Thread: Nice FIND today!

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Hello everyone,

I thought I would share my nice find today. Last night I saw a listing on craigslist for a pneumatic operated skeleton with a crude photo. It ad said it included the metal frame, the cylinder, the airlines, the accuator, etc.

I went to the owners house today and saw the item. I guess he bought it from DC Props a couple of years ago and never used it in his home haunt. The Skeleton is made of hard self skinning foam and looks like it was never painted or even had the extra "flash" removed from the edges. The way he had it standing up it looked like it didn't function that way - and when I laid it down it was obvious that is was designed to come out of a hole in a wall or a box or something.

He was asking $90 bucks and I notice there was a Delusional Banger Key Unit and mini MP3 recorder also attached to it and seeing that it was a decent price for the whole setup, I agreed.

As soon as I agreed, the owner started to remove the Banger Key Controller and the MP3 player. I said "Hey, wait a second ..." and he replied "I didn't list those as being sold with the item ..." I only had the 90 bucks on me, so I was kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place.

When I opened the back of my car, he saw a set of those PVC Candles with LED tea lights I had made that I had in the back. His eyes lit up and said "I'll take that in trade for the controller and the MP3 player" ... I was like ... huh? Well, ok!

So we loaded up the prop and he walked away with $90 and $2 in PVC candles ... Everyone was happy. Especially ME!

I guess the moral to this story is ... always have some of those PVC + Hot Glue home made candles and tea lights in your car when you go to buy a prop because some people just don't think to make them themselves ...

Nice guy ... but I feel I got a better deal ... everyone once in a while it DOES happen.

Here are some photos of the prop, now in its new home of my office / studio to be finished up for Halloween 2010.

http://www.hi-rezdesigns.com/hallowe...keleton_01.jpg
http://www.hi-rezdesigns.com/hallowe...keleton_02.jpg
http://www.hi-rezdesigns.com/hallowe...keleton_03.jpg
http://www.hi-rezdesigns.com/hallowe...keleton_04.jpg
http://www.hi-rezdesigns.com/hallowe...keleton_05.jpg
http://www.hi-rezdesigns.com/hallowe...keleton_06.jpg

And here is the "style" candle he got ...

http://www.hi-rezdesigns.com/hallowe...vc_candles.jpg

What a cool prop find. And what a funny story. Gee I'm carrying around some plastic fencing material still in my trunk for cemetary fencing I didn't get around to making for this past halloween. Wonder if I'll get so lucky!

Congrats on the good deal and sounds like you did get the better end of it...not that the candles weren't probably very nice but figure more easily replaceable.

Score!
What does the Banger Key Unit do?

Nice candles too...how did you paint them?

Hallow and WOW! What a lucky score! And your candles are outstanding! No wonder the guy thought it was a good deal!

I also took the time to enjoy your home haunt video link on YouTube. I absolutely LUV the synced pumpkins and the entire stroll through your haunt. I went several years to DW when we lived in FL and you have really made a great adaptation to the Haunted Mansion music and sound track. Very nice. You folks in LA get all the luck!

Keybangers are on this page about 1/4 of the way down: DC Props – Materializing Imagination! High end custom Halloween props and Animatronics.

I was going to draft up some "PVC Candle" instructions based on what I did to make mine that I will add to the original PVC candle thread. I followed the basic idea of the original but made a lot of modifications during the build process that turned out to be cheaper, better, and with very nice results.

it was a good find for you. i'm not mechanically inclined, would never know how to work that stuff, so i would go for the candles. lol. they are very pretty. and if you can't work the stuff what good is it. now if you can work the stuff, which you can, you got a great deal. as for the candles, to buy something like that, it costs. so he came out too. lol

That is awesome. Some paint and corpsing will make that a great prop. I have made candles and I am making more. They are a great prop, but most people do not think to make them.