Every October, the Make: editorial Slack fills up with links. Someone posts a skeleton that carves pumpkins, someone else answers with a 30-foot marionette, and by Halloween we have a full haunted house worth of inspiration. Here are some of the builds that keep resurfacing in the channel, from animatronics and yard-scale puppets to costumes and creepy decor. Most come with build videos or write ups, so you can borrow an idea or two for next year.
1. Light-Up Modular Devil Horns by Anouk Wipprecht
Fashion-tech designer Anouk Wipprecht brings wearable tech to Halloween with these glowing devil horns. They’re 3D-printed in translucent PETG on a Prusa CORE One+, so the LEDs inside shine right through. An Arduino Nano powers the lights, and the design leaves room to grow: add a sensor and the horns can react to light, sound, movement, and more.
Get the files on Printables · Instagram: @anoukwipprecht
2. The Eldritch Horror by Brandon Hardy
When a storm destroyed the Halloween display he’d been planning for 2021, puppet designer and scenic artist Brandon Hardy gave himself three days to build a replacement. The result was the Eldritch Horror, a 30-foot-tall skeleton marionette looming over his yard. In photos on his site you can spot him standing underneath it for scale.
See the project · Instagram: @brandon.hardy.art
3. Pumpkin-Carving Skeleton by Dead On Design
This skeleton never finishes his jack-o’-lantern. Dead On Design’s version 2.0 build video covers everything from carving the foam to wiring the motors and designing the mechanisms. The carving arm runs on a car windshield-wiper motor, a home-haunter favorite, and a second motor turns the skull.
Most of the rest comes from the hardware store: plywood, 2x4s, XPS foam for the cutting board, and PVC pipe, plus heim joints, brake cable, and a flame-effect bulb inside the pumpkin. He also shares a PDF of build plans with measurements and wiring notes, which makes this one of the easiest projects here to replicate.
Watch the build · Instagram: @dead.on.design
4. The Halloween Watcher by Will Cogley
Animatronics maker Will Cogley built a robot whose eyes follow you around the room, which is exactly as unsettling as it sounds. His 8-minute video walks through the build, and he offers a free instructions and downloads pack for anyone who wants to make their own.
Watch the build · Instagram: @will_cogley
5. Beetlejuice Yard Display by Brandon Hardy
Hardy took a more polished approach for Halloween 2024, filling his yard with life-size puppets of the Maitlands, Lydia Deetz, and Betelgeuse. The showstopper was Betelgeuse riding a giant, two-headed sandworm that launched candy and fog from its mouth for trick-or-treaters to catch. His gallery is worth a close look for anyone interested in large-scale puppet fabrication.
See the gallery · Instagram: @brandon.hardy.art
6. Ghost Manor, New Orleans
At the corner of Magazine and Second Street in New Orleans, Ghost Manor puts on a haunted house show you watch from the sidewalk. Flying ghosts, singing skeletons, and dancing zombies perform parodies of Halloween tropes, music, movies, and theater, all driven by custom animatronics, lighting, and effects. The skeleton chorus performing “The Sound of Silence” is a standout.
The display aims to delight more than scare, and it has the trophies to show for it: Best Overall and Best Motion Prop at the 2023 Home Haunter Awards, plus an appearance on ABC’s The Great Halloween Fright Fight. Ghost Manor is back for the 2026 season.
Visit Ghost Manor · Instagram: @ghostmanornola
7. Rib Cage Lamp by Ira Morgan
SFX artist Ira Morgan’s anatomical rib cage lamp starts as a 3D print and gets hand-painted with realistic bone texture and shading. With a warm LED bulb inside, light glows through the ribs and throws dramatic shadows across the room. She shares her build process on Instagram, a good resource for anyone looking to level up their print finishing.
If you’d rather not make your own, she sells finished lamps to order through her shop, Morgan Creations.
See the lamp · Instagram: @iramorgan.fx
8. Articulated Bowser Tail by Tiffany Dean Cosplay
Australian cosplayer Tiffany Dean got so many questions about her Bowser costume’s swinging tail that she made a 22-minute tutorial on it. There are no electronics: the lifelike motion comes entirely from the structure.
Her build layers high-density 10 mm EVA foam, upholstery foam, and heavy non-stretch fabric, mounted on an old thrifted belt. A super-stretchy fabric sock covers the internal skeleton, and faux crocodile leather forms the scales. Read her materials notes before you shop. She bought three rolls of the faux leather and says she should have ordered four.
Watch the tutorial · Instagram: @tiffanydeancosplay
9. Roman Helmet from a Floormat by LostWax
Not every great costume starts at a specialty foam supplier. This Instructables project turns an ordinary rubber floormat into a Roman legionary’s helmet, with 32 photo-illustrated steps. It’s a great pick if you need a costume piece fast and want to work with what’s already in the garage.
Watch the tutorial · Read the Instructable
10. Garage-Built TIE Advanced x1 by Steve Can Make It
Not strictly Halloween, but it made the channel and we couldn’t resist. Steve built Darth Vader’s TIE Advanced x1 in his garage, starting from a small 3D-printed model and scaling it up into a full-size version. Using a tabletop print as a working reference is a smart trick for any oversized prop, and a great excuse for a very ambitious costume backdrop.
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