Thread: Props to get and build

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hey all... i just joined the forum seems pretty cool and helpful.

I got married last year in october so figured halloween would always be at my house.. last year i only had a week or so to put together something tiny but was pretty cool i thought.... anyways i wanna know what you would recommend for me to get... dont wanna spend THOUSANDS!! but i wanna make it nice and kinda scary and creepy.

if you guys build stuff and wanna sell it im very open to the idea of buying made stuff.. i know 90% of the time they come out better than stuff at pop up halloween shops.. also if your around so cal area and would like to build stuff together id really be interested in doing that too.

sorry if i posted in the wrong place or made it a bit long.. any help with ideas would be great..i have 2 foggers.. bunch of tombstones...crawling lady... bunch of strobes umm...body parts and few other stuff.

thanks in advance

I just started building props around 5 3yrs ago. Characters are actually really cheap to build and are a good start. A lot of items can be bought at yard sales thrift stores and home improvement stores.

Originally Posted by arthur

hey all... i just joined the forum seems pretty cool and helpful.

I got married last year in october so figured halloween would always be at my house.. last year i only had a week or so to put together something tiny but was pretty cool i thought.... anyways i wanna know what you would recommend for me to get... dont wanna spend THOUSANDS!! but i wanna make it nice and kinda scary and creepy.

if you guys build stuff and wanna sell it im very open to the idea of buying made stuff.. i know 90% of the time they come out better than stuff at pop up halloween shops.. also if your around so cal area and would like to build stuff together id really be interested in doing that too.

sorry if i posted in the wrong place or made it a bit long.. any help with ideas would be great..i have 2 foggers.. bunch of tombstones...crawling lady... bunch of strobes umm...body parts and few other stuff.

thanks in advance

Did you take any pictures of your haunt last year? If so, I'd love to see them. Or if you don't have any pictures of the actual haunt, do you have any of your props?

Where in the so Cal area are you? Are you in a house, condo or apt? Yard/no yard? How big? Trees or not? Front porch? There are lots of things you can do for not too pricey. IMHO one of the easiest is tombstones. Having a cemetary with fog and spooky lights with background music is always a good start imho.

As you guested, the home made props can be a lot better than the store bought ones. But making them is 1/2 the fun. I sometimes wish I could start over with out the store ones and only use home made props. Your best bet is to find someone in your area that has a nice display and ask for their advice. They probably have some older props that they are holding on to but dont use. I have a box labled "Use or Lose" just for that purpose. Each year if I dont use that prop I give them away to people in my area who want to decorate but dont have or cant afford props. Just remember, you have to store what you want to keep for the next year

There's a make-and-take group that meets in the LA area. I can't recall the name but you should be able to do a search here and find the group.

here's the info / link from here on a few of them;
Southern California Haunt Association (SCHA) ... or better!

hey guys... thanks a bunch for the info... here is a few pics of the front of the house...

as for props i have the crawling lady which im thinking to put up on a ladder and have her crawl down on it everytime someone comes trying to ring the door bell... thinking to use the heads i have and hang them infront of the garage kinda like a collection.. but again im open to ideas..i have a posable witch and i dunno bunch of spiders and things like that... im open to buying stuff just kinda wanna get help i guess in what i should do to make it look right and be good.. i have 2 foggers 1 is a 1000w other 400w i think.. i did build a chiller for them this year to have low laying fog.. anyways here are the pics let me know what you think i should do.

Hi Arthur, Welcome. If that large palm tree is yours, I'd have a Large Bat at the top on a wire
some screweyes on its back. People coming to your door would hear a scream, a spot light would come on facing up the tree the bat would slide down the wire that ends at the roof above your door. Right before it get there the spot light goes off & it resets in the dark. As for me easyer said then done.

For starters change those lamp lights to blacklight bulbs. Go with the longer ones similar to these:



You can find them at spirit for 9.99 each. Drape some shreaded cheese cloth which was soaked in RIT over them and pray for a little breeze. It will look great trust me.

How far are you willing to go. Pneumatics? I can think of a million different things but air is my game.