How-To: World’s scariest Halloween prop

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How-To: World’s scariest Halloween prop
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Forget cheesy yard tombstones, evil cackling pop-up witches, or ghosts that fly down from on top of the porch. Todd Harrison has put dual 110-decibel automobile horns inside his jack-‘o-lantern, which features a cute red button nose and buck-toothed smile to throw people off from how diabolical it truly is. And here’s the really wicked part: The horn is on a delay. Pushing the button causes the eyes to light up immediately, so the little tykes think, “Hey, neat, a pumpkin with light-up eyes,” and then go on about their tyke-y business, at least for a few seconds before the dual 110-decibel automobile horns go off and leave them traumatized for life. Genius! There’s video on Todd’s site. [via Hack a Day]

Update: Turns out this whole idea originated right here at Make: Online with one of Marc’s 2008 How-to Tuesday columns. So the evil genius has been in our midst all this time and I didn’t even know it. Sorry, Marc, and thanks for tossing me a clue!

Make: Halloween Contest 2009

Microchip Technology Inc. and MAKE have teamed up to present to you the Make: Halloween Contest 2009! Show us your embedded microcontroller Halloween projects and you could be chosen as a winner.

4 thoughts on “How-To: World’s scariest Halloween prop

  1. XsavioR says:

    Just an idea but i bet more pants would be soiled if the horns came from behind (like carefully run into a bush behind the user), But this is great. Make should host a contest for the best movie of random trick or treaters being scared by our devices. As much as I love making devices I think a bunch of movies seeing little kids being taught not to press innocent looking red buttons would be worth the effort.

  2. Anonymous says:

    In my side, I don’t know how to do and how to wear on Halloween. I have no time and my budget is limited. I prefer upload my own picture and send it out to friends and family with a message as a greeting on Halloween at http://www.halloween-2009.net/halloween-eeek-card.html

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I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I am a long-time contributor to MAKE magazine and makezine.com. My work has also appeared in ReadyMade, c't – Magazin für Computertechnik, and The Wall Street Journal.

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