Amazing Haunt - Self Built Dark Ride

As you may well know, Dark Rides are darkened amusement park type rides where riders in guided vehicles move through typically a theme based scenario.  Some of my favorite dark rides are:

Disney's Haunted Mansion

Mr Toad's Wild Ride (no longer)

Pirates Of The Caribbean

Snow White's Scary Adventures

I mean gosh here is Disneyland's Snow White entrance:

Wow, doesnt Disney do it good?

Well there are some folks in our Haunting culture that really do it great!  I got the 2011 Home Haunter DVD Collection and came across this one guy doing a smashing job on his own dark ride.  Tons of animatronics and lighting.  It requires a lot of electrical control and instrumentation which is my original background with 16 years of engineer electrical control and instrumentation at Kennedy Space Center on the space shuttle. I simply love this stuff. 

You have to see this, both the ride with some cute kids and then the backstage videos:

Here is the backstage pass:

The cars are driven by a simple portable drill motor and battery.  Good for 3 trips and then they change them out (trip counter built into the buggy)

Amazing, this guy easily has $75- $100K into this..... take a look!

New Plan For Spooky Tree

Found this tree and owl outline decal for a spooky tree on Amazon.  I think this is what I am going to use for my 2012 Halloween Set Design in lieu of the tree I had planned on originally.  I will project the image onto plywood and cut that with jigsaw or saber saw.  Then finish off the plywood with monster mud for texture and a dark gray paint with brownish highlights with a dry brush.

I really like this, its somewhat Dave Lowe-ish in design.   Maybe put some LED eyes in on the OWL and have MP3 player playing back night time sounds with crickets and occasional Owl hoot.

Gee I really gotta get going on these projects!

Funny Cat Pics...

Ok I like cats and dogs, but we have three of the feline oriented furry devils.   I have posted about them before with the problems of lack of sleep that they cause.   But I do enjoy their antics and behaviors during daytime non-sleeping hours.  

So I have stolen from Queen Of Darkness blog several funny cat pics.  This probably certifies that I am strange.

Mmm Eastery Goodness

Kelly at Queen Of Darknessblog posted smart idea of delicious goodness... called Bunny Bait.

She also posted scenario of having a trap of sorts with the bunny bait and stuffed rabbit. But got me thinking what Dave Lowe would do? And who would be setting the trap? Leprauchan? Coyote from the Roadrunner cartoons?

Whats even more amazing I didnt know that Orville Redenbacher made a "TENDER" popcorn.