It's obvious that Halloween is now bigger than ever, and that the industry is full of opportunities.

I must admit I'm not too happy with the quality/durability of many comercially avaliable Halloween decorations, as most tend to only last a couple years.

SO, I'm considering opening my own prop building business. I've been building my own for years, and really enjoy doing so.

So what I'm looking to find out is what you want?
-What decoration can you not find?
-What can you find, but wish was avaliable in better quality?
-What is just too expensive, but seems like it could be made for less?
-what is your dream decoration?

A few ideas I'm kicking around are:
-Gargoyles, tombstones and the like, made out of solid materials, with quality audio.
-Complete flying crank ghost kits, provide or pick your own ghoul.
-Lifecasted latex or foam rubber "create your own ghoul" kits.
-Inexpensive outdoor haunt controls.

I love the kit ideas for the FCG and the latex/rubber ghouls. I myself enjoy making my own props but tend to get stuck when I just try to be creative and "wing" something so if I had instructions to follow that would be great plus since it is create your own I would still get to let my creative juices flow. Hope you follow through with this great idea in the future! I will try and think of something I wish I have seen or that could be done better.

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"Where there is no imagination there is no horror"

LIGHTS!!!! Standard flood lights just dont do the job. Sell those new LED flood lights in the size that everyone is now using to light there haunts. I am going to switch to those next year and have no idea where to find them. There are so many threads on here about people with problems lighting there yards so that would be a good place to start. Also, sell the pin spots people are using to light certain things. Both in every color available.

That animated doll that drags herself...Spirit sells it. It would be great if it came with a remote control. I would love more props that you could put on a timer; not necessarily motion sensors.

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"He has my father's eyes."
"Gomez, take those out of his mouth!"

Solid stones for sure. I've been making mine from BC grade wood and exterior paint for years... very vandal and wind proof.

Crank ghost supply your own may be a customer service nightmare with people trying to hang their way-too-heavy ones and complaining your rig isn't "working".

Same issues maybe for those trying to do their own life casting and latex molding. Some people just don't have the knack.

But all good ideas. I'm getting told by people I should do the same here.

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What doesn't kill you only makes you walk funny.

Very good point about customer service.
When I say custom, I'm thinking about offering a gamut of options to come with an order. Such as lifecasts could be fat freddy, average andy, skinny sammy, and bony bruce.
They could be shipped blank for a haunter to customize, or prepainted.

As for tombstones, you hit the nail on the head, wind and vandalproof. Forget small plastic stakes, I'm thinking tent stakes.

I've always thought that the one thing missing from the hobby is GREY extruded styrofoam. If I had the skills and equipment to make it, I'd make it myself. 4x8 sheets of two inch GREY foam would make our lives so much easier!! LOL

Since that's probably outside the realm of possibility, how about realistic lightweight skellies? Realistic, plastic skeletons would be a tremendous asset to the hobby - It seems to me there's a massive leap in realism between the Blucky level and the Bucky level!

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Recipe for haunting success-

Artist's eyes, surgeon's hands, and the heart of a child.

Skulls.

Both quality, and price. Skulls.

Skulls come in about 3 flavors in the stores: disporportioned, adorned with silly things (rats/snakes/etc) or crappy looking.

I KNOW you can make realistic skulls for pennies. I do it myself, for ~$.30. And I'm sure any kind of bulk purchasing of materials would reduce that. Yet, the stores have them for sale for $5 or more. Sure, for buying one, that might sound fine. For those looking for any quantity of skulls, it becomes ludicrous. I know there is demand, as my boys have sold them lemonade stand style for years, and always run out.

Another thing I see that would be no brainers from a business perspective. Fence sections. Not 1' tall mini things, and not 4' square ones that cost ludicrous amounts of money. Decent looking, realistic size, for a reasonable price.

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http://anunorthodoxhalloween.blogspot.com/

Yeah skeletons are my big thing right now. I want to get some buckys but at near or over $100 a piece it is just way expensive. I think I will have to start with one bucky and maybe just get one more a year till I have enough (I have no idea how many enough is). Even if they come as some sort of kit where I have to do a good amount of assembly I am okay with that.

Unorthodox how do you make your skulls? I too would be interested in skulls paying $5-$6 bucks for a foam skull sucks and I only bought one for my FCG. I do like the skull I bought from Walgreens this year they are a hard resin like material look good and were only $5-$6 I was hoping I could get more on clearance but they were all gone by then. Also I have seen nerf type foam skulls and that could be great to.

I like the idea of skelly parts. I don't necessarily need/want skulls all the time and don't want to pay $100+ to get a whole skelly just to dismantle it for my purposes. I'm talking spines, spine pieces, fingers, hands, tibia, foot, ribs and all of these whole connected or literally in "pieces".