Thread: Skeletons Carrying Coffin

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Had a few requests for more pics and answers to how i did this prop, so here goes the tut!

Igredients I used:
Styrofoam Coffin (www.spookyblue.com)
4 Walgreens Skeletons
2 - 10' 3/4" pvc pipes
4 - 4' rebar
Florist Wire

You need to take the skeletons apart in the middle of the spine, and use a knife of some kind to enlarge the holes in the spine so the pvc can fit through all the way up to the base of the neck. Cut a hole in bottom of the pelvis as well. WHen you do this, you wont be able to screw the two back together, so I put a small screw through the spine of the bottom half of the skeleton into the pvc to hold it in place.









I painted the pvc flat black and cut to length so that when inserted, the skeletons feet would just barely sit on the ground.

Pound the rebar into the ground, then slide the pvc over that, then the skeleton.



WHen i got the legs where i wanted them, i put a screw through the pelvis into the top of the leg bone.



I removed the inside arm of each skeleton and set the coffin on their shoulders. I used the wire to tie the shoulders of the skeletons to each other, and to the coffin itself. just punched two small holes in the coffin and fed the wire through. Did the same thing to hold the hands in place on the side of the coffin. First pic is looking forward from the back of the coffin.







Thats basically it. I still plan on propping open the lid with a pair of arms and lighting the inside. may also put a small fog machine in as well.

You could also use just rebar if you can cut it to length (which i couldnt), so i slid pvc over the rebar.

Maybe I missed it on one of the "generic decorations of the year" threads, but... have any of you guys who did this setup posted a photo of it at night?

I really wish I had more room... maybe next year I'll have cleaned out the garage enough to be able to add one or two new things, I'm already pushing it with one of these skeletons and fate decided our local Spirit wouldn't have the floor candelabras in stock. Ahwell.

I need to paint the coffin a lighter color, since you cant really see what they are carrying at night. Will post a night pic asap.

That's awesome. You should paint the coffin to look like it's made of dirty boards, add some dirt to it, and add another skeleton carrying a shovel.

That is great!!

Where can we get the blow mold skeletons, and how much did they cost?

jp,
those are the Walgreen skellies that you seen mentioned several times on this forum, they were 30 bucks. Once this forum found out about them they were G-O-N-E!

Thank you for the info. That is so cool.

Really easy project too. Keep an eye out for the Walgreens skeletons next year. My stores had them out middle of September. AS soon as i found out about them from the forum here, i went searching. came up with 5. would like a couple more....of course. can never have too many nice skeletons laying around.

Hey 350Kaptain - Nice work! I will be making one of these next year.

What do you think that putting a wiper motor inside the coffin and rigging up some guide wires to make the legs move?

Thanks.

PB