# What One Great Prop Or Decoration was a Hit and what One Missed???



## TheFletch (Aug 24, 2013)

My best is a homemade grudge girl sitting in a rocker, on the approach to the maze she looks innocent, but get a little closer…….lol 
Worst is my axworthy …just a pain in the ass…..but I will try again next year cause it looks great when it stays on.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrbI2CW8a64


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## Rumsfield (Dec 8, 2011)

I like the "hitchhiking ghost's" something like that would be awesome for my front yard as our street is a State Highway leading into Canada.


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## TheMonsterSquad (Oct 8, 2012)

I got the most comments on Zombie Invasion by AtmosFearFX rear projected in a window. Also a lot of comments on a creepy nursery with a ton of homemade creepy dolls, plus the jumping doll by seasonal visions and Lullaby by distortions. The worst effort to reward ratio was the homemade toe-pincher I had in my kitchen, with a corpsed bucky and cobwebs from a homemade webshooter. I thought it looked awesome but it didn't generate the comments I was hoping for and I worked quite a bit on everything that went into it, staining the coffin, painstakingly detailing the skeleton, etc. Next year I'm going to add some animation to it, as that is what seems to get the comments the most.


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## Wolfbeard (Sep 22, 2008)

The big hit this year was the AtmosFear FX Pumpkin Trio projection. We had it set up by the street on Halloween and then inside for our party this past Saturday. We got so many positive comments on this, it was clearly the big hit of both nights.

Eric


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## osenator (Nov 3, 2009)

2 great scares this year









Jumping Spider, in spider tunnrel









Lunching vampire in Coffin

Everyone screamed (L)


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## TK421 (Mar 27, 2009)

Everyone loved the new Pumpkin King I made. Lots of compliments.


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## kakugori (Aug 26, 2013)

Misfortune teller was definitely a hit, but I missed having my home built fortune teller booth - they'd go great with one at the entry and the other at the exit.

My Reaper of Souls is always a hit.

Our neighbor said his favorite was the "flying witch" we hang from a tree branch, silhouetted against the street light. One of the last things we bought from Spencer's, before they stopped carrying much Halloween stuff.

I got a Pumpkin Grypt o Spinner, thinking it'd be a cheesy indoor only prop and it turned out to be a hit. Very dark-ride reminiscent.

Miss: the stuff that didn't work, a pop-up reaper (classic Tekky issues) and our Eaten Alive. Those both didn't work last year, did just fine in the shop when it was time to fix them, and laid unmoving Halloween night - so irritating.

Miss: light strings. They went out about an hour in, and they are all along the fence to light the pathway. So, I was out re-stringing the fence with new lights in the middle of everything.


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## dbruner (Aug 23, 2012)

The most talked about item I put out was my skeleton dog from grand in road. I had him in the front yard attached to my skeleton, who was in a grungy old wheelbarrow.


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## frogkid11 (Aug 6, 2012)

The most talked about prop from this year was split between two new additions: 1) the Grandin Road Headless Horseman inside the covered bridge I made and 2) the Grandin Road Lady in Black standing at the end of the hallway holding a lit candleabra (scared people when they were on the way to the restroom - and one party goer wouldn't even go down the hall unless someone stood in front of the LIB or I moved her). LOL


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## hpond69 (Sep 12, 2012)

Our biggest hit was our Grim Reaper stalk around. The TOTs and parents both loved it Lots of pics taken with it .Probably the biggest miss for me was the Jack oLantern scarecrow I spent months making out of paper mache and paper clay. I wasn't able to display him like I wanted to because of wind and rain. Next year I'll waterproof him and find a better way to make him more sturdy


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## Serpentia (Sep 10, 2011)

Rumsfield said:


> I like the "hitchhiking ghost's" something like that would be awesome for my front yard as our street is a State Highway leading into Canada.


Someone who lives on Route 44 in MA ought to do a mockup of the infamous red-haired hitchhiking ghost; that would be a hoot. 

But then again, they might not want to tick him off; he seems like a genuinely scary ghost - so there's that.


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## DexterSinister (Aug 13, 2011)

I mentioned it elsewhere, but for this topic: AtmosfearFX's Jack-o-lantern Jamboree, three pumpkin projection was probably the big favorite, this year. UnLiving Portraits was kind of a miss - mostly because I made it a focus of the garage portion and hesitated to use it with the younger kids. A wtitches' cage for the little kids was supposed to have a witch actor - who turned out to be effectively a no-show, but it still made for a good photo op for the younger TOTs.


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## weeping angel (Oct 27, 2012)

Jollygorilla, I've saved a picture of your hitchhikers last year because my dream is to build up to a HM haunt one day. I'm disappointed for you that people don't notice them. I love them! 

Miss was that I didn't plan ahead to think of how to hang my ghosts up, so most of them were too high to activate the sensors. Hit was the singing animated skull and Hallowindows. We're planning on buying more singing pumpkin projections (Mr. Pumpkin King of the Funkin Arch and pumpkin animations will be hearing from us!).


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## Scatterbrains (Nov 16, 2008)

A lot of my stuff was a miss this year....as in, people missed it because they went too fast or were hiding their faces in the hoodie of the person in front of them. I'm glad I don't waste a lot of time adding details to something that only gets seen on Halloween. I don't truly know what people thought about specific props because I wasn't near the conversation. Hopefully one of my kids got pics because I only got a couple


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## jollygorilla (Oct 10, 2011)

You guys do amazing work.


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## CrystalRose (Jan 17, 2013)

The singing pumpkin projections were the big hit we had. People seemed amazed by them lol. Nothing was really a "miss" but of course there are things that don't get as much attention as others.


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## SatansPuppy (Oct 21, 2013)

My werewolf in a box was a hit and as for a miss i would have to say is my sound fx. I had bought 4 small portable speakers and 3 mp3 players ( had 1 already ) .Each section had its own sound , torture chamber, zombie baby nursery , spiders lair and werewolf prop . The problem is when our props went off, jumping spider , jumping zombie,ect they were so bloody loud it just took the atmosphere away. Next year i wanna see if I can somehow make them quieter.


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## Ragged Grin (Nov 5, 2012)

I had people stop and stare at "Patch" scarecrow for extended periods of time, poking each other from behind, etc.
"Twins" however...my personal favorite, a two faced pumpkin 'crow, barely got a mention.


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## doto (Nov 20, 2009)

My Pneumatic Demons in Uzzaths Underworld were a huge hit for those who entered our garage. We had about 40 kids who wouldn't venture up the driveway when they heard all the moans groans, screams animal sounds and rattling chains from the garage.



















My miss would be the witches cabinet.
I think this is because we predominantly get smaller TOT's without their parents at the front door. The TOTs tend to be overwhelmed a little at this point and are primarily focused on the evenings goal at this point....more candy


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## LT Scare (May 21, 2008)

New this year, we had lots of comments about the Roof Spider above the entrance ...









...but once again, a LOT of people were gathered around our Haunted Mansion singing busts most of the night:










(gotta remember to trim those mold beads next year)


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## Abunai (Jan 28, 2008)

Another nod to AtmosFearFX.

Our Zombie Invasion rear projection got the most comments, followed closely by our "The Birds" playground scene with crow soundtrack.

I was disappointed that more people didn't notice the "haunted house" scent that we added to the Froggy's Fog in our graveyard.


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## DavyKnoles (Dec 5, 2009)

My burning at the stake prop was a giant hit with the crowds, especially when I jumped on top of it. I mean, who _doesn't_ want to burn up a clown? But one of our team found some plans for a fog chiller, took on the task of building it, put it off, then he changed the design, put it together at the last minute and didn't test it. So, as might be expected, it was a total fail and we had no fog in the graveyard, only in the burning stake area. It's a shame too, because since the wind completely ceased once the sun set (Florida is often like that) ground fog would have looked amazing.


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