prop! I decided I needed to
build more. With just three
weeks left until Halloween
and with a successful Flying
Crank Ghost build under
my belt, I started looking at
the leftover parts on my
workbench and went to
town. As a result, my very
first home haunt debuted
with my Flying Crank Ghost
and three additional motion
activated props. I was well
on my way to creating my
favorite and most elaborate prop to date: the Crypt
Creature. My philosophy for building props is, “Use what
you have first, then buy only what you need.” So, the Crypt
Creature is animated by a hacked cordless drill I had laying
around (Figure 3), and the sound effects were made using
a surplus laptop that was triggered by the guts of an old
USB keyboard (Figure 4). The sounds were amplified
through an old car stereo amplifier and speaker system. The
entire system was powered by a 12V 18 Ahr battery, and
triggered with a salvaged wireless remote (Figure 5).
Toying With an Idea
The idea for this prop came from a small battery
powered Halloween toy I found at a local drug store. The
toy was a six inch figure of a prison-garbed skeleton in a
cage (Figure 6). When its
rudimentary motion
detector was triggered, it
lurched forward, spread the
plastic bars of its cage, and
said something rather corny
through its tinny sounding
little speaker. However,
when I first walked past this
thing, it actually startled me!
I think it was the
combination of the
interesting motions and well-timed sounds. It really got
me wondering how hard it
would be to scale it up for a life-sized effect. Could I turn
the little toy into a big scare? Finding out became my
obsession.
Getting Ahead
To inspire myself when making Halloween props, I
always start with a scary head or mask; it helps to get my
creativity going. For this prop, I found a witch-like full head
skeleton mask that was very creepy. I sat it on a post in my
garage/workshop and would look at it every time I came in,
imagining how it would move. The idea was to start with
the head hanging down and then raise it up to startle
people just like the little six inch toy had startled me. Once
I imagined the neck moving forward and the top of the
head being held back with a string, I knew I had it! The rest
of the mechanism just seemed to fall into place after that.
One of the most interesting things about this build was
just how many motions could be accomplished using only
a single motor. The mechanism began with a wooden 1 x 6
acting as a base. To that, I attached a 1 x 3 plank standing
vertically in the front to hold the creature, and another in
the back to hold the winch rod (Figure 7). On the front
vertical plank, I used a single bolt to attach a second plank
that could pivot forward and backward. This was to act as
the creature’s torso, and the single pivot point would allow
for the lunging motion. To the top of this torso plank I
attached the head with a neck swivel joint to allow the
head to move freely. I also attached a string from the back
of the head to the rear vertical plank.
90 September 2014
FIGURE 3. The cordless
power drill that drives all
the animations.
FIGURE 4. USB
keyboard guts with
555 one-shot timer
set to activate the
spacebar.
FIGURE 6. The animated
toy that inspired this build.
Crypt Creature in Action
http://youtu.be/9V2UtTA2lBI
Making of the Crypt Creature
http://youtu.be/AHAAcS1Z0RY
FIGURE 5.
Car stereo
amplifier and
subwoofer
used to
amplify audio
from the
laptop.