Entries Tagged '2007 $20 Prop Contest' ↓

Well, procrastination didn’t do me any favors this time unfortunately. Turns out I only have 7% of the vote so far. That represents one of thirteen total votes. Thankfully, it wasn’t me who voted for myself, although I’m not sure who did. Admittedly, with more time I would have done a much better job on my prop. He definitely needs a makeover before Halloween. It was a learning experience though, and got me in the mood for prop building and Halloween decorating quite nicely.

I can’t imagine that I’ll reap any more votes by the deadline (or that anyone else will for that matter), but I had a great time, and am glad to have a new prop this early in the year.

Well, as of Thursday night at midnight, the $20 Prop contest is officially over. I have submitted my entry, and am now waiting for the results. I must congratulate my other worthy opponents, as everyone did a great job.

My final price came out to $16.61, broken down as such:

Fake fur (1 yard)…………………………………….$1.50 (on sale from Joann Fabric
9 gauge multi use wire (12.5 feet)…………………$2 (1/4 of a 50 foot roll for $8 from Lowe’s)
Newspaper (1/4 of the Sunday LA Times)…………$.25
Pool noodles (2)……………………………………….$2.58 (Big!Lots)
PVC (10′) and elbows…………………………………$6 (Lowe’s)
Wallpaper paste (1/4 box)…………………………..$.80 (Lowe’s)
Hot glue (5 sticks)…………………………………….$.50
Blow mold skull……………………………………….$.99 (Big!Lots)
Blow mold hands and feet…………………………..$.99 (Big!Lots)
Bouncy ball eyeballs………………………………….$.50 (Target)
Brown and black tempra paint……………………….$.50 (Teacher supply store)

The first entry in the contest was from ghostie, and was a crypt door. It’s built out of foam, which is very cool since I’m trying to figure out foam fabrication currently:

The second entry was from Naturepixie, and was a creepy tree stump, or “Pillar of Souls” as concenses determined it to be. An amazing amount of detail went into this, just take a look at the tears on one of the faces:

And now, to reveal my own submission, the flying monkey. I feel ok about it, although I am bummed that the shoulders turned out extremely boxy. I’ll probably take him apart and rework that shoulders before Halloween:

And that’s it. You will notice that the cat is not at all scared of this thing…maybe some creepy lighting would help.

So I finally took the initiative and started working on the head for my $20 Halloween prop. I was pretty intimidated by the thought of trying to make a one dollar plastic skull into a monkey head, but it actually worked pretty well. I started out trying to use modeling clay, but it was extremely heavy and wasn’t shaping up the way I wanted. It turns out that a little bit of newspaper and masking tape works great to build up a monkey jaw. Amazing, no? Oh, and cardboard makes pretty good monkey ears. I’m going to give it a few coats of paint tonight, then will add some monkey fur to the parts that are supposed to be furry after that dries. Anyway, enough jibba jabba, here’s a picture:

The pool noodle build out is proceeding as planned. I have cut the pieces to fit, but need to glue the PVC skeleton together before permanently affixing the foam. Once the foam is secured, the fake fur and maybe some paper mache will come into the picture and hopefully make this guy looks like what he’s supposed to look like. We’ll see…hehe. Anyone have any great ideas on attaching fake fur to pool noodles?

Alright, so I’m making good progress with my $20 prop contest entry. I got a good hour of work in tonight, and am ready to start building it out. I’m still not saying what it is, but you are welcome to guess. You probably won’t get it though, so HA! When you see the finished product, I think you’ll be pretty pleased. I hope so anyway…

Yeah, so check out some preliminary pics:

If you’re curious, after reading my materials list for the $20 prop contest, I have a hint for you. If you have been following my posts on Halloween-L, you may indeed be able to put the pieces together and figure out what exactly I’m making. If not, you’ll see soon enough.

So, without further hesitation or babble, here is your hint. A big part of my prop (possibly even the defining feature) will be much like the skeleton marionette wings here on Vile Things.

Does that help at all? If not, keep checking back to see my progress. I finished the wire skeleton for my wings last night, and am going to try and build them up tonight. Hopefully I’ll have some good pics to share soon.

Halloween-L is having a $20 prop contest. Basically what that means is that you have to make the best Halloween prop for $20 or less. Whoever wins gets some kind of prize, and the coveted title of “Miss/Mr. $20 Prop Contest 2007.” Needless to say, I signed up.

This here is my first post in the contest. Technically it’s supposed to end on May 1, 2007, but it’s looking like there may be an extension. Anyway, this is my list of materials:

• Fake fur (2 yards)…………………………………….$3 on sale from Joann Fabric
• 9 gauge multi use wire (12.5 feet)…………………$2 (1/4 of a 50 foot roll for $8 from Lowe’s)
• Newspaper (1/2 of the Sunday LA Times)…………$.50
• Pool noodles (2)……………………………………….$2.58 (Big!Lots)
• PVC (10′) and elbows…………………………………$8 (Lowe’s)
• Wallpaper paste (1/2 box)…………………………..$1.75 (Lowe’s)
• Hot glue (5 sticks)…………………………………….$.50
• Blow mold skull……………………………………….$.99 (Big!Lots)
• Bouncy ball eyeballs………………………………….$.50 (Target)

So that’s my parts list. The total comes to $19.82, so hopefully I won’t need anything else. I have started building, but have a long way to go.

Oh, and no I’m not telling you what it’s going to be. You’ll have to guess.