[Bosco P. Soultrane]

I thought the sitting scarecrow from Spirit last year was really cool. Was wondering if anyone has made their own version and how they did it. I want to make one for this year, but want it to be a clown sitting in a chair. I think I can make a wiper motor go fast and then park, and then reverse, but not sure if it will be fast enough to startle unsuspecting treaters.

 

[DustinBurgin]

I would love to make one of these! It was my fist Halloween animatronic!

 

[nosefuratyou]

Although it doesn't really address your question I make all the frames for props like these using Spider Hill kits. Yes the initial investment is more but they can be re-positioned for different uses year after year. The joints can also be made moveable with fender washers. I do have a crawling scarecrow from last year that I am going to have sitting on a stump but you will probably be done with yours before I start mine . I'm using the harvester of sorrow mask for mine.

 

[Bosco P. Soultrane]

Even though Spider Hill makes some great stuff, they don't have anything that would accomplish what this scarecrow needs to do.

This will probably require a spring to get the quick release and then some kind of rewind and reset. I might be able to get a wiper motor activate in high speed, then park, but it might not be fast enough. I am also a little wary to have a spring loaded prop that could hit a kid in the hand or head if they get too close.

I know pneumatics could easily accomplish this, but I won't be using pneumatics, my haunt is small, amateur, not professional, and cannot afford to start bringing in that kind of expense.

 

[DustinBurgin]

You may be able to do it with a picovolt controller. You could "possibly" turn it all the way up really fast and back off again at the top. It also will allow you to park the motor. I've never used this controller so I'm not sure how fine of a movement you can program with it but I would think it's worth looking into.

http://www.frightprops.com/controll...ollers/picoboo-controllers/picovolt-0975.html

 

[Bosco P. Soultrane]

You may be able to do it with a picovolt controller. You could "possibly" turn it all the way up really fast and back off again at the top. It also will allow you to park the motor. I've never used this controller so I'm not sure how fine of a movement you can program with it but I would think it's worth looking into.

http://www.frightprops.com/controll...ollers/picoboo-controllers/picovolt-0975.html

Nope, too much money. I think I'll have no problem with the controls, I am looking more for how the mechanics would work. Now that I have looked at the video again, it really doesn't jump up too quickly.

I was wondering if anyone had done one, since just about everyone here has done a creep, zombie, hangman, etc... I figured that someone had done this one.

I am thinking of maybe doing it more like an electric chair prop, with the clown sitting in a chair in a strait jacket, then suddenly he twitches back and forth like trying to escape from the jacket. I would trigger it with a PIR.

 

[DustinBurgin]

https://youtu.be/3X6n-sHWqGY

You could make something like this.

 

[Bosco P. Soultrane]

Oh, yes, I followed Montclair's build, it was really awesome. If you watched all of them, it was a bit of a struggle getting everything to work just right, and when he finally had it all put together, it looked fantastic! It's amazing that he did it all with the fourbanger and no pneumatics at all. Even though I won't need it to be this complicated, I will certainly borrow aspects of this build when constructing mine.

 

[J-Man]

I haven't seen the inner workings of this but my guess is that it uses the same mechanism as the jumping spider, spring release and a motor to reset it.

 

[Bosco P. Soultrane]

I haven't seen the inner workings of this but my guess is that it uses the same mechanism as the jumping spider, spring release and a motor to reset it.

That's what I'm thinking, too. I've never seen the insides of the spider. I am not "allowed" to buy any animatronics, I can only visit the Spirit store and they don't take kindly to me taking them apart. I can only build them from PVC and scraps. I mostly haunt the Craigslist freebies finding stuff or thrift stores and the like.

 

[DustinBurgin]

I've been looking into this as well! I found something that Hawthorne Manor Haunted House did that could work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz2CQHzE2uQ

 

[Bosco P. Soultrane]

Looks like Spirit took the scarecrow and dressed him up in a clown outfit...

 

[DustinBurgin]

Lol I just saw that!

 

[J-Man]

Yeah, definitely the same mechanism as the jumping spider.