I brought up an old automatic wind up baby swing we had in our basement from 4 years ago. Its in great shape except it doesn't always work for the 30+ minutes it is supposed to before it stalls out. My wife went out and bought a new one - battery operated this time. Anyway I have been doing a bit of brainstorming as to what to do with the old one. Its larger than most of the models you get today and looks something like the picture below.
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The idea I have come up with is to turn the swing seat into a spider. I would paint the whole thing black to start. The 2 curved metal polls the seat suspends from would be wrapped in black fur and become the spiders back legs. I'd probably remove the seat and make the rest of the spider from scratch. I'm thinking glowing eyes and hairy legs. I would build either a dark spider cave or make some kind of giant spiderweb eggsack/cacoon to hide the whole frame. Across the front legs of the swing set I'll cover a thin blanket of spider webbing that would stretch outward each time the spider lunges forward. I might put a dimmed strobe inside the spider hole for effect. Anyway this is my latest bit of brainstorming and thought I'd share.

<center>“by the Pricking of My Thumbs, Something Wicked This Way Comes.”</center>

This sounds totally cool. Can't wait to see your results.



I don't mind dead people. It's the ones who stick around that give me the creeps.

Hey Wolf. I like the idea of converting everything into props.I'm 11 years out of using those things, but don't they need some weight in them to make them swing?Better make it a bowling ball spider!Do they run off a coiled spring or what?If so,maybe you can tighten it up a bit to make it run longer.Winding it 3 or 4 times an hour could be a hassle. It sounds possible though,make sure you post pics and progress........ Now where did I put the kids old one???????

Ask not for whom the bell tolls......

wolf65,
I'm new to the forum, so excuse the intrusion:

If you can remove the support legs, perhaps you could suspend the drive mechanism from a "high" point - an arch or house overhang (I'm not sure what format you're haunting - house or maze).
This could put the spider at more of an eye level - if you had swinging legs dangling from the spider, that could add some extra distance.

Another thought would be a static dummy in a noose swinging from a high tree branch - hinge the hips and knees to give a "fresh kill" kind of feel.


"Kiss me, Fatboy!" - Pennywise the clown