# Gemmy Xmas Light and Sound Show on Sale



## Ghost of Spookie (Sep 28, 2008)

BTW I went back to my post from 9/22/2009 when I picked up my unit from Frontgate and they had it on deep discount in the Nearly Gone category at $29 back then. Not sure if they will further reduce the units from the $59 price (the economy is a bit different from then) but thought I would mention it. In any event the $59 is still a good sale price compared to what the Gemmy units have been selling for lately during the holiday season or what you can find them for on Ebay. Back then shipping UPS 3-7 days was $8, now it would be $12 for me.


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## DoctorGrim (Oct 18, 2007)

Had my eye on this for awhile (for both xmas & halloween)

Thanks, I may take the plunge.

DD


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## Tumblindice (Aug 19, 2008)

I gotta tell you that I picked by 12 outlet one up at Sam's two years ago after Christmas for 24.99. I'd wait.


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## Ghost of Spookie (Sep 28, 2008)

Here's how I look at it. I decided to post what I paid when the unit got plunged into Frontgate's Nearly Gone category just so people knew that at one time Frontgate did sell it for even less than the $59. However, it's hard to say how many unit have to be left before they list it there, will they actually drop the price further and will you be around to see it when they do. I think most people also thought that the deep discounts kind of evaporated over this past year or so, so I hate to tell people to wait and then the opportunity never happens. I also doubt that Sam's Club or Costco (which also carried the product) will get these in again. It was a couple of years ago and I don't think I've ever seen these stores repeat the same thing.

BTW here's a listing from someone on Ebay that I found interesting. Obviously FG pulled the item from their regular catalog after season, counted inventory and has relisted it back on the website in the outlet/clearance section, unbeknownst to the seller (and chances are they bought their units at the Frontgate outlet store directly and selling to make a profit). Anyway you'd be way ahead buying from the FG website outlet area and paying their shipping charges directly. I'm not really seeing it being sold by anyone else now that the season has past. Places may have it listed still but they say out of stock.


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## ter_ran (Jan 14, 2006)

*Wow that is a good deal GOS! Thanks for sharing!

BTW: TD, I think you were lucky to find that 12 outlet because I looked at many stores to find this and it was either sold at 25% off reg price or soldout completely.. Its all about timing to tell you the truth! *


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## Eyegore (Aug 23, 2008)

Here's a coupon code for free shipping! XXW33969
ONLY WORKS ON GRANDIN ROAD SITE.


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## Xane (Oct 13, 2010)

I got the Halloween one at Target for $40 last year. They had a lot of them left.

Some people have complained that there's no output jack if you want to add more speakers... the solution is to use a Y splitter on the MP3 player. Depending on your setup you may even just leave the speaker on this thing way down and use your own speakers. Also, if you're using LED lights or other low powered items there should be no problem with using a cheap multi-outlet jack with this. I would not try this with higher wattage lights.


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## Ghost of Spookie (Sep 28, 2008)

*Frontgate Sale on Gemmy Xmas Lights And Sound Show*

Frontgate has the Gemmy Xmas Lights and Sound with mp3 connection on sale this Christmas. Now on sale for $49, down $10 from last year's Christmas sale pricing (see above). Hard to say if it will be further reduced after the holidays or not this year. EBay has some listed for quite a bit more. Frontgate's shipping is pretty reasonable too.

Here's the link: 

http://www.frontgate.com/holiday-music-26-light-machine/holiday-decor/holiday-sale/27235


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## halloween71 (Apr 22, 2007)

Thanks just ordered one.I got one a few years back and returned it due to it not working with my mp3 player.Hopefully it will work now.


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## mikeerdas (Jan 30, 2010)

*Video?*

Does anyone have video of this unit in action for Halloween? Not sure what it's capabilities are.


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## Ghost of Spookie (Sep 28, 2008)

I did see a few videos a while back on HF that were linked to in posts made here, but most videos seem to have been taken down. I did find this thread:

http://www.halloweenforum.com/halloween-props/71515-heads-up-gemmy-animated-light-show-4.html

...and the poster James_Dean_Melbatoast says he posted videos over on YouTube using his. I went to His account there (search under acemoland) and the two halloween videos labeled *Cool Front*... are the videos he described in his HF post above and it's listed in his YouTube description as the Gemmy Light Show. His later 2010 videos don't specify the system used. Sometimes the YouTube video poster will list what system he used in his light display, but most times not.

I found posts here on HF where people had posted videos of the Gemmy system used as a lightning and thunder controller and singing pumpkin display but as I mentioned unfortunately now just bad links. It's really sad so much of this stuff is lost to people still interested in it.

I will say that based on the posts I've seen there seems to be a number of HF members who have/had these Gemmy light and sound shows (both xmas and hallown versions), and hopefully someone else can post links to videos they might still have up somewhere.


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## Ghost of Spookie (Sep 28, 2008)

_*Your best bet to see videos of the unit in displays would be to do a YouTube search for "gemmy light show timer" and "gemmy light show halloween" and look through some of the videos of displays, hacks, and explanations of set up which people have posted.*_ BTW you don't have to run off an mp3, people have shared how they've used a CD player and speaker sets to connect using the mp3 (auxillary) input.

Keep in mind the box doesn't dim lights it just turns them on and off to the music. If you take some time and get a few good songs and plan out your lights you can get a decent show out of it. Just watch your wattage load (get more lights with LEDs).

There's a HSN YouTube video from 2008 a few pages into the search results of a "gemmy light show timer" that explains the very 6-plug system that is on sale at Frontgate in fact. If you've never seen a product demo of it on the Gemmy site you might find this helpful as well (you have to sit through the host and bubbly co-host though! but the host goes over the various aspects of what's part of the system and what options it gives you).


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## mikeerdas (Jan 30, 2010)

Ghost of Spookie said:


> _*Your best bet to see videos of the unit in displays would be to do a YouTube search for "gemmy light show timer" and "gemmy light show halloween" and look through some of the videos of displays, hacks, and explanations of set up which people have posted.*_ BTW you don't have to run off an mp3, people have shared how they've used a CD player and speaker sets to connect using the mp3 (auxillary) input.
> 
> Keep in mind the box doesn't dim lights it just turns them on and off to the music. If you take some time and get a few good songs and plan out your lights you can get a decent show out of it. Just watch your wattage load (get more lights with LEDs).
> 
> There's a HSN YouTube video from 2008 a few pages into the search results of a "gemmy light show timer" that explains the very 6-plug system that is on sale at Frontgate in fact. If you've never seen a product demo of it on the Gemmy site you might find this helpful as well (you have to sit through the host and bubbly co-host though! but the host goes over the various aspects of what's part of the system and what options it gives you).


Thanks Spookie!


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## mikeerdas (Jan 30, 2010)

*How does it actually work?*

<deleted>

Will check the other thread for hacks and how it works like you suggested Spookie.


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## mikeerdas (Jan 30, 2010)

Didn't see much in the way of hack info. So would it be powered using a MIDI cable? I just can't imagine that piping MP3s in would do much. If there are 6 separate channels, is it filtering by frequency ranges? How are people getting these particular Gemmy units to do singing pumpkin shows? (quite cool by the way!). The people in this video mention MIDI, but I don't know if they're using the Gemmy:






On the way home from work I checked Lowes Hardware and Home Depot. Most of the Christmas stuff was gone. No Gemmy units. Was hoping I could just pick one up locally so I could easily return it if I didn't like it. Also, there appear to be 12 channel Gemmy units out there as well. I did see one hack turning a 6 outlet into a 12, but that didn't actually add more channels as far as I could tell.


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## Ghost of Spookie (Sep 28, 2008)

I am not technical at all, but as I understand it the Gemmy Lights and Sound Show box (with timer and mp3 input) is a color organ and has 6 channels that respond to frequency ranges. From what I believe I understand from the various web posts and videos on this product, the Gemmy 12-plug set up is really just a 6-plug channel that gets repeated on the second box, so effectively doesn't give you any additional frequencies. I guess it's purpose was to add additional convenience plugs for people's light strands. When this product came out lighting was incandescent and had higher wattage--more choices these days. It is not a replacement for a LOR system, doesn't have the price tag or learning curve of one, and is geared towards a quick plug and play lighting set up to music for the average home consumer.

Here's a site that you might find helpful: http://wolfstone.halloweenhost.com/ColorOrgans/cloint_ColorOrgan.html

I guess depending upon the volume of the frequencies, it does dim or brighten the light. Think I said I thought it was just on/off blinking, which would be incorrect.

Some of the alternative uses beyond holiday light show, like lightning and singing pumpkins, might have been mentioned on HF when I was originally doing a search. I'm sure people have also commented on how to add an FM transmitter to it as well. A Google search of "Gemmy color organ" might also be helpful. *UPDATE: If you are looking for how to hook up an FM transmitter to a Gemmy lightshow, I just saw a pretty thorough YouTube video posted this November by "oakland 124781" unfortunately I don't see the URL to Link to it.

I see that this thread has now been moved from the Props to Discounts Section. The discussion of its use really belongs under the Props/Lighting section so if you have more questions you might want to start a thread there or bump up a previous thread if it applies. I bought my Gemmy unit a few years back and just picked up more carve-able pumpkins last year to work on a singing pumpkin set up--still a project in the works.


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## mikeerdas (Jan 30, 2010)

Ghost of Spookie said:


> I am not technical at all, but as I understand it the Gemmy Lights and Sound Show box (with timer and mp3 input) is a color organ and has 6 channels that respond to frequency ranges. From what I believe I understand from the various web posts and videos on this product, the Gemmy 12-plug set up is really just a 6-plug channel that gets repeated on the second box, so effectively doesn't give you any additional frequencies. I guess it's purpose was to add additional convenience plugs for people's light strands. When this product came out lighting was incandescent and had higher wattage--more choices these days. It is not a replacement for a LOR system, doesn't have the price tag or learning curve of one, and is geared towards a quick plug and play lighting set up to music for the average home consumer.
> 
> Here's a site that you might find helpful: http://wolfstone.halloweenhost.com/ColorOrgans/cloint_ColorOrgan.html
> 
> ...


Thanks again Spookie. Nice link on color organs. Wonder if I should grab the Gemmy from FrontGate now or see if it comes down in price somewhere after Christmas. Thing is, I don't know of any being sold in retail stores in my area. And haven't seen any other of this model online.


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## mikeerdas (Jan 30, 2010)

*Front Gate promo code?*

Anyone got a Front Gate promo code that would give free shipping or 20% off? Found a few on the web but they don't seem to work.


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## mikeerdas (Jan 30, 2010)

*Free standard shipping by signing up for Front Gate's Preferred Email Registry*

I got free standard shipping from Front Gate by signing up for the Preferred Email Registry. Within 24 hours (overnight for me), they send you a link for free standard shipping via email. Good deal for me because standard shipping on the Gemmy was going to be $12. So I took the plunge and ordered.

Figure I can't go wrong here. If nothing else, I could use it as a modest lightning machine. But I'm determined to play with it to see if I can control its individual channels. Should be able to plug the audio out from my laptop into the Gemmy, load up a free tracker program and a free VSTi synth plug-in. Then just mess with it real time to see what frequency ranges the Gemmy responds to.

Really like the idea of getting into Christmas. Because in the buckle of the bible belt here, Halloween in my neighborhood seems to be tolerated for One Night Only. I got rained out this year so that was a huge disappointment. Still managed to put on a display though. But not many TOTs braved the weather.


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