Thread: Most Unusual Prop

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What is the strangest item that you have used in your set-up over the years?

For myself, I came across one of those Black Light Paintings, fluorescent colors on a black velvet surface. It was in a Thrift Shop, and it was at least 2'x3', really big. A portrait of a Ghurka or Seikh soldier of some sort, maybe a Royal Bengal Lancer. Very strange. I remember it was set into a massive, ornate frame. And,get this, the face was embossed, it extended out from the surface. Life-sized. Basically, a mask. So we set up a panel with the painting hanging on it. We cut out the eyes, and voila...we had a painting that LOOKED BACK AT YOU! very creepy, and it glowed under Black Light. We set up a panel so tha the guy looking out throught the eyes, could operate sound and light controls. It was a real hit. Alas, I was stupid back in those days. When we moved, I discarded it. Really, it was irreplacable; try to find something like that!

What is the most unusual prop you have ever used

a few years ago i put a fart maching in the pocket of one of my creature prop that was bent over and as the trick or treaters walked by i hit the button... it would scare the kids and the adults would laugh their heads off....it really is childish i know... but i had so much fun that year.

Not really a prop, per se.



Black robe, and wired so I didn't have to hold it.... (pre-digital photos, haven't scanned in the actual costume)

Back then, we didn't have TOT's at our house, so I would return to my parents, and WANDER the neighborhood handing out 'ghost' tootsie pops. That neighborhood was used to such strange things, I got the cops called on me when I tried it at the in-law's place, so don't recommend it...

Anyhow, one pair of kids ran into their grandparents house, I got to the porch to hear them telling about this '8 ft tall' monster (I'm 6'1) and nearly died when I opened the door and stepped in. Good ole Mrs Gibbons...she was my school librarian...


Another contender...

An Xbox faceplate I won in a contest (for which I wanted a Tshirt, don't own an Xbox) Joking with the podcast host that gave it away, I said I'd turn it into a Halloween prop...
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After


on:

In 2006 when we did a home walk-through called "Mephisto & Sons Victorian Funeral Parlor" I used a couple props that might strike some as unusual:

-A framed hair collection/display that my great gran had made from all her children's baby hair braided into fancy designs. It also has little faux pearls & rhinestones braided into the hair- I hung it on the wall near our corpse laying in her casket in the parlor's "Viewing Room."

-Two really ancient family bibles & a "Paroissien" (book of daily devotional prayers) that had belonged to my great-aunt who was an Ursuline nun. I dug these out of a trunk of family heirlooms because they just seemed good props to compliment the Victorian funeral decor They were placed well out of the TOTs' reach on top of the piano!

Wish I had a pic of the hair display, but here are the black prayer book on the cabinet & one 1896 bible (red cover) sitting on the pianny during set up:

As far as "unusual" goes, we have also used live rats to great effect, and, on one occasion, a room buzzing with newly hatched flies. The rats were terrific, the flies, well, the less said about that, the better...

Some of my best props are an authentic Victorian wicker carry casket and a church's speaker's stand that was dedicated in 1923. Perhaps more unusual will be this year's addition of a real 3" mammary tumor from a rat, as well as a pair of rat testicles with a torsion.

Hey, you asked!

This year I purchased a couple of real hearts (sheep and pig)and other perserved body parts. I also have a jar with 4 feline fetus' that the mother had passed away while she was pregnant and the babies didn't make it so they were perserved as well.
I also have a cow skeleton that I have displayed as a pile of bones, and other misc animal bones.
I think those are my most unusual so far.