# 101 Uses for a Lightning F/X machine



## Turbophanx (Jun 30, 2008)

ok #1 the obvious.... Lightning and Thunder.

#2 Connect red rope light and run a heart beat through it... line your walkway with it...

what else do you guys have???


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## Revenant (Mar 17, 2007)

#3 attach a really bright white or bluish white light to it. Buy a copy of "The Laboratory" from Adam at PoisonProps and cue up the "exploding lab" track, or make/get a soundtrack that has lots of arcs and pop and bang sounds. Mount the light inside a prop that you want to look like it's shorting out and burning/exploding.


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## Dr Morbius (Sep 21, 2004)

#4 Put it in a witches cualdren with a bright light. Cue up a BOOM sound to make a spell gone bad...or good. Accompany with a puff of fog for added effect.


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## Dr Morbius (Sep 21, 2004)

#5 hook it up. run a light into a Jack O Lantern and make it talk in sync to the light.


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## tonguesandwich (Oct 13, 2006)

Hook it into your chandelier and put in a static sound CD and watch it flicker like no other.


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## tonguesandwich (Oct 13, 2006)

Do the heart beat behind a scrim with a red light on your hiding monster.... He appears with the beat.


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## Devils Chariot (May 23, 2007)

*Smoking Burning PumPkin Thing*

Smoking Pumpkin Prop Video on Flickr - Photo [email protected]@[email protected]@http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3139/[email protected]@[email protected]@[email protected]@[email protected]@8d26d2f62c
I don't know how to insert a video, so you'll have to visit the link, but it's worth it.

This was like my first or second prop. I got the controller on sale the day after halloween the year earlier. I noticed that it just flickered to background noise if you turned the sensitivity up, so I thought i might make a good flicker switch type thing. I put a yellow 15watt(?) bulb into a foam pumpkin from Michaels and ran vacuum hose from the fogger to a fitting in the head (I found the fitting in the plumbing section but i dont know what its called). The voice you'll hear is the neighbor who came running across the street because he thought our pumkin was on fire. I think it looks great. That tiki in my avatar is supposed to do that but his fogger broke. Oh well.


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## Lilly (Jun 13, 2006)

that looks good DC...

#9...hooking up reg ole tunes to it.


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## Turbophanx (Jun 30, 2008)

#10 Using a war scene soundtrack. Hiding the lights behind a wall or fence will give the impression of fighting in the distance.


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## Death Wraith (Mar 23, 2006)

#11 Use any kind of thunder track and hook up to a couple 40watt work lights. Don't use any speakers. The lights flicker like they're shorting out. In total darkness much like a strobe light but much more random. Could also use photo-flash bulbs for a brighter, more blinding effect. Might this work with incandescent bulbs?


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## HalloweenZombie (Jul 22, 2007)

I'm using one for a crystal ball. As the gypsy voice rises from the crystal ball (via speakers under the table) the green light inside the crystal ball grows brighter thanks to the F/X Machine.


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## Hallowennie315 (Sep 5, 2007)

#12: PUt it to a voice track and hook it up to a wall wart connected to the mouth of a spirit ball and it speaks! (thats what im doing for halloween this year)


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## slimy (Jul 12, 2006)

Same as 315, but with a talking bust. Here's the link:

http://www.my-mania.com/halloween/talking_bust.html

Easy and awesome.


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## mymania (Jun 12, 2007)

slimy said:


> Same as 315, but with a talking bust. Here's the link:
> 
> http://www.my-mania.com/halloween/talking_bust.html
> 
> Easy and awesome.


I was just about to post that


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## r0b3r7 (Aug 9, 2008)

Use Heartbeat, put in corpsed buckey in rib-cage, use blue LED sync'ed to faint heartbeat sound so you only hear it near the corpse.


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## NickG (Sep 12, 2006)

#15 - using the mic, make the interior of your MIB crate flicker when the monster growls, and light up constantly while the lid goes "bangity bangity bangity"


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## GeoffM (Aug 26, 2008)

love this thread - lets keep the good ideas coming!


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## Bilbo (Dec 13, 2007)

#16 Instead of hooking directly up to lights hook to the powered connections of a relay. Hook your lightning lights to the "normally open" posts and the house lights to the "normally closed" posts. This will make the house lights go off when the lightning flashes.


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## joker (Sep 25, 2007)

I've got two of these (one still in the box)....what else have these been used for?


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## jabberwocky (Apr 30, 2008)

A "random" relay trigger for props like a pnumatic powered electric chair.
They're nice, since you can record a track of "spaced" sounds to fit your need.


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## naberhoodhaunts (Mar 29, 2008)

this is a great thread. please keep it going!!!!!!


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## Front Yard Fright (Dec 23, 2005)

Last year I had my haunt lighting connected to it with no audio connected to it so it would react to the music/noise in the haunt.

I had the sensitivity most of the way up, so it was at a constant flicker. However, once somebody would scream the lights would go to their full power, lighting up the haunt some more.

Very cool, and entertaining way to light your haunt!
:lolkin:.


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## Turbophanx (Jun 30, 2008)

#19 I had the idea to use the sound of a whip and some screaming to simulate torture in a basement or hole in the ground.


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## Dr Morbius (Sep 21, 2004)

#20 Using the relay idea, and also hooking the FX box to a speaker, hook one wire leading to a wiper motor and have your hangman/FCG/Peeper/Coffinbanger or whatever you have hooked up to a wiper motor will move in sync with sound.


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## Revenant (Mar 17, 2007)

Front Yard Fright said:


> I had the sensitivity most of the way up, so it was at a constant flicker. However, once somebody would scream the lights would go to their full power, lighting up the haunt some more.
> :lolkin:.


hahahaha that's so cool... like an on-site version of that power company in Monsters Inc. !!


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## halloween71 (Aug 9, 2007)

Giving this thread a bump.


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## PirateHaunter (Mar 6, 2010)

I use one in my MIB. It's connected to a red light bulb and a handheld back massager, which is connected to the MIB lid. When the lightning f/x machine detects the monster sound from the speakers, it turns on the red light and activates the massager, pushing the lid up and down.

I also use a pair to light up my four pirate cannons in sync with the inputted mp3 audio of cannon fire.


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