Not all store-bought props are bad. In fact, I quite like a lot of them. I’m only buying a few things this year, but this ghost from Target had to be one of them. All by herself, she’s pretty cool. She has a fire/ice lighting effect, and makes good sounds. And this from someone who usually hates sound in Halloween props.
Of course, she needed a little help.
First off, she only had two settings: OFF or SENSOR. That means she could only turn on via the motion sensor. I looked up how to bypass the sensor, and the posts were all ‘solder this,’ and ‘short-circuit that.’ I went for something a little simpler. Since I knew she’d be in motion all the time, I found her sensor, and hung a little piece of balsa in front of it.
It has enough play that it moves with her, and activates the sensor on a regular basis. Usually 10 seconds or less.
Why is she moving? The owner of the place we’re renting left an oscillating fan for us. I stopped the oscillation, and tipped the fan on to the floor. I just had to shorten some of her shroud so it would pick up the air better.
Add a blacklight, and it’s happy prop time!
The light effect doesn’t show up well on video, but trust me, she’s lovely. I may put her in a downstairs window to take advantage of her sound effects.
I love her!
You are a genius, mdear! She is quite lovely, blowing in the wind.