# Flying Ghost



## GPSaxophone (Sep 6, 2007)

I've wanted to build an Axworthy ghost for a couple of years, but haven't been able to tackle that scale of a project. I saw a much cheaper version last year that goes back and forth on a line. Big Lots carries this "Flying Ghost" for $15 and although the "ghost" looks pretty lame, I picked one up to see if I could make it better.

As soon as I got home, the cheapo ghost was removed and I was left with the rope, motor housing, and two wire arms.

I had this skeleton ghost in my cubicle at work a couple of years ago and he has been in a box since then. Time to bring him out and see what we can do. I combined a couple of zip ties and ran them under the skeleton's chin and around the motor housing. The top of the skull rubbed against the rope just a bit so I slid the skeleton down and used some adhesive zip tie mounts to keep the skull where I wanted it.

I used a couple more zip ties to attach the motor arms to the skeleton arms and went outside to test it. The rope needs to be as taut as possible, so I attached one end to an eye screw on one corner of the house and pulled the rope as far as it would go across the front of the house. I put the eye screw a few inches further than the end of the rope so I would really have to pull to get it taut.

The motor assembly turns halfway around so that the ghost faces the right direction when moving. When it hits any resistance it turns around and goes the other way.

For Halloween I'm going to move the eye screw a few inches further to make sure the rope is taut and use fresh batteries. For $15, this was a quick and easy modification to an otherwise cheesy-looking prop.


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## Denhaunt (Aug 18, 2006)

Not too shabby for $15. I'm sure there's a ton of stuff you could use that for. How much weight can it move?


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## GPSaxophone (Sep 6, 2007)

The controller reverses the motor at the first sign of resistance. The extra weight of the skeleton is about as much as it can handle. I have yet to see it go the entire length of the rope (25'). New batteries and stretching the rope further to keep it from sagging may help. About the only way to reduce weight from the skeleton is to cut some of the foam from the back of it. If I do that, I'll post an update here.


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## DarkLore (Jan 25, 2009)

I saw one of these today at Party City. I wondered about the strength of the motor. Unfortunately, it sounds under powered. A shame.


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## hpropman (Jul 27, 2008)

clever modification nice job.


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## mroct31 (Nov 10, 2007)

I did the same thing, hacked one of those with even less weight than you seem to have a few years ago and while it was-is a nice idea, it never did run very well and kept stopping all the time. Suffice to say, I no longer use it, but good luck!


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## nixie (Sep 17, 2008)

Great idea! I have one of those from a few years back, I'm going to give it a try! I haven't used it in years because it's original form is so cheesy, so I'm not out anything if it doesn't work. Now if I only knew where it was...


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## Spooky1 (Aug 25, 2008)

Nice modification, can you post a video to show the movement?


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## The Bloodshed Brothers (Jan 25, 2009)

great idea im just worried adding more weight to that setup would run down the motor...we have 2 of those flying ghost from party city but havent screwed around with them much


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## Creeper (Nov 7, 2008)

I have one from Party City and I tried to change the cheesy ghost to something scarier. It was going great until glue + curious kids + calamity = mess. Glue on the running line of the prop stops the motion so the thing only moves several inches before giving up and turning around, then doing it again. I don't know if I can change out the line or not.


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## MotelSixx (Sep 27, 2008)

I saw them at biglots and was gonna modify it but was unsure due to excess weight


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## KStone (Jul 2, 2009)

Good Job GPSax. I had the same issue with one of those axworthy's also. It would just stop in mid flight or just turn around about half-way. And I made sure the rope was as tight and level as possible. Good job with yours though.


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## Bone Dancer (Oct 7, 2005)

I have seen other threads in here regaurding the flying ghost and how to hack it. I have a couple around here someplace and was wondering if they would work on a much longer line of about 50 to 75 feet or so. I had thought of running across the cemetry.


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## Bone Dancer (Oct 7, 2005)

http://www.hauntforum.com/showthread.php?t=7348&highlight=kmart+flying+ghost

there is the link to the hack thread


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## trentsketch (Jul 27, 2009)

I was just staring at this thing in KMart yesterday wondering if it was worth messing around with. Looks like the answer is yes. I can stitch something up that looks better then the ghost and isn't too heavy, I'm sure.


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