Thread: My plan for 2011 - A lunging scarecrow. Ideas?

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So after visiting a Spirit halloween last year, and seeing a horribly bad vampire prop that as I'm making fun of it, scared the b'jesus out of me, I want to make something similar this year. Posting my idea up to see if anyone has any good ideas how to make this work.

So, the prop at spirit:
http://www.spirithalloween.com/produ...ching-vampire/

It looks HORRIBLE. But as you get close, it 'falls' forward. I'm making fun of how bad it looks to my son, and I stepped on the pressure pad in front of it to see it do whatever stupid crap it does... and it fell forward at me, and I, a seasoned Halloween veteran, jumped and yelped.

Oh, yes, it got me, and it got me good.

So, my plan for this year... My wife has always wanted to decorate our yard with a lot of lit jack-o-lanterns... but it never fit with my zombie theme. Well, I figured out how to do it. Thsi year we're going haunted cornfield. I'll put up a bunch of cornstalks, have a lot of jack o lanterns about, and the centerpiece, right by the walkway uyp to the door, a big scarecrow.

Now I'm a bit of a whiz with electronics, sensors, etc... using laser tripwires, motion sensors, and programming I can basically make things do whatever I want. My favorite is randomization - not having the same thing happen every time you break that laser tripwire.

Anyway, I'm digressing (I'm excited

So there's a big scarecrow. And hes up there on his post, arms out, head lolled over to the side. When the sensors go off, he'll do a few things... moan, maybe twitch a little... was thinking of having him raise his head and the eyes begin to glow a little...

But the big poop-yer-pants will be when he raises his head, the arms swing forward and he 'falls' forward off his post.

So what ideas am I looking for?

Well:
A) Other ideas for the cornfield - I like lots of points of interest... dont want the whole thing to be static with only the scarecrow being interesting. Things like rustling corn, moving... what?

B) Other things he could do...

And the big one: C) How to make him do the lunging motion.

My thought was he would be separate from the post, hinged at the feet. There would be a release catch that would be released, well, with a motor. When released, gravity or a spring-assit would cause him to fall (secured with a chain or other stop-mechanism so he doesnt fall all the way!).

Bringing him up could be done by means of a 'winch' system made with a wiper motor. My stumbling block is how to disengage the winch from him once he's back up so he can fall again...

Any thoughts?

The lunging can be done from the same mechanics as a hang man, only attach him at the legs instead of the neck.
A good slashing sound fx would be nice, like a machete cutting through the field. Body parts like a dumping sight. A Grave Grabber hidden between hay bails would work too.

Ok so whats a "hang man" - I assume its a standard technique/prop, but I'm clueless.

I got the lurching vampire and love him. The pics don't do justice.



sadly, after one hour, the voice chip stoppes working, over heat? Hope it's still work.

I have the Vampire from Spirit as well. I thought the face was a little cheezy so I hacked a vampire head and changed the look totally. Scared the @#$%@#$% out of people in our haunt last year. We had our haunt for three nights. By the last night, the motor broke. Piece of junk. Anyway, I am planning on build a lurching prop this year myself. I know exactly how to do it but I need to draw up some plans to share with you.

Here is the video for my Spirit Vampire.


Video of the haunt

Yeah any plans would be awesome. I'm basically making the same thing, but up on a stick

Like I said, I got it all worked out in my head. I'm just trying to figure out how to pull it back in, but then release that tension once it's up and locked in place. I can think of really complicated systems for it, but I want something simple.

This is my VooDoo Queen. She is a basic riser prop. You could do something similar but mount the prop on a platform up high with a scarecrow body and post behind it.

Do you know how to use pnuematics? That might be your best bet. My VooDoo Queen is a scissor riser with a one way cylinder. When air is released, it just falls back down. I use a motion detector from Cowlicous to trigger a solenoid which provides air to the cylinder.

Pneumatics are too loud, and it needs to fall forward, quickly, then retract. Pneumatics wouldnt work for that... well maybe if I pushed out via pneumatics, and pulled back via spring... but still. Too loud, and requires a compressor. This is running in my front yard, no place to hide a noisy compressor.

Lorddamax
Yea, we had to run our compressors about 50 feet behind the haunted house to lower the noise even inside the haunt. I want to do the same lurching prop so I will let you know when I get some plans drawn up.