Thread: First prop - talking gemmy on a rock wall

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Just finished my first prop so I though I would share it with the group. I got a lot of information from this forum. The prop is a simple archway into our bonus room for a kids party this Saturday. Took me about an hour to build the wall out of foam using a dremel....think it turned out pretty good. If I had more time I would paint the grout and add some effects to the rocks but whatever.

For the little Gemmy skull I did my own quick hack...I pulled the guts except for the jaw motor which a ran into a bridge rectifier and then out the back of the skull. I fired up my audio editor and loaded a couple mp3's then converted the stereo tracks to just the left channel. Then I took the right track and generated a tone whenever I wanted the jaw open. Only took about 10 minutes to do a song. May be cheesy but it seemed soooo much easier than some of the other talking hacks I've seen.

Now I have an Ipod looping three songs into a set of computer speakers with the right speaker cut off and the wires driving my skull.

I just wedged the wall up there and it sticks pretty good. To anchor the skull and swords I just used wire pushed through the foam.

It won't let me post a link to the youtube video since I've never posted before...I will try it below this post.


P.S. Never posted in a forum before so I apologize if I screwed anything up.

Hey Chooch nice to see you post. Your hack on the audio sounds interesting. I'm only just getting started along those lines. Love to see you post a tutorial after halloween on what you did.

Would love to see some pics or a video. The arch sounds cool. BTW membership on here gives you an album space you can use for pictures in case you didn't realize it.

BTW if you can't post a linkable link right now, why not just type it in and people can copy and paste it into a browser window. No biggie.

I am just getting started too and all the other hacks seemed a little over my head for now. Programming cards and servos and stuff. If you take 4 diodes in a circle(ish) it's called a bridge rectifier which basically converts AC to DC or an audio output from an amp into something that can run a DC motor.

I have no idea what that does to the amp or the motor..lol

Here is a link to a crappy youtube video, if there is more interest I can pop it apart after our party tonight and take some pics.

YouTube - Homemade halloween prop