# 10 Dollar Animated Raven from Big Lots!!!



## BIGANT (Jul 11, 2011)

I had to buy this little guy! I mean its a full blown animated raven for 10 bucks! Sure its small and is more the size of a crow than a raven but still it was only 10 bucks and has full animation! I want to try to hack it to work off a trigger and only say pre recorded things if possible but right now I cant figure out the demo mode (which should do exactly that if I can figure it out)


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## Saruman of Many Colours (Sep 8, 2010)

Will have to stop by the local Big Lots later today or tomorrow.


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## GobbyGruesome (Sep 14, 2005)

That's pretty nifty! Maybe if they doubled the price they could make it amazing, but it does look like an excellent starting point for hacking.

And no you don't sound like that at all- you've got a voice for radio - or podcasting anyway. The tiny raven? Not so much.


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## Chewbacca (Oct 12, 2010)

Not bad for ten bucks! Just called the wife to have her stop by after work and see is our Big Lots has them. They didn't have any a couple of days ago but they were still putting Halloween stuff out. I'd go myself but it would cost me $15 just for gas to get there and back.


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## offmymeds (May 26, 2010)

Haha...that's great! I have a parrot like that, now i'm gonna have to have a raven!


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## Blarghity (Sep 2, 2012)

Mighty small crows you have in your area if that thing is more like the size of a crow. In my neck of the woods, crows are often mistaken for low flying turkey vultures for those who don't know better.


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## boo who? (Feb 28, 2005)

Waaaay cool! I hope you'll be able to successfully hack that starling... uh... I mean raven... and post a tutorial here. Sounds like the recording tries to accelerate to fit a longer message in. So maybe talking slowly with fewer words might be helpful?

If there are any left on clearance... or with a good 20% Buzz Club coupon, it would be fun to get several of them.


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## frogkid11 (Aug 6, 2012)

Can't wait to get one of those myself. Please post here if you are able to hack into him and how you did it


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## BIGANT (Jul 11, 2011)

If I could get the demo mode to work right it would be as simple as putting a trigger on the button itself. As of right now though I cant figure how to make him work in demo mode?


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## Guest (Jul 31, 2013)

Cool!!! I really need to go check mine out. Just hate its 30 minutes away  boo.


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## sookie (Sep 19, 2010)

omg I want this so bad! I'd have a line or two of Vincent Price reciting the raven recorded on to it!


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## Ghost of Spookie (Sep 28, 2008)

BIGANT said:


> I had to buy this little guy! I mean its a full blown animated raven for 10 bucks! Sure its small and is more the size of a crow than a raven but still it was only 10 bucks and has full animation! I want to try to hack it to work off a trigger and only say pre recorded things if possible but right now I cant figure out the demo mode (which should do exactly that if I can figure it out)




Bigant, a few years ago I posted about a Morbid Voodoo Backtalker that I bought. Here's a link to the YouTube video of him in action. Seems like he works very much like the BL crow (and thanks for the heads up on him BTW). As I recall the voodoo backtalker will loose it's recorded message if turned off and you would have to rerecord. I bought a few of these for my Skull Island haunt and now that I've seen the crow I'm thinking I'm going to need to go to BL soon! I love these kind of props.







For anyone seeing the Voodoo Backtalker for the first time, I bought Voodoo Backtalker from ToyNK and at the time I posted to the forum they had a small supply of them. *This was an older prop at the time I posted*, so they had old leftover inventory I guess and were clearing out during a sale on him. I bought 3 from them and then noticed that they sold them thru their website _and_ as a seller on Amazon. Both places are now listing them as _Out of Stock_ so I think these guys got snatched up and that's that.


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## CDW (Jul 3, 2012)

Nice! I've been going on an animatronic bird kick recently, so I may have to pick up one of those. As of Monday, my Big Lots was still in the middle of stocking, and those weren't out yet, but I think I'll be checking in again this evening...


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## Kelloween (Jun 8, 2012)

I wish we had a big lot or something..all we have is stupid walmart..and I mean for milessssssss.....


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## BIGANT (Jul 11, 2011)

Ghost of Spookie said:


> Bigant, a few years ago I posted about a Morbid Voodoo Backtalker that I bought. Here's a link to the YouTube video of him in action. Seems like he works very much like the BL crow (and thanks for the heads up on him BTW). As I recall the voodoo backtalker will loose it's recorded message if turned off and you would have to rerecord. I bought a few of these for my Skull Island haunt and now that I've seen the crow I'm thinking I'm going to need to go to BL soon! I love these kind of props.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



See I want the raven to do what your back talker does! As it is now he doesnt store any sayings he actually sits there and mimics anything he hears non stop. As long as you keep talking around him he will keep repeating what you say back to you.


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## Ghost of Spookie (Sep 28, 2008)

Ohhhhhhhhh, now I get it. If you can pull off what you want to do, please do a tutorial for all of us. I like him now but a new improved version would rock.


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## CDW (Jul 3, 2012)

Just got one! Unfortunately, though, it looks like the demo mode button just does the same thing as the power switch in the back, only in a less battery-draining way; he repeats what he hears as long as you hold the button down. Doesn't mean he can't be hacked the way you want, just means it's going to be more...challenging.

On a side note, my store had four out, and of those, one produced no sound and another barely moved. Only two seemed to be working reasonably closely to the way they were intended, and neither worked as well as the one in BIGANT's video. Come on, Arizona Big Lots, step it up!


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## BIGANT (Jul 11, 2011)

CDW said:


> Just got one! Unfortunately, though, it looks like the demo mode button just does the same thing as the power switch in the back, only in a less battery-draining way; he repeats what he hears as long as you hold the button down. Doesn't mean he can't be hacked the way you want, just means it's going to be more...challenging.
> 
> On a side note, my store had four out, and of those, one produced no sound and another barely moved. Only two seemed to be working reasonably closely to the way they were intended, and neither worked as well as the one in BIGANT's video. Come on, Arizona Big Lots, step it up!



none of the ones in the store seemed to work at all including the one I bought, it wasnt till I got in the car and actually moved the switch to the on position did it start to work right! You can reach the switch while its still in the package so if you see some in the store be sure to turn them on and test them first before buying one I guess!


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## katshead42 (Aug 5, 2010)

Wow that birdie is cute.


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## BIGANT (Jul 11, 2011)

So I looked at it some more last night and the bird only has two wires going to it I assume to provide power to the motor inside which gives it its animation. I have a feeling that simply putting power on those two wires will make it animate, so I bet using a picoboo with an audio track would be the perfect way to hack this. Just simply have the picoboo provide power from a battery pack(since 12v would probably be too much juice for the motor) to the bird and have the picoboo provide the sound track as well when triggered. I would just need to run the animation for the same period of time as the message. Of course the two wouldnt line up perfectly but it doesnt line up perfectly now anyway.


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## vwgirl (Jul 16, 2012)

I went to my store last night, no luck. I want this just to mess with my quaker parrot, finally something that will give him the repeat experience that we get.


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## Chewbacca (Oct 12, 2010)

BIGANT said:


> So I looked at it some more last night and the bird only has two wires going to it I assume to provide power to the motor inside which gives it its animation. I have a feeling that simply putting power on those two wires will make it animate, so I bet using a picoboo with an audio track would be the perfect way to hack this. Just simply have the picoboo provide power from a battery pack(since 12v would probably be too much juice for the motor) to the bird and have the picoboo provide the sound track as well when triggered. I would just need to run the animation for the same period of time as the message. Of course the two wouldnt line up perfectly but it doesnt line up perfectly now anyway.


I was hoping for a hack that didn't convert a $10 prop into a $100 prop. 

I have some of those recordable gift card modules. If you used an ear bud speaker next to the microphone on the bird it would repeat back what was on the card module. The card modules are easy to hook up to any trigger device that will close the contact and keep it closed for as long as needed. Do you think that this might work?


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## CDW (Jul 3, 2012)

BIGANT said:


> So I looked at it some more last night and the bird only has two wires going to it I assume to provide power to the motor inside which gives it its animation. I have a feeling that simply putting power on those two wires will make it animate, so I bet using a picoboo with an audio track would be the perfect way to hack this. Just simply have the picoboo provide power from a battery pack(since 12v would probably be too much juice for the motor) to the bird and have the picoboo provide the sound track as well when triggered. I would just need to run the animation for the same period of time as the message. Of course the two wouldnt line up perfectly but it doesnt line up perfectly now anyway.


I did some initial disassembly last night, and I came to the same conclusion. I was thinking I might try building one of Otaku's op amp motor driver circuits, and running that with a sound file, since it is just a single motor.



Chewbacca said:


> I was hoping for a hack that didn't convert a $10 prop into a $100 prop.
> 
> I have some of those recordable gift card modules. If you used an ear bud speaker next to the microphone on the bird it would repeat back what was on the card module. The card modules are easy to hook up to any trigger device that will close the contact and keep it closed for as long as needed. Do you think that this might work?


Probably, but it's hard to say for sure; mine's been a bit finicky about cutting out its recording too early, even when I talk directly into the microphone. You might have better results wiring the output of the card directly into the mic input on the bird with a potentiometer in between to buffer it a bit.


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## BIGANT (Jul 11, 2011)

Chewbacca said:


> I was hoping for a hack that didn't convert a $10 prop into a $100 prop.
> 
> I have some of those recordable gift card modules. If you used an ear bud speaker next to the microphone on the bird it would repeat back what was on the card module. The card modules are easy to hook up to any trigger device that will close the contact and keep it closed for as long as needed. Do you think that this might work?


I just threw the picoboo idea out there as an example since it was an all inclusive device that would do it all. Im sure there are people way smarter than me with more knowledge of pcbs that can offer a cheaper solution. I suppose you could hack the microphone into a line in and have another cheap mp3 player play whatever you want it to and technically it should just repeat what it gets on the line in?


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## BIGANT (Jul 11, 2011)

I might actually try that this weekend, to see if I can hack the mic to work as a regular audio line and plug it into an mp3 player to see what happens! I suppose you could do the opposite on the other end and wire the onboard speaker up to work as a line out to a better audio source. Therefore making the bird act as of a kind of animated color organ of sorts?


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## fennyann (Sep 6, 2012)

Not bad for 10 bucks! Good buy!


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## BIGANT (Jul 11, 2011)

I went to big lots just now to grab another one to hack over the weekend they were all gone I guess everyone wanted one, I knew I should have grabbed two yesterday!!!


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## DaveintheGrave (Feb 12, 2004)

Thanks for the heads up! He's pretty cool looking. He'll look even better with some feathers glued on him!


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## DaveintheGrave (Feb 12, 2004)

BIGANT said:


> I went to big lots just now to grab another one to hack over the weekend they were all gone I guess everyone wanted one, I knew I should have grabbed two yesterday!!!


No, they probably bought them to re-sell on E-bay at a HUGE markup.


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## frogkid11 (Aug 6, 2012)

DaveintheGrave said:


> Thanks for the heads up! He's pretty cool looking. He'll look even better with some feathers glued on him!


I had the exact same thought, Dave. Post some pics if you get yours completed soon. My BL doesn't have their stuff completely out on the aisles yet.


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## Pumpkin5 (May 17, 2012)

Thanks for the head's up Bigant! My husband brought home three of the little buggers last night! Yay! One may end up in my Secret Reaper package...


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## BIGANT (Jul 11, 2011)

I cant wait to see what everyone does with them!


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## Guest (Aug 1, 2013)

Pumpkin5 said:


> Thanks for the head's up Bigant! My husband brought home three of the little buggers last night! Yay! One may end up in my Secret Reaper package...


Um, I love that jar you have in the background!


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## NOWHINING (Jul 25, 2009)

mmmmmm... maybe I can sneak by into big lots tomorrow........... (Plotting)


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## Halloweenfan (Sep 18, 2008)

DaveintheGrave said:


> No, they probably bought them to re-sell on E-bay at a HUGE markup.


Yeah, next time he should buy as much as he needs, and than post on a Halloween forum. After this topic, people probably knew about it, and went to Big Lots to get one.


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## sumrtym (Aug 16, 2008)

Interesting. I'm wondering if you could hack it to say a certain phrase and animate on a button push ea time. I can picture this incorporated into a stalkabout costume....


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## just_Tim (Sep 3, 2009)

I picked one up today been having a LOT of fun with it loll


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## DaveintheGrave (Feb 12, 2004)

frogkid11 said:


> I had the exact same thought, Dave. Post some pics if you get yours completed soon. My BL doesn't have their stuff completely out on the aisles yet.


OK, I will. I think i'll run up to my Big Lots today and see if they have any. I've still got some black feathers left over from when I added some wings to some static ravens a few years ago.


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## PoCoHauntGal (Sep 2, 2010)

_


Pumpkin5 said:



 Thanks for the head's up Bigant! My husband brought home three of the little buggers last night! Yay! One may end up in my Secret Reaper package...








Click to expand...

_


I may have to drive across the border and see if I can pick one or two of these crows up. 

I've already made plans for him:

Add a few feathers, have him hanging in a bird cage with some loose feathers scattered on the bottom
of the cage and to borrow a line from the wicked witch, his message will say:

"Help me ... I'm moulting"


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## BR1MSTON3 (Jul 31, 2010)

Thanks so much for the heads up, definitely will be going to Big Lots today


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## mikeerdas (Jan 30, 2010)

My local Big Lots had three of them. Only 1/3 worked as it should. The animation was broken on the other 2, but not the sound. Interested in seeing if anyone is able to hack it at a low cost, without too much technical ability required. Will have to visit some other Big Lots. For $10, it would be nice to have two functioning ones on hand. But out of the box, I don't see how I'd use them effectively.


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## CaliforniaMelanie (Sep 8, 2008)

OMG! Cool!


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## Phantom Blue (Sep 28, 2008)

Thanks for the Heads-up Biagnt....can't be in the doghouse for spending $10....or at least I hope not.


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## xxScorpion64xx (Oct 15, 2011)

I have a BL about a mile from home, I'll stop and check it out


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## Ghost of Spookie (Sep 28, 2008)

My first BL had a decent amount of halloween out but no talking crows. Went to a second one and had success. They weren't exactly where the majority of halloween was shelved so I probably got lucky in that regard and found a few left on the shelf. So my advice is to walk around the aisle in that section of the store. The ones I found were across from the summer beach luau items, and this aisle is probably going to end up being a whole halloween row of things but not much there at present.

Anyone working at BL have any idea how many of these guys the stores are getting in?


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## Evil Elf (Jun 16, 2013)

The insane Ebay prices have already started. I saw a listing for this little raven for the low price of...$24.99! Get this year's hottest Halloween decoration while you still can!


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## mikeerdas (Jan 30, 2010)

Gemmy's#1Fan said:


> The insane Ebay prices have already started. I saw a listing for this little raven for the low price of...$24.99! Get this year's hottest Halloween decoration while you still can!


Ouch. Went to another Big Lots during lunch and found 3 out of 3 working ravens on the shelf. Bought 2. Will return if I can't figure out a way to get them to operate semi-continuously or by a trigger. Are there any other "must have" props this season? I don't always read all the store threads. Seems like too cheap a bargain to pass up.


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## DaveintheGrave (Feb 12, 2004)

I bought one on Saturday. I haven't take the time to see if he works correctly or not. I know he does move, at least. LOL


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## mikeerdas (Jan 30, 2010)

*Discovery - side by side ravens will trigger each other in endless loop*

So I got out the two ravens I bought today. Wasn't sure I wanted to buy one these animated "Talk Back" Ravens from Big Lots this 2013 Halloween season--mostly because I wasn't sure how to keep one in continuous mode. You turn the switch to "on", say something, and the raven repeats it. Then stops until the next sound it hears. I discovered that when you put two ravens together, the sound of the one causes the other raven to trigger. And vice-versa in a feedback loop.

It's most impressive when you first record some sort of longish-sound. But eventually the tail end of the recording is all that each raven is able to re-transmit to each other. Still, it provides the continuous animation I wanted. Now I wonder what three ravens put together in close proximity would achieve. Perhaps they'd retain a longer portion of the original sound recording. Anyone with 3 working ravens want to try?

Here's a video I just made, showing the "tail end" of the sound being bounced back and forth between two ravens. Reminds me a little bit of Furby 1.0. When you put two together, they'd send IR signals to each other and dance together / talk to each other. Thought that was pretty cool back in the day.






Another "hacking" option might be to place a continuous sound source behind the ravens. If that could be called a hack at all. They sound like they're hucking up hairballs--which is what may be holding my cat's interest in the background...

And my second test video, adding a strobe/sound source:





And now my third and favorite test. Great bonus was using a red LED light and seeing silhouettes of the ravens against a wall:


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## Ghost of Spookie (Sep 28, 2008)

Thanks for posting that Mike and setting up the videos which are really helpful and illustrate it in action better than describing it with words. After seeing it I remember now someone doing something similar with those FurReal chimpanzees (maybe it was in one of the Carnevil threads), a different animal toy/prop, but one that needs "someone" to react with them. Totally forgot about that. 

I have 4 BL ravens now and tried them all but never at the same time. Duh... I also have some crows that I believe I bought from Improvements Catalog on clearance last year (several other members did as well so hopefully will see this) that are sound activated and then they begin to crow. I'm thinking if I set those up and they get triggered first, the others will follow suit. That or just setting up an mp3 w/speakers that can be used for the trigger and even change sounds or words to repeat--like "Never More" after so many minutes to make it more interesting to listen to. I do have a Gemmy candy dish with a talking crow that says that and could try setting that guy up with them. Not sure when I will have the chance to do all this though.

BTW I don't know if you would want to try this outdoors during the day. Right now with the fruit trees providing bird pickens we have alot in our neighborhood as it is. I head that a crow call will attract more to the area. Could turn into a real _The Birds_ scene I imagine! That movie was scary and made you think about birds differently.

If nothing else, your video has given me food for thought. I'd love to have a scene kind of like _The Birds_, where one crow/raven starts and then other birds join in and it gets to be quite unnerving when it sounds like a flock of them. Wonder how long the batteries will last!


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## Ghost of Spookie (Sep 28, 2008)

Video 3 is really cool! You've been having too much fun over there! I like the red light and the casting of shadows especially.


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## mikeerdas (Jan 30, 2010)

Ghost of Spookie said:


> Video 3 is really cool! You've been having too much fun over there! I like the red light and the casting of shadows especially.


Thanks Spookie! Mission Accomplished for me. Very proud of that one. The silhouettes would have looked even better if there was no obstruction--what you saw was cast onto a map of europe in a cheap plexiglass frame. Didn't even expect to see the shadows--just thought black ravens lit with red light would look eerie / atmospheric.

About your idea, I too have some older ravens that "caw" and are sound activated. Also thought that it might be interesting to pair the ravens together and see what happened. But then I remembered the $2.50 on-clearance-at-Walgreens sound/strobe lights I'd purchased and voila. That combined with my trusty Coleman LED multi-color light and I'm a happy man. It's a great, bright little LED flashlight. And it also has a very spooky blue light mode in addition to the red. The blue just didn't look good with the ravens so I went with red. So now I may deploy the ravens as animated silhouettes in an upstairs window. So glad I picked these up. 

Looking forward to seeing what you do with yours.


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## Defenestrator (Jul 27, 2009)

Not quite sure how I missed this when originally posted, but it sure offers up a lot of possibilities. 

So.....off to Big Lots I go in the morning!


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## mikeerdas (Jan 30, 2010)

So far, the pattern I've seen in Big Lots stores is 3 ravens per store. Is that it then they're sold out for the season?!? Or do they simply stock 3 ravens on the shelf at a time?

Have headed to Lowes, Home Depot, Party Central (only some costume stuff out), and Walgreens, and still don't see any Halloween stuff out. So kudos to Big Lots for getting Halloween merch out early. Wondering when my local Spirit Halloween stores will open. All stores need to get the back-to-school stuff out ASAP.  I'm ready to go on a quest for cool new Halloween merch this year.

The thing I like about Walgreens, that I saw last year, is that they seem to put out last year's Halloween stuff first, and at a huge price decrease.


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## JeffHaas (Aug 26, 2008)

Hi guys, it turns out you can hack these ravens to control them, just like you can hack talking Gemmy skulls. The same inexpensive circuit works for both. See my new Instructable:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Modify-A-Talking-Skull-To-Say-Anything-You-Want/

(edit) Whoohoo! It just got featured!


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## Ghost of Spookie (Sep 28, 2008)

Hey Jeff, thanks for the link. Will be checking it out.

My BIG LOTS had 4 crows when I was in.


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## phantommenace (Aug 9, 2013)

my big lots had 0 crows dern it


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## Defenestrator (Jul 27, 2009)

I struck out on my last attempt too....but I'm headed to another local BL in the morning, so maybe I'll get lucky! 

I don't even have any plans for it; but I feel like this is one of those things I'm going to want to a few of for future hacking....


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## DaveintheGrave (Feb 12, 2004)

Ha! Great videos, Mike. That first video sounds like they are having a burping contest. LOL I love the one with the silhouettes. Those ravens actually look better as moving silhouettes than they do in reality.

The one I bought was moving in the demo mode, but now I turn his switch on and all he does is repeat sound, no movement. I guess I'll try new batteries first.

Thanks for posting!


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## mraymer (Aug 30, 2008)

I hate each and every one of you who purchased this raven! I've made 5 different trips to 3 different Big Lots with no sign of any raven at any of them, just ugly sparkle pumpkins and rope lights. I kid about the hate thing, just jealous of those who where able to pick at least one up. I want two of these, anyone know who the manufacturer is? I'm hoping somebody else carries this besides Big Lots because so far it's been a waste of time trying to procure one. The quest continues.


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## DarkManDustin (Jun 30, 2011)

Is it motion activated? It'd be cool to keep it on the porch as a startle prank.


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## mikeerdas (Jan 30, 2010)

DaveintheGrave said:


> Ha! Great videos, Mike. That first video sounds like they are having a burping contest. LOL I love the one with the silhouettes. Those ravens actually look better as moving silhouettes than they do in reality.
> 
> The one I bought was moving in the demo mode, but now I turn his switch on and all he does is repeat sound, no movement. I guess I'll try new batteries first.
> 
> Thanks for posting!


You're very welcome and thanks for the feedback. I had fun making them. The first vid also sounds like cats hucking up hairballs. 

I agree 100% about the silhouettes looking better than the physical objects themselves--probably the only reason I'm keeping mine because that's how I may deploy them--possibly projected onto an upstairs window with wax paper as the projection surface. To me, "shadows in motion" add huge atmosphere. They triggered a "Haunted Mansion" sense of wonder. Something as simple as that could be my "cool new effect" this season. Always like to have something new for the neighborhood.

Sorry yours is having motion issues. Hope fresh batteries solves the problem. In one Big Lots I visited, 2/3 of the ravens exhibited that problem. At another Big Lots, all three worked fine. While in the store I tested by reaching into the back of the box and toggling the switch way down at the bottom, pushing it to the left with the raven's beak pointing at you. I think Spookie has already mentioned this as a way to test.

Good luck to all trying to find the ravens. Hope Big Lots stocks more. So far, this seems like the #1 Cool New Prop in stores. And at a terrific price. If any other new gems like this, I hope new threads will be started about them. Since I don't always keep up with the "What did you buy today" thread or the store-specific threads.

@DarkManDustin, the ravens are sound activated, not motion activated. But they seem pretty sensitive to sound--so anyone approaching them and talking may set them off. You'd have to experiment.


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## DarkManDustin (Jun 30, 2011)

This would be good to record. http://youtu.be/tszaNUpuJSE


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## mikeerdas (Jan 30, 2010)

Bought my third and final raven. There was one left at the store I got it from. No one seemed to know if they'd get restocked.


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## DarkManDustin (Jun 30, 2011)

mikeerdas said:


> Bought my third and final raven. There was one left at the store I got it from. No one seemed to know if they'd get restocked.


Is it motion activated?


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## CDW (Jul 3, 2012)

DarkManDustin said:


> Is it motion activated?


No. It's not exactly "activated" at all; it just repeats anything the microphone picks up above a certain loudness.


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## Jottle (Aug 17, 2006)

I found two of these at my local BL, and there were over 8 on the shelves! But just a heads up, these things seem extremely fragile. 3 of the 8 on the shelf didn't work properly. One was missing a wing entirely, one didn't have the beak movement working, and one seemed to move extremely slowly (probably just low batteries). So if anyone finds one, be sure to check the movement: body leans back and forth a bit, beak opens and closes, wings flap slightly, tail moves slightly.

Oh. And to prove my point: As I am writing this, one of my two birds has stopped moving completely. Case in point


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## mikeerdas (Jan 30, 2010)

Anyone else have videos of their ravens in action / how you intend to use them in a scene?


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## mikeerdas (Jan 30, 2010)

How do I do the same effect I achieved inside --can be seen in earlier video I posted (red LED light casting a great shadow of the ravens on an indoor wall)--how can I do that outside? Would a red flood light give the same shadow effect onto the side of my house? Or would I need a red spot light of some kind? Spent some time in Lowes and Home Depot today. Only saw red flood lights--no red spot lights. Which is more of what I think my red LED flashlight acted as rather than a flood.


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## jollygorilla (Oct 10, 2011)

there small and the talking part is a bit weak but they move nice and for ten bucks its great. and i would say they would work best in a group as filler props. in fact someone did a test they will repeat each other so if you record a crow sound and it plays it back the next one will repeat that sound and the first one will repeat that and so on and so on...


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## Ghost of Spookie (Sep 28, 2008)

That someone was mikeerdas. Hey Mike, I have a little flock of them. We're in the midst of a big landscaping project but at some point I'll play around with mine and come back and post a video. Not sure I'll be able to work them into this year's haunt or not.


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## jbaum (Feb 18, 2011)

Add some feathers from the dollar store owls and it would look better. Have to look for one.


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## mikeerdas (Jan 30, 2010)

Ghost of Spookie said:


> That someone was mikeerdas. Hey Mike, I have a little flock of them. We're in the midst of a big landscaping project but at some point I'll play around with mine and come back and post a video. Not sure I'll be able to work them into this year's haunt or not.


Nice, glad you were able to acquire them. Good luck with your landscaping. Looking forward to seeing your video when you get to it.


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## BR1MSTON3 (Jul 31, 2010)

Got a little detail painting to do, but I am putting him on the top of my Nevermore stone. Hurts a little to cut into the finished stone, but I think the effect is well worth it, (will be setting him a little further down to be flush with stone) thanks for the tip!


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## DaveintheGrave (Feb 12, 2004)

He looks excellent on top of the tombstone! Great idea.


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## BIGANT (Jul 11, 2011)

I know some of you had trouble finding one of these so I decided to give one away if you are interested check out my video below. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNnA2grtrWY


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## BIGANT (Jul 11, 2011)

sorry double post


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## Carlos Vivas (Oct 10, 2013)

pretty cool!


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## Halstaff (Nov 8, 2009)

Here's how my Raven's being used this year -


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## DaveintheGrave (Feb 12, 2004)

Your raven looks great in the cage, Halstaff! Super idea.


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## Ghost of Spookie (Sep 28, 2008)

Nice video Halstaff. The bird in the background cawing creates a wonderful atmosphere.

So while the bird/s create a cool effect and give a pretty realistic movement on a controlled video shot, has anyone considered what's going to happen with kids going by, especially when the kids realize the birds will repeat them?? I hate to think what the birds could be repeating down the road. Maybe a sign posted something like "Quiet please. Don't disturb the birds or they may attack" might be useful. But knowing kids and how the birds work, I'm not so sure. Even "BIG kids" will want to experiment with this I think. I wonder if an iPod with little speakers near the bird/s could keep the birds' message on track.

My Morbid Industries Voodoo Backtalker prop head will let you record and play back but it plays back only the recorded message until the device is turned off and memory lost. I can see the wisdom to this prop approach now!


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## DaveintheGrave (Feb 12, 2004)

It seems these Big Lots birds just repeat once and then rest until another sound is loud enough for it to record and speak again. Sometimes they will just speak background noise, so they must sample about every 10 to 15 seconds.


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## camsauce (Sep 20, 2008)

Would love to pickup a pair of these to perch on top of my columns. Right now I have static dollar tree versions. Big Lots doesn't seem to have any though.


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## Halstaff (Nov 8, 2009)

I'm using my version of the controller for these that came out of this discussion - http://www.hauntforum.com/showthread.php?t=26340
I'm using a Picaxe with a PIR sensor to trigger the audio board that feeds that controller which runs the raven. I made up a short track in Audacity with a separate tone track that the raven runs off of. Mine has a delay of about 45 seconds before it can be re-triggered.


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## mikeerdas (Jan 30, 2010)

Haven't been to a Big Lots in a while. Anyone notice if Big Lots has restocked the ravens? Or was it a Three Ravens Per Store affair in most cases?


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## mikeerdas (Jan 30, 2010)

*Possible application - window rear projection (shadow)*

I may try to deploy my ravens as shadow rear projections onto two upstairs windows; like I did in the example against the wall, using the Red light mode of my Coleman LED multi-color Aluminum Flashlight. Just bought a 2nd flashlight, same model, at Walmart. Not cheap at $30, but the Red and Blue modes are terrific for Halloween. Thinking it would take one flashlight per window since the windows are spaced far apart. May line the windows with wax paper as my projection surface.


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## baykay1984 (Sep 9, 2012)

He is so cute, couldn't find any crows or ravens in australa


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## mikeerdas (Jan 30, 2010)

*Animatronic ravens projected in windows*

Here are examples of how I'm planning to deploy my ravens this halloween:


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## mikeerdas (Jan 30, 2010)

*Halloween 2013 Yard Haunt video with ravens in window*

Here's what it looked like tonight:


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## DaveintheGrave (Feb 12, 2004)

Great video, mike! Your house looks awesome and the raven silhouettes look super!


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## funhousejoe (Oct 1, 2008)

my big lots i have 2 in my area never got these bummer


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## Ghost of Spookie (Sep 28, 2008)

...or they got bought as soon as they hit the shelf.


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## mikeerdas (Jan 30, 2010)

DaveintheGrave said:


> Great video, mike! Your house looks awesome and the raven silhouettes look super!


Thanks Dave! My one regret is not deploying any sound for the ravens. My FM radio transmitter's signal couldn't quite make it out to the roadside mailbox (where I'd wanted to place a battery operated radio alarm clock to play raven sounds).


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## DaveintheGrave (Feb 12, 2004)

That's too bad. I remember you bought the same transmitter I use, but it didn't have the far reaching range like mine does.

I still don't know why.........


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## Scary Papa (Jan 31, 2012)

After reading this post a few months ago I ran out an bought two of the ravens from Big Lots. I wanted to use them in my new witch's cottage but I never did get them to work right. Evidentially they are made to simply repeat whatever they hear and they didn't do that very well so I took them back. Then just a couple of weeks before our Haunted Forest party I ran across this raven at Target. It is sound activated, the red eyes flash, it flaps its wings, and makes "Caw" raven sounds. It came with the cage and was only $20. It really worked great in the witch's cottage.


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## DaveintheGrave (Feb 12, 2004)

Your Raven in a cage looks great, SP !!


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## mikeerdas (Jan 30, 2010)

DaveintheGrave said:


> That's too bad. I remember you bought the same transmitter I use, but it didn't have the far reaching range like mine does.
> I still don't know why.........


I know! But at that low price, I may pick 3 eBay vendors at random and purchase 3 more of the same unit. Maybe some are internally "governed" in terms of range.

@ScaryPapa, nice find / nice job.


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## DaveintheGrave (Feb 12, 2004)

Good idea! You've got nothing to lose.

That makes me wonder if maybe you could piggyback the transmission between two or three transmitters. Have the first one transmitting to a radio at its far range, while having a second FM transmitter plugged into the output jack of that radio, which sends the signal to another radio further out in the yard.

Crazy idea, or not???


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## mikeerdas (Jan 30, 2010)

DaveintheGrave said:


> Good idea! You've got nothing to lose.
> 
> That makes me wonder if maybe you could piggyback the transmission between two or three transmitters. Have the first one transmitting to a radio at its far range, while having a second FM transmitter plugged into the output jack of that radio, which sends the signal to another radio further out in the yard.
> 
> Crazy idea, or not???


Sounds stark-raving sane to me. A repeater! Great idea.  If I get more transmitters I'll definitely give this a try. Thanks for suggesting it.


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## DaveintheGrave (Feb 12, 2004)

Cool! I don't see why it wouldn't work. The idea just popped in my mind when you mentioned buying a few more transmitters. Probably have to use a decently amplified radio (like a boom box) to give the transmitters enough "oomph" to send out the music.

I'm crossing my fingers for you!


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## ryanlamprecht (Oct 8, 2009)

Love it. Wish there were a Big Lots near me.


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## mikeerdas (Jan 30, 2010)

*The ravens have returned to Big Lots--with lots more in-stock*

A few days ago I visited one of the Big Lots local to me and saw the shelves stocked with about a dozen or so of the Talk Back animatronic ravens. So if you didn't get any last year, stock up this season.

Some video re-posts of what I did with mine:











And my whole 2013 Yard Haunt, featuring the ravens:


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## TheMonsterSquad (Oct 8, 2012)

My Big Lots doesn't have halloween in yet, but in the summer section I've seen talk back animatronic toucans! Might be fun for people doing pirate haunts.


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## Ghost of Spookie (Sep 28, 2008)

We had stopped by ours last week and I saw a bunch of the birds on the shelf. Did look like more than last year. My store wasn't fully set up by any means then but did have an aisle and maybe some end caps with halloween on it. Sure they have made more progress since then.


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## BIGANT (Jul 11, 2011)

Yup they have a lot more of these on the shelves this year but the price went up to 12 bucks this year but still a really good price!!!


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## DaveintheGrave (Feb 12, 2004)

I bought one raven last year, but he didn't work right. I still haven't tried to "operate" on him, though.


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