What are you doing for Halloween this year? Just gonna set the candy bowl out on the porch and call it good? That’s a risky one, ’cause if one group of mischievous preteens cleans you out, you might get TP’d by the next one. Best to keep Halloween a tad on the scary side and keep those ghouls in line. Candy is a privilege, not a right.
Halloween is a big deal in [trimbandit]’s little burg, and he builds a new attraction for the front yard every year. This year, it’s the dawn of the dead — a fresh zombie rising jerkily from the grave to say hello, world. He moves left, he moves right, he writhes and wrestles, wedged between worlds.
His life force comes from a pneumatic system designed for props. The cylinders connect to a controller with built-in relays that makes programming frightfully easy. Then it was just a matter of adding a foam head, skinning it with a scary mask, and fitting him for a suit from Goodwill. Drag yourself and your candy bucket past the break for a fun-size demo video and a couple of bonus goodies.
We bet [trimbandit] is already wondering how to step up his game for next year. He seems to have conquered the ground, so why not take to the skies for fright and delight?
Whahahaha! Brilliant!
Fantastic prop. Wish I had one.
Amazingly clever use of door hinges. Great job!
Please add some flow regulators, it will make it look even more lifelike. Maybe $20 for what you need. It’s cool though.
I think the idea is that it does not look LIFElike
Dead like
Those squeaks and impact sounds kind of kill the illusion. Maybe some oil and foam between joints would help.
I like it. Seems more stuck in the coffin trying to get out than rising from the grave.
All the real life zombies I’ve encountered have been herky jerky and squeeky just like that. Spot on.
I’m out of town this Halloween and unfortunately won’t be able to set up my illusion from last year. I 3D printed a mask, painted it with flat gray paint, glued it into a creepy looking tree outside my living room, and projected onto it a video of my wife’s face blinking and looking around. Very creepy dismembered head effect!
The funny thing is that despite living near main street, zero people walked by all evening. I left the mask up for about a month after, though, which lead to a lot of good people watching.
cool blog post
If only people around my street would be appreciative of awesome Haloween/Christmas props like this, not just inflatable snowmen, i would love to have this setup outside!