Thread: Animated Skull Puppets

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This prop appeared in a haunt I describe in this post
Sausalito Circus Haunt

It's essentially a puppet theatre. I took some 2-piece skulls from Skeleton Factory (cost $15-20 each)

https://www.skeleton-factory.com/Bud...Piece-Skull-32

As you can see their jaws already have springs on them. I then attach the skulls to wooden poles and then attach a lever that I can tie to fishing line -- allowing you to open the mouth when you press the lever.

This is what the finished product looks like:


Heres another picture


In my haunt I had them mouthing the words to the grim grinning ghost song

The bottom of the skulls have a circular flat area about 1" in diameter, with an inner hole the size of a pencil


I don't have pictures from my work but it's not hard to explain what I did. I bought some 1" diameter wooden dowels and then some smaller pencil sized wooden dowels. I drilled holes in the center of the larger dowels so that the smaller dowels will fit in their centers. Then you can hang the skull on the top of the large dowel, and the smaller dowel helps keep it in place. The smaller dowel goes to the top of the skull -- although I don't know if it's crucial that you make the small dowel that long.

However to hold the skull on the dowel you need to make a little bracket. Just take a piece of sheet metal (I had some copper but it could be aluminum). Cut a little rectangle and bend it at an angle so it fits at the base of the skull. Then drill four holes and put four screws into the bracket -- two into the plastic of the skull and two into the wood. I then covered the base with felt. Here is the final result:


Here is what the skull looks like with the mouth open:

See the fishing line holding the mouth open? Thats because the line is attached to a lever on the base of the dowel. When you let go of the lever, the mouth shuts because of the springs that are on the jaw of the skull

The fishing line is attached to a lever about halfway down the length of the dowel. The lever is a little bracket that one would use to hang a little curtain rod. I just bent it so I could screw the corners to the sides of the dowel.

See?

The fishing line snakes around one side of the hood. It helps to have the mouth open when you tie the line together between the mouth and the lever because you want the line to be really tight or it will be hard to open the mouth very far.

Thats pretty much it. I then mount the dowels two pieces of wood with 1" holes. You can e one of these pieces of wood in the bottom of this picture.


See how the dowels go through the middle of the wood? This allows you to turn the skulls back and forth in addition to opening their mouths. However it takes some experimentation to get the holes lined up to the dowel can pivot freely.

Anyway, I hope you get the concepts. I made another version of this with one skull on a standing figure -- thus allowing you to move the mouth and pivot the head to look at guests.

Thats a clever idea..nice one!

I like this good job!

I love this! Very creative "stage front" for them too. I actually have a few of those same skulls from Skeleton-Factory still in boxes from an order from a few years ago when they had a great sale on them. May have found a use for them now... thanks for sharing.

BTW if you are looking for skeleton parts it pays to check the various bucky store sites periodically throughout the year. Sometimes skulls, hands, legs, arms at greatly reduced prices that they decide to move out mid-year.

What a great idea! Did you rig all the lines to one pully so you could move them at once or did you pull them individually?

That's neat! They look terrific in their crypt too.

Fantastic idea!