change head and jaw movement. Use water based acrylic paints to touch up or personalize your Scaretaker. :3

Oh, and his head is named "Horatio Head". heehee. Thats pretty much all that was on the paper but I might be able to
scan the paper for ya. Heres the music in cd format youll need a cd burner for "music" to get it playable on your cd or
in your car I dont think the cd is really usable though, the voice is so deep I dont think realistically anyone
could understand what he was saying in a loud environment, just would hear alot of base. You would be better off getting
something else if you wanted "talking" but the ambient sounds are pretty good. Footsteps in grass, howling, wind, ect.


Here is a link for the files in .rar format- Send big files the easy way. Files too large for email attachments? No problem!

I visited one today to check out their "Boney Bunch" accessories and candle burners etc! Wow these are very nice! And priced very well! The lady in the store mentioned that the Bride and Groom with the wedding cake is selling fast. They had one set left( not sure how many they actually had previously) and that they are sold out online! These are substantial items. I thought they would be priced much higherLOL! From what I understand the "Boney Bunch" sells very quickly! I got the pirate ghost and the gothic farmers. The organ player was very impressive but I already have a Dept.56 organ player. I may go back for more LOL Btw they have white taper candles that "bleed blood" when burning and melting! oh the four-armed dude looked cool also!

Here's the bride and groom with wedding cake:Yankee Candle - Boney Bunch Wedding Cake Tea Light Holder
Yankee Candle - Boney Bunch Wedding Cake Tea Light Holder

Still no luck with a scaretaker. Manager took my name and number and promises to call when it comes in. I am starting to get tired stressing about it. I go by everyday they get a truck... it is getting old but I really want him. LOL

Thanks a witch from canada for the video, MrNightmare for the glue advice, bellelostdrake for the bungee instructions, and kittyvibe for the instructions and audio. Between all of you you got me covered, and I thank you.

I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong with the audio, but when I download it the .rar file is only 4k and when I expand it consists of 30 files from Track01.cda all the way through Track30.cda and each of these files is 44 bytes.

My guy didn't come with any instructions or CD so all the info is VERY helpful. I found the loop at the top of his back. I'm concerned because the cord is up against his back on the lower part and I think an hour or so of shaking would cause the cord to saw right into him. Here are pics:



The area in the red circle is where it's rubbing. Maybe one of you will be able to tell what's gone awry?



Thanks again for all the help!

my bungee has a metal hook and seemed to fall below the foam body, so the only thing touching the body is the cord itself. I dont know if it would be string enough to cut into the foam body, seems pretty rigid. With the music files, they will need to be burned to a music cd to play right unless you have nero. Nero takes some time to load up the file because its converting it to play but if you know how to burn the music thats what came on the cd I was given. A bunch of small short files, but they are about 2 minutes each, and when one is over the next track plays and it must have a loop, I didnt play through them all yet.

Went to Garden Ridge in Tulsa today, where they've had a double aisle of inflatables for a month and nothing else. They have now gotten a lot more Halloween stuff and a double loaded aisle of Autumn/TG stuff. I got some carvable foam pumpkins, a color change led plastic jack o lantern, and a plastic vac form jack o lantern porch light cover (the one I got there last year was blown into the next county during a freak autumn gust front that also felled the main tent at Oktoberfest, causing many injuries and festive legal proceedings). They still had a lot to unbox so I wil go back soon. Still no lemax. They had a good selection of life-size (for a short person) plastic skeletons ( I think you folks call them bluckys) that were 50 bucks. I want a good basic life-size joint skeleton, so I might get one. They also had what looked like the same thing with the parts loose in a black mesh bag, but all of the ones I saw looked like they had a skull and half a set of bones. What is up with that? Anyone know?

Originally Posted by kittyvibe

my bungee has a metal hook and seemed to fall below the foam body, so the only thing touching the body is the cord itself. I dont know if it would be string enough to cut into the foam body, seems pretty rigid. With the music files, they will need to be burned to a music cd to play right unless you have nero. Nero takes some time to load up the file because its converting it to play but if you know how to burn the music thats what came on the cd I was given. A bunch of small short files, but they are about 2 minutes each, and when one is over the next track plays and it must have a loop, I didnt play through them all yet.

The cord has actually already chipped away a bit of foam. I can just put some duct tape where it's rubbing. I still feel like it's not on the springs right - it's kind of leaning and wonky, but I guess it's supposed to be that way. I'll try burning the tracks. I'm not familiar with that format, but I have several ways to give it a try. I really appreciate you taking the time to upload it. Thanks so much for all your help!

I put the cd into my car player and it looks like whomever made the cd put the same track on there 30 something times or they messed up and copied only one track multiple times. The link a few posts back that has a video of him actually plays most of the audio, it lasts 2 minutes. The cd in my car kept looping the same audio over and over, so each track was the same audio basically. Try burning the track to a regular cd (.cda's usually wont play on your computer) and see if that works in a player or in your car player.

For those who find the Scaretaker... I would highly recommend buying a large plastic tote to store him in off-season. I have a number of Gag Studio's props (dracula, werewolf, Moan-eek the maid, etc.) and as cool as they look... they don't wear so well. Over the years mine have chipped and cracked (and paint has flaked off) in storage. I love em, but they require good protective storage containers.