It all started with needing a body that could take the violent shaking motion of the General's Electric Chair. We used an inflatable mannequin that the manager at Party City was nice enough to sell to us for $5. You can also purchase these inflatable mannequins on the web. They come in different sizes and this manequin is a 58" child size. An adult size small Con Man costume fits it perfectly. Since its filled with air, it is lightweight and can really take the jolting of the chair's mechanism.
While making the rounds early in the season this year, I found a talking head candy dish made by those wonderful folks at Gemmy (who also made the Douglas Fir Singing Christmas Tree). I just knew it would make a great head for the E-chair dummy. Brother Lu disconnected the head from the dish intact with all of the electronics, and mounted it with PVC (painted black) to the back of the chair (Figure 2). This way, the head stays still while the body shakes around. Its more effective that way. We put a wig on him to hide the PVC mounted to the chair in back of the head, but decided it wasn't necessary after we had the prop positioned. You really can't see it when you look at him straight on. Brother Lu wanted to control when and what the dummy says so he rigged the "try me" button to the back of the chair. The "try me" button when manually operated, will make the dummy talk/moan. When he talks, his eyes shift from left to right. His lips do not move at all; that's where the motion sensor is located so we covered his lips with a piece of duct tape. We were able to find both left and right arms to fit the dummy and although the arm's skin color varies from the face's color, its not so noticeable with the right lighting. We taped the shirt sleeves to the elbows of the severed arms.
The inflatable mannequin body is duct taped to the PVC that's connected to the drill in the bottom of the E-chair and there is a thin string that is tied around the lap area to keep the dummy in a sitting position. The costume shirt is slipped over the whole thing. The body shakes; the head stays put.
A fog machine is connected to another piece of PVC with holes drilled throughout and is located behind the chair. This is what "smokes" when the prop is triggered.
-Horrorencia |
