# Build a creepy ticket booth from old shipping pallets



## dudeamis (Jul 26, 2010)

I love it! just another thing to add to this years build list lol


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## CycloneJack (Jun 30, 2011)

So good! You hit the nail on the head with that build! Looks creepy authentic. Like a carnival of horrors come to life!


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## Guest (Nov 10, 2011)

That looks so cool. I love it!


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## creeeepycathy (Jul 12, 2011)

wow! that's pretty danged awesome.


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## keithcorcoran (Sep 29, 2010)

super easy to make. honestly.

hope to see someone create one of thse and post photos.


now if i could just win that contest i'd really be happy. :-D


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## jonnyci (Mar 1, 2011)

That is awesome! Great Tutorial too.


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## keithcorcoran (Sep 29, 2010)

FREAKIN' SWEET!

My wife and I took Grand Prize in the MAKE Halloween2011 contest.

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/11/2011-make-and-craft-halloween-contest-winners.html

SO PSYCHED!
thanks everyone for following this year's build progress and making this a fun place to sharethis kind of stuff.


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## MobileMayhem (Mar 9, 2007)

Frigging Awesome!!!!


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## Ghost of Spookie (Sep 28, 2008)

Congrats on winning the Grand Prize, that is awesome looking and you gave one of the clearest laid out sets of directions. Thanks for the link. 

So what was the Grand Prize? And will you be featured in the printed magazine. If so, would love to know what issue. Nice job guys!


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## relics (Oct 28, 2009)

This is an awesome build and we want to share this with all our readers! We will be publishing a link to the Make article on HauntersDigest.com Prop Tutorials! Great work!


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## TWISTEDUK (Jun 15, 2009)

This is the best booth, I've seen so fair. very cool design and great paint job.


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## Diaval (Oct 19, 2009)

keithcorcoran said:


> FREAKIN' SWEET!
> 
> My wife and I took Grand Prize in the MAKE Halloween2011 contest.
> 
> ...



I know I am replying to an old post, but I was scouring the forum for ideas as I would like to branch into a carnival theme. Since circus props are related, I decided to go through this very long thread. There were many good ideas I had come across and many fantastic props built. However, thusfar I am 22 pages into this thread and the prop that grabbed me the most was this ticket booth.

This is like WOW...amazing, and built with recycled material to boot! I have seen other booths, nicely made ones, but THIS one looks like the real deal. I see that you won an award for it as well...rightly so.

I was looking over the instructions for this and I probably could pull it off, but the question is storage...where would I put such a thing. But for a carnival / circus theme, this is definitely a must build.

In a word...OUTSTANDING!

Geo


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## keithcorcoran (Sep 29, 2010)

jukingeo said:


> I was looking over the instructions for this and I probably could pull it off, but the question is storage...where would I put such a thing. But for a carnival / circus theme, this is definitely a must build.


I'm still subscribed so I see replies and try to reply when someone comments.

Thanks for the compliment,

As for storage, if you build this using the instruction on the MAKE site I created this thing folds flat and takes up about the size of leaving two interior doors against the wall in your garage (36 wide x 82 high x 6-10 inches deep)

Using the hinges on the inside with pins makes it super easy to set up and tear down.

Let me know if you have any questions if you decide to build it.

I might be considering selling mine too if anyone is interested in Northeast Ohio (or nearby). Shoot me a msg. Probably about 200 bucks I'm thinking. An extra $50 for a lighted topper sign (since I sold the original one last year.)

Believe it or not, I'm not sure I'm going to do any decorating this year.

Thanks.

k.


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## Diaval (Oct 19, 2009)

keithcorcoran said:


> I'm still subscribed so I see replies and try to reply when someone comments.
> 
> Thanks for the compliment,


Your Welcome .



> As for storage, if you build this using the instruction on the MAKE site I created this thing folds flat and takes up about the size of leaving two interior doors against the wall in your garage (36 wide x 82 high x 6-10 inches deep)
> 
> Using the hinges on the inside with pins makes it super easy to set up and tear down.


I have not read Make article fully as of yet, but naturally, I did save it. As for the property, I do my Halloween events at my parents house. I have been out of that location for a couple years now, but I have already built up a reputation as "The Magic Mirror" house. So I was very hesitant to move it. The house does have a garage, but there is a car in it and its loaded with my Dad's stuff. Same goes for the shed. I been storing most of the items in the basement, and I am already getting the leary eyes from my Dad that I am taking up so much room in his house.

Anyway, it was only the past week or so that I started to think about Halloween and I wanted to start heading towards some kind of theme. Given that I like amusement parks and fairs and I have chosen to expand my display into a series of stations rather than a traditional walkthrough, I figured I would go with a carnival theme. This will be a 2 to 3 year process though. Somewhere along those lines I would like to build the ticket booth. At the same time though, three years from now, I more then likely would need a separate storage facility.




> Let me know if you have any questions if you decide to build it.


I probably will not do it this year. It was just something that caught my eye when looking through the carnival / circus threads. What I need are more scares. Up to now, I have never done a Halloween with scares. I just had the Magic Mirror and Singing Pumpkins of which, both I am going to use this year. I have a jumping spider I got from Spirit's after Halloween sale last year, so that is one scare down. I am thinking of adding another for this year such as a Monster In A Box or a vortex cannon. 

Another thing I wanted to do is have a laughing clown (probably not this year), very similar to the laughing lady (Laffing Sal) that used to be in front of the dark ride in older amusement parks. That in itself is an ambitous construction. I had thought of marrying your ticket booth design WITH the laughing clown could make a nice way to 'greet' TOT's when they first enter the display. 

Well, Halloween is still a ways off and there is plenty of time, that is why I start thinking of it this early. July is my 'planning' month. August and September, I build. October is the setup.



> I might be considering selling mine too if anyone is interested in Northeast Ohio (or nearby). Shoot me a msg. Probably about 200 bucks I'm thinking. An extra $50 for a lighted topper sign (since I sold the original one last year.)


Well, I am no where near Ohio and I would like to build this myself. BUT, I might look you up to make up a sign for me. 



> Believe it or not, I'm not sure I'm going to do any decorating this year.



Really? Why? (If you don't mind my asking).

Have a good evening,

Geo


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## keithcorcoran (Sep 29, 2010)

I originally planned the ticket booth as a popup scare but I ran out of time to wire up a sensor with a pop up mechanism, sound and a light inside so I just shoved in that zombie after rigging his waist up to a thrift store shiatsu massager. 

Horrible video quality after starting to tear down after Halloween but you get the idea...







As for getting me to do something for you.. no problem.. I'm back and forth visiting my brother in Queens at least once or twice a year so I can meet you off the LIE and deliver whatever you need. (Dropped off some sideshow banners I painted to a guy last year.)


As for decorating... I'm at the storage tipping point myself and anything I want to do, I need to make room for because the things I want to do are BIG. 

I have been wanting to make a mini-tennis ball shooting gallery out of my garage like a carnival game for a while now but just can't get started on it.

I sold my funhouse sign, giant clown head and rocking clown to a local semi-pro-haunt so I need to build some new things.

Losing my job last Feb wasn't great although I'm keeping above water with freelance work. The issue is time. It takes a lot more hours to keep the bills paid when freelancing and I just can't find much time to think about halloween, let alone build anything.

You never know though.. I could find a job before the fall and build something sick in a month like I did with this carnival setup. 

Never say never. 


Glad I could inspire you!


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## Diaval (Oct 19, 2009)

Hello Keith,

Sorry I didn't reply back sooner, but I must of lost track of my posts. In addtion a few days after your last post, I ended up in the hospital and was there for four days. I had some minor chest pains and my doctor had me go into emergency. As it turned out everything with my heart was fine, but I had some kind of virus. I was put on heavy medication for a month and I really didn't think much about the projects I was doing. As it is the virus came about because I was being overworked at my job. So I am taking it a bit easy now and I am not planning any major builds this year for either Halloween or Christmas.




keithcorcoran said:


> I originally planned the ticket booth as a popup scare but I ran out of time to wire up a sensor with a pop up mechanism, sound and a light inside so I just shoved in that zombie after rigging his waist up to a thrift store shiatsu massager.




Horrible video quality after starting to tear down after Halloween but you get the idea...





[/QUOTE]

A popup scare would have been great, but the zombie turned out fine! I like the clown face entry way. Believe it or not Spirit Halloween is using something similar this year when you enter their store. I am going to look to snatch it up on the day after sale. Granted it isn't as nice as your clown face. But it looks good.

Here a picture is worth 1000 words:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3UON0p55oU

Scroll in to 1:10 

Pretty cool, huh? The eyes have spinning spiral disks in them. The only bad thing is that it is cardboard, so it will not stand up to wind or rain (usually something we get an abundance of in October. In fact last year, for Halloween we got a hurricane).




> As for getting me to do something for you.. no problem.. I'm back and forth visiting my brother in Queens at least once or twice a year so I can meet you off the LIE and deliver whatever you need. (Dropped off some sideshow banners I painted to a guy last year.)


Sounds good...not for this year, but I will keep it in mind for next year. As it is, I am thinking of retiring the Magic Mirror for a couple years since this is the fourth year I am going to do it. I want to put a laughing clown in the vestibule for next year. In fact it is the video above at 1:38. The one sitting in the chair. I intend to pick one up at 50% off day after Halloween sale. So this way I will have it already for next year.

That ticket booth would go great by the front gate and I DID think about putting the Magic Mirror in there to use as an automated greeter. But I got to thinking that kids who are used to seeing the Magic Mirror might think that is the point candy will be given out. It might cause confusion. So I am on the fence as to what I would put IN the ticket booth.



> As for decorating... I'm at the storage tipping point myself and anything I want to do, I need to make room for because the things I want to do are BIG.


I have stuff in two places and I am at the point I really CAN'T do anything that big.



> I have been wanting to make a mini-tennis ball shooting gallery out of my garage like a carnival game for a while now but just can't get started on it.


That sounds like a cool idea. I don't think I would have any games at first but more sideshow stuff, perhaps an interactive prop or two.



> I sold my funhouse sign, giant clown head and rocking clown to a local semi-pro-haunt so I need to build some new things.


Oh, bummer! Those pieces were really cool.



> Losing my job last Feb wasn't great although I'm keeping above water with freelance work. The issue is time. It takes a lot more hours to keep the bills paid when freelancing and I just can't find much time to think about halloween, let alone build anything.
> 
> You never know though.. I could find a job before the fall and build something sick in a month like I did with this carnival setup.


Yeah, losing a job is no fun. I was in a tight squeeze myself when my prior job the work just became less and less. It came to a point I was only bringing $300 a week home and I can't support a wife and kids on that. So I ended getting a job fixing games for the local Chuck E Cheese. But unlike the last job, I am not treated well. The pay isn't bad as I am keeping afloat, but it isn't great either. However, the workload is very heavy. So as of now I am urging my wife to find work as I want to look for something else myself.



> Never say never.


Nope, I usually dont.



> Glad I could inspire you!


Thanks. I was kicking around a couple of themes. But the Evil Carnival was up there. The other theme I always wanted to do was a mad lab. In fact I have quite a few props for that already. The mad lab could be something I might incorporate into the evil carnival theme. Could be something that might explain the freaks at the sideshow >:}.


Have a good evening and if we don't chat before Halloween...have a Happy Halloween!

Geo


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