Giant Skeleton

This year I decided to change my Grim Reaper Animatronic into an Animatronic Eyeball. Little did I know, but everyone liked that Grim Reaper a lot more than I imagined. I wasn't going to change my idea for the animatronic eyeball, so I decided I would make another static (non-moving) Grim Reaper to fill a big empty spot going up to my front door where a plant had died. I just started putting pieces of wood together, and in the end, it turned out that it wasn't going to be a Grim Reaper, but a 8 foot tall skeleton...

I started this prop by seeing what I had to put this together two days before Halloween. I had some scraps of wood from an old futon frame, and I used that for the base of the skeleton since this part would be holding the most weight. I then went outside and cut some branches off of a palm tree. These branches that hold up the palm frond (leave) are long, skinny, and strong. And I had plenty of them. Using all of these palm branches, I nailed, screwed, and duct taped them together until I got the shape and size of the frame I was looking for. I then attached a piece of PVC pipe to the top of the frame to serve for the neck. After this step I started to dress the skeleton up. I took a big black table cloth and put it over the entire top of the frame. It didn't go all the way down to the ground, but there would be some bushes in front of the skeleton low down, so it would work. I then put a 2-liter soda bottle over the PVC pipe and table cloth. I then took my skeleton mask that I normally used for my Grim Reaper and put some red fabric pinned to the inside of the mask, to make the eye hole red. The mask and fabric then went over the soda bottle. I moved the prop outside, filled a big cooler (which was covered by a black sleeping bag) with water and put it over the base of the prop so it would be stable, and the prop was finished. With some strobe lights, the skeleton looked great!

This prop got a great response. Being out front towards the front of the house, I think it drew more trick or treaters in than ever before. People loved it. Especially when someone started hiding behind the skeleton and jumping out and scaring kids. Luckily nobody cried this year...