Thread: How do you make a static standing figure?

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Let's say you have a costume of something like a Grim Reaper, but you don't know how to stand it up with having arms. How do you do that? How do you make it's arms stretch out?

search is your friend.

hope this helps you out

Monster Mud Reaper

Simplest?

PVC.
1/2" pipe for arm bones, shoulders and upright,
45° elbows for shoulder joints.
90° elbows for, well, elbows. (or 45° for a more 'straight armed' approach)
3 (or 4) way fitting at neck.

Long PVC pipe going from neck to ground, length dependant on how tall you want the figure to be.

2' length of rebar. Pound it 1' into the ground, and place the end of the upright pvc pipe over it.

Do NOT glue the pvc...this way you will be able to change the pose.

The figure will 'sway' a bit, but that can be a plus. Larger PVC pipe and fittings can be used, just depends one what you can pick up cheapest.

Hope this helps.

Heres another. In addition you can purchase a head and arms while you are at it. These guys produce top quality pieces. I strongly recommend picking up a pair of there arms, once you see the quality of their product you will be a return customer.

Corpse Head, Severed Head, Corpse mannequin, Dead Corpse, Corpse Bust, Corpse prop

How much would this cost in pvc pipe estimated? What do they come in? 10", 20", feet usually?

Yes, pvc is your friend. I've made a bunch of mine out of pvc. check my site. Just take your own messurements and then you can use your own old clothes. If it's going in the ground you can either make long poles for the legs and push him in or if he has a surrounding then you can make a square base which is much more stable. I've also used the flat "end caps" and then used a washer and bolt and bolted them down to a black board. Then just push his pvc legs into the caps. Then you can break him down for next year and it's easier to store. I made my ground breakers with just the torso and then pushed the pvc into the ground and tucked the shirt under the dirt. I used styrofoam heads and drilled a smaller hole then the pvc and pushed them on a "t" that pointed up. The T is located between the sholder blades. Don't buy the expensive pvc, get the cheap stuff. It will save you money this way and the fittings are cheaper in a bag of 10. I think I pick up a piece in the $1.00 range for a 8' section.

I agree with most of Grim spirit, but at my Home Depot the 3/4" Schdule 60 is cheaper than the 1/2 inch sched 40. When I built my first static monster it was $.89 for a 10 ft length. Today it's $1.52.

Buy a PVC cutter for less than $10. They cut a clean edge, making it easy to slip on the fittings. They don't waist any material and there are no messy shavings compared to using a saw.

If you have lots of costumes to fill or head masks and old clothes, HD sells slip joints, 90s and Ts in quantity by the bag = much cheaper.

I use a 1" drywall screw in any fitting that won't stay where I want it because of stress/weight of the prop.

I use full head latex masks with either wig heads or empty milk cartons stuck onto the PVC "neck. "

To BULK UP most of our monsters, we stuff grocery bags with crumpled newspapers, then tie the bags with the handles. This will moisture away from the newspaper through one moderate rainstorm. You should have started saving bags in June and sunday papers since August .

We prefer to use legs, pelvis/hips, and a spine rather than the single piece support. This way I can put old slacks, levis, etc on the monster, then stuff with the grocery bags.

I also drill a hole in the heal of shoes and slip them over the rebar before dropping the PCV onto the rebar. In some cases we do this with costume "monster feet" when appropriate. Usually the shoes are more scary because the look more realistic.

We also have a couple of remote controled, custom recordable voice boxes that we place in the chest of a couple of our monsters. This REALLY spooks the TOTs. They will have already dismissed the monster as being a prop, but suddenly it speaks, so they look again closer.

For static props where you can not use rebar (available in short lengths at HD, BTW) like the sidewalk or driveway, I use a piece of plywood with two 2x2 s screwed to it. The 2x2s have holes drilled into which the prop's "legs" or feet if you will, are inserted then held in place with a longer drywall screws. Then place de-soled shoes over the 2x2s.

We use safety pins and even kite string over the shoulders to hold up pants.

Our goal is to make our monsters static, but believable. Why? Because after having finished our haunt at least a week prior to Halloween night, we like to sneek out that night and replace the grocery bags in some of our monsters with our own bodies. REALLY scrares the crap out of some of the neighbors who now are careful about how they approach any of our props .

Originally Posted by Halloweenfan

How much would this cost in pvc pipe estimated? What do they come in? 10", 20", feet usually?

Not sure if you found this in the prior link...might not have been in there, but here is a wicked cool calculator for estimating amount of PVC and approximate cost based on height of biped. It figures out all the joints and sizing.

Zombietronix - Biped Proportion Calculator (Human. Creature. Monster. Other.)

Also has calculators for winged creatures, and the four-legged variety.

Take a look, might help you out a bit as well.

Awesome link!

Thanks!