Thread: Halloween Trophies

Tweet

I have gotten several comments about the trophies, and I figured I would go a little more in depth about them.

Basically what I have done is gone to a local trophy shop (has become a regular thing now) and asked if this was something she could do.

I start with this package: that you can get at any Halloween store, or BuyCostumes.com for all of $10.

I then break 'em off their bases very gently. They are hollow inside, so you have to solidify them a bit. Fill 'em with hot glue a little bit at a time and you are golden. Once that is done, you can insert and superglue the threaded dowel that is used for the trophies. (The trophy place does all this for me). We get the plates done with a bone font on a brass plate, and I draw out my ideas on the sizes and such. Occasionally we fill in the gaps with regular stuff, like the star on top of best overall from 2008. (See below) Our 2008 trophies were made with the set linked above, plus a bewitched looking "sexiest" trophy I found separate for another 5 or $6 at one of the local Halloween stores. That year we had a "Most Outrageous" costume also - and I used the back 1/2 of a horse that the trophy shop had for that one.

All in all, the trophies end up being about $8-15 a-piece. They have SUCH impact, that it is very worth it. Ever since we have started doing this, we have seen each year people stepping up their costumes, I have heard from past winners in April and May about how they are planning to get this trophy or that the coming year, and one two year in a row "Funniest" winner was killing himself trying for a three-peat that he talked about for almost the whole year.

I apologize in advance, but here is the best shot I have from the trophies in 2007 (Cannot believe I didn't take any other pictures of them)


Here are the trophies from 2008: (Click to enlarge)


This past year I incorporated a bag of little skulls into the design of the trophies. I didn't fill them with anything, and the threaded rods fell out over a little bit of time. DON'T forget that step. If you are going to do any of these things, don't not fill 'em in. Super glue is only so strong, make sure those suckers are in there good. The connection is normally threaded into plastic, and basically supports the whole thing.

Check out my post about 2009 for those trophies, as they were even more elaborate (and still around $8-12 each).

This year I am going with something very similar but also that Day of the Dead toy.

Nuff for now - all this talk in the pneumatic primer thread has me itchin' to go build stuffs.

One more note - the toy trophies are VERY yellow gold. If you add something from a trophy shop, you will notice a substantial difference in the color. Also if you add the little skulls they are naturally not gold either. I ended up grabbing a can of gold spray and hit all the pieces with it. It makes them all uniform (a little less shiny, but that is ok, because I personally think having all the ornaments match is more important than that).

Happy haunting!

Peniwize I've also ordered mine online at www.riherds.com. There's some other sites as well, but their prices are pretty decent and they are beautiful. I agree - people really step it up when they see those trophies...brings out their competitive nature LOL. This last year I ordered beauty queen sashes for my Bewitched Bash and the ladies seemed to love them....in fact, Lauriebeast walked away with one!!