I finished the animatronic spider victim with my shiatsu massager motor. He'll be hooked up to a floodlight motion sensor to trigger as people enter the spider maze. I've seen the $3,000+ pneumatic spider victim at Ripley's Haunted Adventure and I have to say, mine moves much more lifelike. And I don't need an air compressor for this one. I let him run for 4 hours straight to make sure the motor doesn't over heat. The shiatsu motor actually has it's own fan.

The total cost for this one was under $35.00.

wood $6.00
massager $3.00
pk small bungee cords $1.00
wigform $3.00
6 yards cheesecloth $4.00
chicken wire $6.00
tan fleck stone paint $5.00
spider webs $1.00
eye ball $2.50
3M spray adhesive $2.50

It's on the prop page below.

The Dark Tomb - Psychological Terror at it's best!
www.mansionofterror.com/props.htm

Great work, and you have the added bonus of saving about 3 grand.

Michael Ball

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Oh my god..! Thank you soooo much. I just realised I had one of those massage thing in my basement, I praticly never used it, you just gave me one of a hell great idea!
Thanks again!

Awsome effect.. what did you use to cover the spider victim with?


Im not going crazy.. its just a nice place to visit.

TDT, did you take any pictures of your linkage? I picked up a couple of the shiatsu massagers at yard sales this past Friday.

Your spider victim would go great in my Indiana Jone- Temple Of Doom rooms.

Good thing you are using them for halloween. It is a gross thought to have something rubbing your neck that has rubbed who knows how many other peoples necks. Little off topic. Anyway, if you cant find a use for the messager take ou thte motor, make sure not to break the gear box of there is one. If I remember correctly those things are pretty slow. Are they slow enough to be used with an FCG?

Michael Ball

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Madmax, I'll take a couple pictures of the linkage and post on the site. It uses a good 8 bungee cords and eye screws to create stability so that he doesn't go all haywire.

Ooogie, I covered the spider victim with chicken wire first. One section of chicken wire covers the legs, once section covers the upper torso, and one section is about six inches wide and covers the mid-section. The chicken wire is stapled to the wood frame at the back. Only the upper torso and legs move so I used four mini bungee cords to secure the six inch mid section to the upper and lower torso. This added to the natural movement. I tore up two old Tshirts and staples those around and to the back where I had gaps in the chicken wire. He is then covered in 6 yards of cheesecloth than I cut up in sections of a yard a piece. I secured the cheesecloth with the 3M spray and stapled that to the back as well. I sprayed over the cheesecloth with the tan fleck stone paint. Before the stone paint dried, I put on the spider webs. That way the spider webs stick to the paint. I added a final coat of tan fleck stone paint over the spider webs.

I will probably add some flat grey paint and flat black paint for highlights and to age him a bit more.



The Dark Tomb - Psychological Terror at it's best!
www.mansionofterror.com/props.htm

Crazy,

You could use a shiatsu massager motor for a FCG. The metal cam is pretty wide so you could drill a hole through that to run the horizontal bar. You just have to work past the fact that the cams are bent at a 30 degree angle. You might have to add some sort of guide because of this. If you get a massager and cut the fabric off the top, you'll see what I mean.

The Dark Tomb - Psychological Terror at it's best!
www.mansionofterror.com/props.htm

Totally cool prop Thedarktomb.



“For you it was the most important day of your life. For me....It was Tuesday.”

Wow, I just saw your spider victim, and, wow. That is great, you couldnt have done a better job. Also, thanks for the info on the neck massagers. Again, that spider victim is going to scare the crap out of some people.

Michael Ball

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