[TableofTerror]

I need a new trick for Halloween this year. In the past I have done the old hand in the candy bowl thing. It worked fairly well and the neighborhood got a kick out of it. You can see how that went in this video:

But the neighborhood is on to that gag, so I need something new. Anyone have any new ideas that I can borrow? maybe something that doesn't require me to hangout under a table all night?

 

[moony_1]

What about dropping something from a string and pulley sustem above the candy dish? It would still require you to sit and watch so you could let it fall...but you could be in a comfy spot instead of under a table all night!

 

[Ugly Joe]

Set up a few scarecrows around the yard, made to fit your basic dimensions. Dress them in some of your jeans and baggy shirts, use gloves (if you have old gardening gloves or leather gloves, those work best), and some of your shoes / boots.

Don't know if you have some extra faux pumpkins around, but if you do, and especially if they're already cut into jack o'lanterns, use those as heads. Fill them with black cloth or something black, so no one can see in.

Now, do similar with yourself, in that you wear the same kind of clothes, gloves, shoes/boots, and then for your head, go get a simple blackout mask (just the cheap kind from your local drug store is fine), and then with some help, fit a faux pumpkin over your head (you'll likely need to cut the sides or something, to keep the neck hole about the size of your neck).

Prop up the other scarecrows, and take yourself a position among them.

You'll be scaring the screams out of everyone just by twitching, let alone lurching...jumping...you get the idea.

 

[UnOrthodOx]

Set up a few scarecrows around the yard, made to fit your basic dimensions. Dress them in some of your jeans and baggy shirts, use gloves (if you have old gardening gloves or leather gloves, those work best), and some of your shoes / boots.

Don't know if you have some extra faux pumpkins around, but if you do, and especially if they're already cut into jack o'lanterns, use those as heads. Fill them with black cloth or something black, so no one can see in.

Now, do similar with yourself, in that you wear the same kind of clothes, gloves, shoes/boots, and then for your head, go get a simple blackout mask (just the cheap kind from your local drug store is fine), and then with some help, fit a faux pumpkin over your head (you'll likely need to cut the sides or something, to keep the neck hole about the size of your neck).

Prop up the other scarecrows, and take yourself a position among them.

You'll be scaring the screams out of everyone just by twitching, let alone lurching...jumping...you get the idea.

Don't even need the others, just dress as a dummy yourself and sit near the bowl.

Sure everyone knows it's coming, it won't stop them from screaming.

Did this at our former house. We averaged about 5 trick or treaters, so just wanted something easy.

Had one father spend 2 minutes inspecting me with a flashlight, leaning, inches from my face, while I was doing my best to not move/breathe, poked me, and finally declared me to be just a dummy. The very nervous kid come up and grabbed the candy and they headed off...I followed them to the end of the driveway before they realized I was now moving. The Father went to a fetal position, the Mother kinda ran in place screaming. The child rounded the corner before he stopped running.

 

[Bruzilla]

What I've always wanted to do is we use a BIG plastic tub, about 2ft in diameter, for candy. I wanted to cut out a pie section of the side and bottom and hinge it so it can rotate upwards. Then I wanted to put clear plastic panels on the sides of the cut area so I could fill the tub with candy, but no candy would go into the area that pops up. That would be filled with fake candy that's glued in. Then I was going to take one of our jumping spiders and replace the spider with a big snake head, then put it under the table the tub sits on.

The idea was the tub looks like it's all full of candy, but when I trip the snake it comes up from below the table, through a cutout in the table, pushes up the hinged area of the tub, and comes leaping out at whoever is reaching in.

 

[boo who?]

For some reason, one year, CVS had these large remote controlled tarantulas amongst their Christmas toy offerings. As you might imagine, there were quite a few leftover come clearance time. Anyway, I set the tarantulas for one controller and placed them on the edges of my front porch. When the kids stood on the porch's center, a skittering noise would sound and all SIX tarantulas advanced on the victims. I tethered one leg on each to make sure they all stopped where they should and to make any recovery operations easier. The BEST scare of the night was a mom who ran all the way back to the street!

 

[moony_1]

I probably wouldn't run from those six spiders....I wpuld likely just freeze in place, cry and possibly wet myself. Spiders absolutely terrify me hahaha

 

[Wolfman]

We did this back in the '90's. A bit of work, but memorable:
I put together an 8'x8' panel with 4 "trap doors" cut into it. We had two people behind the screen, out of sight. The TOT's were instructed to put their hands into a hole to get a treat. The handlers used a bit of judgement in handing out treats. Coloring books, comics, candy bars, bags of chips, gum, Halloween pencils. BUT. Every now and then somebody would get a surprise. A handful of cold, wet spaghetti. A live cockroach. They're everywhere at night in Samoa. They went so far as to grab live land crabs, boy THAT got a scream! My favorites were the moist, soft tootsie rolls, all sticky. The kid, always a loud-mouth boy, "Hey, what's this??" Me, Holding up a Kitty Litter box, "oh! we found it in here!" The Gross Factor never fails...

 

[OctoberDream]

I guess it depends on what kind of Trick you want to provide. My neighbor handed out ketchup packets to the people he want to trick. (mostly teens that didn't dress up). if you are looking for a scary trick you could make treats bags with a rattle snake trick (which is a rubber band tied to a bent piece of wire with a washer thru the middle. Then wind it up and place it in the treat bag, when they open the bag up the washer will unwind and sound like a rattle snake on the paper bag.)
Building or buying a jumping prop is nine too.

 

[TableofTerror]

Awesome ideas everyone!!! I have some good ideas now. Thanks!!!

 

[tarpleyg]

I need to move to your neighborhood...your Tots are hot!

 

[TosaTerror]

If a cheap scare is what you're going for, then a $30 fog machine from Lowes/Home Depot does the trick. Just place it on the ground near the candy or your door. Hide it in some leaves, then as the ToT walk by it hit the button on the remote to active the fog machine. It usually always scares them as fog shoots out at their feet, and the sound from the fog machine alone will give them a jolt.

It's my go-to scare tactic. I place it on the sidewalk under a bunch of leaves, and I get people walking by my house on halloween.

 

[Attic Hatch]

Magnet in the bowl.
Big magnet under the table.
Either attach the bowl to the table and make the magnet move under the candy like a bug, or attach the magnet to the bowl and make the bowl dart around.