Halloween 2022 Automaton

You may be sweltering on the beach, desperately slapping on sunscreen, trying to stay cool and hydrated. BUT there's something you should know: it's only 5 and a half weeks to the start of October! Where I live, that is the traditional time to start putting up Halloween decorations.

To be honest, I wasn't going to bother making an automaton for our front yard this year. Until, that is, I told my wife - she grabbed me by the arm (makes a change from grabbing me by the neck!), looked me in the eye and said "BUT YOU MUST!!!". Apparently a very elderly Japanese neighbor has been trekking half a mile up a steep hill every morning on the off chance that we've put our Halloween decorations up (in August!!!). So, I've spent the last couple of weeks dreaming up what to do to please my one and only local fan.

What I've come up with is a motorized, aerial chase scene, called 'Who's spooking who?'

It's set in the graveyard of Sinister Ministers church in Little Snoring, in Boring county.

He's, rather unwisely, come out to investigate what's causing all the noise in his graveyard. Bearing a torch in one hand and a crucifix in the other, just in case. 

The aerial chase is pretty simple and based on a crank slider. The direction of the chase will change every day - so the spookers become the spooked. The cast will also change every other day - starting off with conventional Halloween characters (ghost, witch, grim reaper, etc) and evolving to spooky UFO's and some pretty crazy characters by the week of Halloween.

I'll be keeping you posted as work progresses, so stay tuned....