Don't like light up eyes on props?

It kind of just depends on the prop.

So, I have a plastic zombie kit that's basically the head, neck, and arms that has light up eyes and that's the whole effect. No moving parts, just lays there and glows his eyes at you. That works. It's just enough to draw your attention if you notice the glow in the shrubs.

The Gemmy cauldron stirring witch is one that drives me nuts. It's not an easily accessible thing where I could do something with it, and they're not constantly on, they only light up when she's triggered. It just looks kinda silly. And it's a dead giveaway that she's "not real", and is about to spring into motion. Like when the music suddenly gets turned up in a horror movie.

But really, it's the prevalence of light up eyes that drives me nuts. Use it if it works for the prop, for the effect, not for everything!


As for how to deal with them...depends on the prop. If the lights are accessible, that's one thing. If I have to dig around, take something apart, or make a bomb-diffuser's best guess which wire goes where, I probably wouldn't mess with them.

I make a point of not buying things that I can't see out of the box, at least in a video. (Well, more because of sound than eye lights...)

mariem said:

I am the same way with Christmas tree lights. The lights need to stay on or be off, I can't have them blinking or chasing around the tree.

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I like blinking/chasing Christmas lights but I solved the problem of the whole tree looking like a UFO that's about to take off by doing 99% of the lights in regular non-blinking LEDs & then use 2-3 strands of blinking/chasing lights (most can be adjusted to a pattern now too) & then just sorta draping them around & over the other lights. It looks more like random lights are twinkling rather than the entire tree going into space.

As for props with lights in the eyes, I'm not sure why the mass market props feel the need to put them in EVERYTHING. I don't mind them in some, like Grandin Road's Helsa had lights in her eyes but they were solid, non-blinking lights & there was no noise. It worked for her. I prefer always on or off. The blinking ones are my least fave but they're not my biggest peeve with most store bought props.

I think the weird background noise & music they put out bothers me more than the eyes. I'm not sure why they all have to have a backing soundtrack. I don't mean the moans or screams, though I'm not always fond of that either it just totally depends on the noises, but the cawing crows, moaning winds, clanking chains, etc. You all know what I'm talking about too.

I could stand every single prop having lighted eyes if they didn't have the soundtracks to go with it. Screams, moans, even speeches, are OK, but I don't need the other background stuff. Even props I've really liked & considered buying I've turned down because there's some weird background noise in there that I don't like or need.

One good thing though is that I've noticed on some newer props is that you can have a choice. Some do have switches that aren't just on or off. Some will let you have the choice of noise & lights or nothing.

As a rule I'm not a fan glowing eyes either. However there are some props where I think they look great! Many years ago when LEDs were just gaining popularity most of the manufacturers started putting small LEDs into their props corneas. For the most part that was ok. They weren't too overpowering and I could easily change them if I didnt like the effect. But for some reason they have evolved into these massively bright blinking monstrosities that envelop the whole eye socket... cornea, pupil, schlera, the whole shebang. So if you have a several life size store bought figures it ends up looking like some strange herd of aliens are coming to get you instead of a hauntingly creepy Halloween scene.
Like many here I have evolved into making a good share of my own stuff. I just either couldn't find stuff that really fit my needs or the things that I really liked were just too darned expensive. Now thankfully my demon eyes can glow but my grave diggers eyes don't have to.
Don't even get me started on the whole soundtrack thing! Lol

I might assume that small kids might like the lit eyeballs or even consider them scary?
No matter what you have , there could be a better,more proper location/situation to really make something come across better to people.
Many Years ago... you lie down on a bed,it's a canopy bed The bed quickly tips! .Down into the darkness your entire body rushes! The path twists, turns this way and that, you arrive in a very old, strange room,you know you must be under the ground because the air is chilled and damp, and it is So Dark you can see nothing... except... a pair of... glowing... red eyes ... ("What Monster is this? Is it coming to get me? How close is it to me already?')
I had a display that i thought was really silly, all lit up with bright Red floods,a mannequin, home-made featuring a bright red dress, and a head /face looking very crude and totally cartoonish with a huge open mouth four serpent fangs,and "Grandma's curly wig.
A woman returned a few years later and told me when she saw all of this,she thought it was a vision of "Hell",itself!

I think it depends upon what the eyes are. Are we just talking a hollow socket with a bright LED string along type of bulb? Or is the LED light behind a semi translucent fake looking eyeball? Lights do help many people as they're hard to see at night. Perhaps it's the eyes themselves though. I've seen some back lit glass eyes to imitate an animal at night. I don't have any handy to test it but glass eyes often have a matte finish on the back so as not to interfere with the front. That could be scraped off in theory and an led light allowed to illuminate it. Some glass eyes are probably ceramic though or non translucent. Those rubber clear gumball eyes can easily be cut and an led bulb inserted. My own preference is glass eyes but I can achieve a good amount of veinage with those doll eyes. Those could be dremeled I suppose to make translucent. Although that's asking for a nice dremel burn or plastic particles sticking in your own eye. LED lights in eyes are a novelty because they're cheap and don't require a lot of juice. More expensive props usually omit them.

I think that most of what I have are the visible bulb tips.

I have a few home-made with wig heads and mini strings of Christmas lights, where the hole is drilled all the way through the wig head, but the bulb doesn't reach the front of the "socket". That's more of a glow from within, but not as subtle as the skull example. I could probably dab a bit of hot glue over the socket to create more of a glow effect, though.

I don't think that I have any that have realistic eyes anymore, aside from the werewolf mask that I bought (and I'm not sure those light up, I bought it on clearance and would have to double check that).

The one that got me thinking about this doesn't really have eyes at all, it has empty sockets with a clear LED above them. So you can't see the bulb(s), it just amplifies the empty sockets. I decided what to do with it, and found myself wishing that it had a red light, when I realized just how many red lit items I have now.

I like the fact that any lights make the eyes visible in the dark, but I have to agree that it's not very realistic. I'll have to see what I can do with mine, to eliminate the obvious bulbs where I can. I know that two things will always have visible bulb tips, because like someone else said, my wire choosing skills are non-existent. I don't want to ruin anything.

I wish that more things had a choice of soundtrack on, or off, too. I never really bought many pre-made creatures until last year, when I caught CVS and Home Depot 90% off clearance sales.