# First Prop



## mikeq91

I thought it would be cool for everyone tell what they're first prop was, just to see where everyone came from.

My first prop was the medicine cabinet with a false back, although I still have not completely finished it. When I was pretty young, I got some of John Denely's videos, and this was one of the props on it. So my dad and I wanted to give it a try and it came out very well. But it also showed me how much fun prop building can be, and how satisfying it is when you finish a prop. (By the way, thanks Lotus for the bottom shelf props!) You can find pictures here www.picturetrail.com/mikeq91 (You'll have to scroll down a little, it won't let me directly link the picture).

So, what was your first prop?
mike


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## Zombie-F

Let's see, my first prop was the fencing and columns for my graveyard. I think I built one segment of fence and then used it to figure out where I needed to put the mounting brackets onto my (now retired) columns.

I foolishly didn't measure how much distance there was between the two, so they're kinda too close together. I managed to learn from that though and got it right the next year.

Have a look at the attached file.


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## Lotus

Zombie-F said:


> Let's see, my first prop was the fencing and columns for my graveyard. I think I built one segment of fence and then used it to figure out where I needed to put the mounting brackets onto my (now retired) columns.
> 
> I foolishly didn't measure how much distance there was between the two, so they're kinda too close together. I managed to learn from that though and got it right the next year.
> 
> Have a look at the attached file.


I love those Columns


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## SuFiKitten77

_Those are really cool, I would have to say I love the medicine cabinet, and angel of death the best. Like to see what they coffin is going to look like when it is finished. Keep me updated .. great work._


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## Blackwidow

Nice work mikeq91...I think my favorite is the Angel of Death but your toepincher is looking really good too!

My first prop was a monster mud creation, I call "her" the Apparition and she's still my favorite  http://thewidowsden.com/2003 Props.htm

Btw Zombie-F, those columns are sweet!


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## Zombie-F

Thanks for the compliments on the columns guys. Sadly, between the Halloween 2003-04 season, they stopped functioning and I had to retire them. That's why I built the new columns last year. This time, I made them so I can (hopefully) disassemble them in the event of an electrical failure so I can fix it. I'll have to "re-skin" them if that happens, but at least I'll be able to fix em this time.

Awesome first prop Blackwidow! I still haven't tried Monster Mudding. I keep putting it off for some reason, though, I should just get off my lazy butt and do it!


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## Blackwidow

Thanks a bunch Zombie-F! That's too bad about your columns but your Thunder columns are to DIE FOR  

You should give the monster mud a try, but be warned...make your framing strong so you won't have to go back like I did (twice) and fix a sagging prop. The apparition has a wood frame and chicken wire and is still good but my poor reaper was half wood, half pvc and it didn't hold up to the weight of the monster mud


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## SuFiKitten77

I loved your Apparition Black Widow, it is absolutly amazing .. that is something I would love to have out year round .. wicked cool, I love it


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## mikeq91

Nice job on the apparition blackwidow! It looks really creepy, like it could move its head up at any minute. Great work!

mike


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## Lotus

http://photobucket.com/albums/v650/LotusMA/Halloween 2004/ My First prop was my Tombstones


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## Blackwidow

Lotus said:


> http://photobucket.com/albums/v650/LotusMA/Halloween 2004/ My First prop was my Tombstones


That's pretty smart setting up the cardboard tombstones until Halloween and then replacing them with the good stuff.
Btw, I love the giant spider web!


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## Zombie-F

*Bump*

For the forum newbies.


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## ScareFX

My first "real" prop was a FCG. I found the http://www.phantasmechanics.com site three days before Halloween in 2001. I went to Grainger's the next day and faked a business name so they would sell me a Dayton gearmotor. I picked up the rest of the materials at Lowes and Walmart and put it together before the big night. The kids and neighbors were blown away by that simple prop and I've "had" to up the ante each year since.

Of course I had been doing the standard decorating/pumpkin carving for years. But that first "real" prop created a passion (some would call it an obsession) with learning more and more about our little "hobby". The online haunt community has done nothing but add fuel to this fire. It's really great that so many others are also so passionate about this holiday. Thanks everyone.

Hello...I'm ScareFX...and I'm a Halloween addict. My first prop was this FCG...


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## Zombie-F

Admitting your problem is just the first step.


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## Haasmama

Obsessed is definately the correct term. When you get the "after holiday"sale gitters on the first of November instead of the Friday after Thanksgiving, you are obsessed. 

My first prop was a toe pincher coffin. My hubby and I designed it so that the top portion would be separate and open separately from the bottom half. We sprayed the inside walls of the top with great stuff and lined it with a large piece of plastic. Our goal was to make an ice chest of sorts for a Halloween Party. It held ice for four days after the party.

The bottom part held chips and stuff for the party and was storage afterwards. Now, I have too much stuff to fit.


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## Zombie-F

That's a cool idea for a coffin. That's quite a useful first prop.


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## ScareFX

Haasmama said:


> Obsessed is definately the correct term. When you get the "after holiday"sale gitters on the first of November instead of the Friday after Thanksgiving, you are obsessed...


So true!

Zombie's right. That's a great idea for a coffin.


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## Black Cat

Wow, some great props. I love looking at all the pics. What ideas run through my head. 
Here is my first prop which got me started with latex. I started this in September and it was out on display for Halloween over looking our front hedge. The toters loved it as it was lit up holding a torch in its hands. Well here is "Little Count" as I named him.
http://photobucket.com/albums/v193/troop134/Vlad and Black Cat/?action=view&current=P1010133.jpg
And here he is dressed up for the big night.
http://photobucket.com/albums/v193/troop134/Vlad and Black Cat/?action=view&current=P1010019.jpg


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## Blackwidow

Hey I remember that guy! I think he turned out pretty darn good, especially for the first one.


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## Beepem

*Your first prop?*

what was your first prop and how long ago did you make it? it should be interesting to see what crappy stuff we started with

Mine was 2 years ago I took some wood and made a cross type thing for a body shape. Then I took a sheet and put it over it and called it a ghost. So then I took a scream mask that has a motion sensor in it to scream on top. It didnt scream cuz it was so dark, so i decided to grab a flashlight and put it on the ground pointing up at it on the other side of the driveway. When a tot broke the beam, it screamed.
Prettty lame, but works for me


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## ScareFX

There's an old thread on this subject. Mod merge perhaps?

http://www.hauntforum.com/showthread.php?t=629


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## slimy

The first prop I built was a life size Demon Guard. I built a pvc frame and stuck an already made latex head on the top of it. I really and truly believed I just invented the pvc framed body idea. I was the smartest person ever. Then I found people like you on the internet. 

Needless to say, my props have gotten a lot more advanced. But I still haven't invented anything, I just steal ideas from all of you. Thank you for making me look like a genius.


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## TearyThunder

My first prop was my coffin. I made it a few years ago. I had some scrap wood and decided to give it a shot. Since it's not lifesize (for an adult anyways) I couldn't find any plans online to do one at the scare I wanted. I finally sat down with a marker and drew lines till it looked right.


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## Bone Dancer

My tombstones and a skelly on a BBQ with a witch.


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## Seamus

My first prop was a skeleton bride that my 5-year old and I finished this past weekend. And if I can get him to stop trying to take it school with him every morning, it might just last until Halloween.


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## Beepem

i searched for one, but it said " 'your' and 'first' were removed from your search" so i couldnt find it...


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## colinsuds

My first real prop was when i was like 8 it was a box with a head on it and a old shirt with a mask. sniff sniff good memories  . but my first real rpop was a lifesize quillotine. It is really kool still use it but it doesnt actually work  ....yet  MUAHAHAHA


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## claymud

My first prop was a live animation... I brought Colin back from the dead with nothing more then a paper clip and elastic... 

Fine, I lied. It was the Tombstone for the TourDeTombstone


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## Lilly

15 yrs ago....My first props were about 5 tombstones i cut out from wood painted with a paint sand mix then used styrofoam for the letters painted same as the rest .. still have a few of those too.:jol:


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## krough

An FCG, I built it 3 years ago. First real prop anyway. As a kid I would make scarecrow type things out of old clothes and newspaper


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## Beepem

an fcg is quite a first prop!


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## shaunathan

first prop I ever made was a smoking cauldron, if you can say I made it I bought dry ice and a plastic cauldron (With my mom's help) and put the two together with some warm water, I think I was 8....


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## HibLaGrande

Back before I knew that there was stuff on the internet for halloween (never even thought to look) I built this for shintz and gingles.The black monster was my first prop. I call it the "black slime demon dog ghoul thingy."  it started out I was trying to make Golum from LOTR. I decided Golum was not spooky enough.


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## Spooklights

I made my first prop 17 years ago, when we first moved here. It was a ghost made from a sheet, hung in the middle window of our house and lit with a dim green light. I was so proud of it; I'm sorry I don't have a picture.


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## ShadyHallows

4 years ago, 3 wood tombstones.


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## MrsMyers666

About 10 years ago I made tombstones out of cardboard boxes and a body stuff with newspaper hanging out a window. I guess that's what I got for being 15 with no money to spend.


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## drbrandon73

Mine was taking tiki torches and hanging skulls from them and placing them along the path to my door.


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## .id.

My first prop was a Jacob's ladder that I made for 2004.


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## Koumajutsu

*My first prop*

the first prop i ever made was well......

http://www.hauntforum.com/showthread.php?t=1022

unless you count carving pumpkins on the kitchen table

i did it... well last year. and it's new and improved for 2006!


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## Gloomy_Gus

Hmm...first prop. Well, I guess that would be the smoking cauldron. I bought one of those fog/mister things you get for fountains. It works great, but gets everything wet.

When I was a kid, my cousins and I would dress as "dummies" with newspaper sticking out from under our shirts and pants. Two of us would sit on either side of the candy bowl which had a sign that read "please take ONE". If someone got greedy we would spring to life and scare the pants off of them. Then collect all the candy they dropped when they ran away and put it back in the bowl. The highlight was when one of us rigged a harness with a fake noose and hung from the tree on the sidewalk. That's usually where the parents stood laughing at their kids getting scared on the front porch. The kids would get the last laugh when we reached down and put a hand on their shoulder or started kicking. The best part of this whole setup was that every year after that, we didn't even need to dress up. If we just put out real dummies, people were still spooked.


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## Lazario

It was a _Dummy_..., naturally


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## otherworldly

Mine was this ghoul thing coming out of the ground. Formed the head with crumpled up paper, masking tape and MM, made the upper body out of a box and coat hangers and rubber gloves, yogurt container for the neck, used a button-up shirt with more MM and paint. His face was suitably grim...oh yes and ping pong ball eyes! I still have the head somewhere.... The torso is actually still hanging in one of my trees....His name was _Jean Ghoul._ :zombie:


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## Eric Striffler

mikeq91 said:


> I thought it would be cool for everyone tell what they're first prop was, just to see where everyone came from.
> 
> My first prop was the medicine cabinet with a false back, although I still have not completely finished it. When I was pretty young, I got some of John Denely's videos, and this was one of the props on it. So my dad and I wanted to give it a try and it came out very well. But it also showed me how much fun prop building can be, and how satisfying it is when you finish a prop. (By the way, thanks Lotus for the bottom shelf props!) You can find pictures here www.picturetrail.com/mikeq91 (You'll have to scroll down a little, it won't let me directly link the picture).
> 
> So, what was your first prop?
> mike


Holy cramp! You have all the Cirque Du Freak books collected!
Sweet!
Those books are amazing.
The last one is out now I think.
I have it reserved.


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## slash

I believe the first one I ever did was an electric chair made from my dining room chair


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## MistressOfMayhem

My first major homemade prop done for our yard haunt was the MM cow skull thingymabob here:









It was made from a 2x4 base, 4 cow skulls and 1 goat skull, covered in MM. Alas, he wasn't weather-proofed so he didn't make it, but we are planning on redoing him hopefully this year if not next.


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## Lauriebeast

My first prop was a few years ago and just happened to be the "ol cheesecloth, wighead, and wire hanger version. Now I hang a bunch of 'em around and under a tree in my front yard. I use fishing line and swivels and they move around beautifully with the slightest breeze....I love these guys


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## jdubbya

MistressOfMayhem said:


> My first major homemade prop done for our yard haunt was the MM cow skull thingymabob here:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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> 
> 
> It was made from a 2x4 base, 4 cow skulls and 1 goat skull, covered in MM. Alas, he wasn't weather-proofed so he didn't make it, but we are planning on redoing him hopefully this year if not next.


Wow! That thing is awesome! What a creation and using real skulls. Imagine doing that with a series of motors and having the heads move and talk. Some red led's in the eyes. Fantastic and definitely worth a redux.


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## krough

That is AWESOME MOM!



MistressOfMayhem said:


> My first major homemade prop done for our yard haunt was the MM cow skull thingymabob here:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> It was made from a 2x4 base, 4 cow skulls and 1 goat skull, covered in MM. Alas, he wasn't weather-proofed so he didn't make it, but we are planning on redoing him hopefully this year if not next.


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## Richie

The first life size props I ever made and what got me into life-size was back in 1996. They really wouldn't be considered halloween props or figures, but they've been used on and off for that wonderful holiday ever since and are still part of my collection.

The Roswell Alien, which is fully animated and a static Mr. Spock, were the first I did and built in 1996 and took about a year for them. I did get help with Spock's head though. My third was the Mars Attacks alien shortly after those first two where built which was a huge hit with the parents and kids as part of our outdoor halloween decor. One year I didn't have it out, and man did I hear about it. "Where's the Mars Attacks Alien, how come it isn't here??!"


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## Lilly

Wow MOM that's some first prop..kickin butt for sure.


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## Lilly

Richie ..
I like your Mars attacks alien guy. thats funny


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## Richie

Hi Lilly,

I was extremely fortunate to have one of the heads find its way to me while the movie molds were still in pristine condition. The body is wider that what would be correct, but the head is so large, it still looks to be in good scale. Anyway, the TOT's and parents love it, so it's a keeper.


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## Hawks Hill Haunter

Very well done, Richie!

My first prop was a skeleton hand lamp - 2 of them actually. Halloween 2005 :: Skeleton Hand Lamp 2 picture by hawkshillhaunter - Photobucket

I found the idea on halloweenmonsterlist.info. Gotta love that site!

That year I also built 2 5ft toe pincher coffins (also compliments of halloweenmonsterlist.info).


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## The_Caretaker

My first props wer a toe pincher coffing made from scrap wood and some tombstones made from 3/4 ply wood and 2 x 4's


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## RingMaster

I did the medicine cabinet prop for one of my first props also


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