Pirate Troll

Madame Leota said:

Oh my god he's huge! That will be a very impressive prop, especially at night when smaller props can get lost in the darkness.

Click to expand...

Think the pirate is big... you should see my Frankenstein - FreakNMonster... Prop. I will do a posting on him probably tonight or tomorrow. I just started him last night... Pirate is in the background. the door behind Frankenstein is a standard 6'8" door frame so he between 7'6"-7'8"... should scare the kiddies good... especially when I will be wearing one of them on that night... we will all look like props until one moves on you.. lol Planning on cracking open the French doors, putting 2 foggers with fog coolers inside so the fog should roll out the front doors out onto the deck and into the front yard... props will be all throughout. You wont know which props are alive and which ones aren't. I have some motion activated ones to catch their attention... move toward them from the corner of their eye should get a few jumps...

A couple lessons learned creating these props... If you are going to make them big, use larger diameter pipes for several reasons.

First, oversized masks, the clothing, stuffing and sheer length of the frame will cause them to bow using anything smaller than 1=1/4 pipe. There is a limitation of standing the props in full upright position.

Second, I don't like to glue any joint unless I have to. The larger diameter pipe gives more surface area to create friction inside the joints. What this means is, if you aren't going to glue the parts, there is a greater chance your position of arms and legs will hold without gluing them.

Third, use a pipe reducer to reduce the size of the pipe where the hands connect. I use coat hanger wire inside the gloves to create positional hands. In the case of the troll, it was very difficult to get the hand to stay in place using a 2" pipe at the wrist, a lot of stuffing and duct tape was used to tighten the hole up enough to hold the hand in place.

Fourth, screwing an end cap into a piece of wood may be enough to secure a very light weight prop but the higher you go and the more weight you put on it, the more leverage the prop has to pull the screw loose or bust the endcaps. I used lag bolts in the Troll with 2" pipe and even they weren't strong enough to keep the prop from leaning forward and backward and falling over. Use pipe flanges instead, see picture of the flange under the boot. this gives you a wider area to screw down and reduces the amount of leverage the prop has in pulling the screws out or busting the pipes joint at the base, they are about $4.50 a piece but are worth it if you want your prop to stay upright as they are made to take the stress: