Strange things used in props

[Haunted Neurons]

A post by Otaku in another thread about using tampon tubes for zombie hands (LOL, I am not making any comments on that one!) prompted me to ask what kinds of things people have adapted to create their props or decorations. From the simple and ordinary to the rare or strange and everything in between. It might even give people some new ideas. Dont be afraid to post things you think everyone already knows about, like styrofoam for tombstones, some people like me are still in the learning phases. You dont have to be specific about how it was used, unless you want to or someone is curious and wants to know.

Bread dough for clay
Dryer lint for clay
Water noodles for giant spider legs
Plastic decortive planter for cauldron
Flyweel from 1980 VCR
Waterpump from squirtgun
Rod from lampstand
Blank X-Ray film

[BobC]

I bet Im the only one that dresses their props in underware.... :D Just kidding all that would be pretty morbid. :jol:

[slightlymad]

Vaccum cleaner motors

[Black Cat]

2 liter soda bottles- used for bulking out the legs on a PVC frame.
Wolfie :: Frame for wolfie. 2 liter soda bottles for legs attached to PVC. Foot frame is made from coat hangers and taped to soda bottles. Soda bottles filled with expanding foam. picture by troop134 - Photobucket

[Hellrazor]

what is the blank x-ray film for?

I use pumps from small fountains found at garage sales.
christmas lights in red and green to add atmosphere (like under/in cauldron)
broken tube from pressure sprayer to make hands
coat hangers for hands
PVC pipe for everything

[TearyThunder]

Since I do a more kid friendly display/haunt I have used a lot of things kids use. I have little tykes cars in my display with monsters driving them, kids dress up clothes on my dancing skelly. I also found a kids hair comb with colored hair to use as hair for the skelly. Basically if I have a silly off the wall idea, I run with it and use whatever I can find to make it work.

I would say my staple items are shopping bags, coat hangers, duct tape, quickcrete, wastebaskets, rebar, glueguns, wood and pvc.

[Haunted Neurons]

what is the blank x-ray film for?

I use pumps from small fountains found at garage sales.
christmas lights in red and green to add atmosphere (like under/in cauldron)
broken tube from pressure sprayer to make hands
coat hangers for hands
PVC pipe for everything


The film is stiff plastic sheeting. I made a facade one year and candy appears into a bowl after smoke clears from a fogger. I made a candy slide out of it by forming it into a U shape and spraying it with teflon. The slide was behind the facade where the tots couldnt see.

[Merlin (The Quiet One)]

Large plastic eggs
coat hangers
cardboard boxes
plastic votive holders
chicken wire
newpapers

[mrklaw]

Vaccum cleaner motors

What do you use vaccum cleaner motors for? I just bought one at a surplus store without knowing what it was. When I opened it up it was a vaccuum cleaner motor.

[IshWitch]

I think a dryer drum makes a great cauldron or hell hole!

[gypsichic]

we use alot of the same things

pvc for bodies and fence around graveyard
clothes hangers
duct tape
masking tape
packing foam for body filler
foam for tombstones
latex & unrolled cotton balls for making hands
great stuff
scrap wood
the cauldron is a large black plastic pot that a tree was planted in
windshield wiper motors
rotissorie motors
chicken wire
plastic sacks & newspaper for body filler
made a prop last year using a big tree limb that had fallen.......stuck in in a bucket of dirt and wrapped some lights around it and threw some spiderwebs on it