BEST anamatronic/pneumatic??

[legendsofthefog]

I was researching some old threads and was surprised that I didn't see this one... there was only one that said "say no to animatronics." But I disagree to an extent. As we all know, there are tons of animated and pneumatic devices that we use for tools. Some are built to have a huge WOW factor... some are great for the surprise. What types of animations are not available that you would like to see?

My favorites: the Train from St. Louis 2010 (not sure which vendor) that we don't have.
Our self-made falling-wall and pot rack
Best quick scare: air blasters & ankle ticklers
Wild Card: Bayou room in the darkness

What I haven't seen: Other than train horns... various sounding noise makers.

what's your list?

[Jim Warfield]

Animatronics don't scare .

I was told at the first Transworld I attended...?? Mine did. I made them. I saw a great many people expressing fear as those items went to "work" within my haunted house.
My Micro-Waved Hampster would pop open the micro-wave door, enter the kitchen, all the lights on...the customers would be looking, anticipating because he would just keep coming out of that small box!
Then he would lift & turn towards them swiftly!
This worked to scare.
My long, black, slimey tenticle (with "suckers")coming from a hole in the wall of the wine cellar scared many also, since that was the LAST place most would ever expect to see such a thing.
Neat thing was if someone looked into his hole, you would see just a hole about 3 feet long then solid dirt.
He would drop down, from above, turn horizontal come out through the hole in the rocks,then be in the wine cellar, then turn upwards and to the right, and sometimes "Slap" the metal manacle hanging from the stone wall! If a customer of two hadn't seen him by then the metal against rock noise would make them turn and look-screams would follow.(I have this on video from Peoria-PBS)
My Crawl-space display scares almost no one but everyone thinks it's neat, I make jokes about it and have a few stories to relate concerning it too.
Unfortunately the Tenticle has been broke for now many years and when I tried to remove it from it's location to fix it I got broke for awhile, pulling muscles, ex cetra.
The Hampster just needs minor re-adjusting which I have not gotten around to doing, my Wife Jessica fixed it last time.

[Soul Reaper]

The Haunted Train Car I worked for has a train horn on the wall in the back hallway just as you step through the door. As you go though the door you see a strob light and hear a trian taking off over the sound system, as the door closes behind you the behind the scenes guy turns off the strob, and at the same time he turns on this blinding light at the end of the hall and sounds the train horn. You can hear people screaming from inside the car. LMAO Its has made people hit the floor, run backwards, and pee there pants. It is one of the best parts of the haunt and everyone seems to love it.

[Jim Warfield]

The Train-Thing

Really worked extremely well in Clinton, Iowa for the JCs since they were using an old railroad station right next to the tracks for their house and were walking customers across the real tracks when they did a similair effect.
Yes they did.

[Allen H]

the original electric chair from distortions 2.0- right after they corrected the head flying off
the corpsealators from Sacare factory- yes they need to be rebuilt, but they are a great effect.
Minions web air cannons- I love em
The spiders from dark raven are pretty amazing
And the zombie window from pale night studios
and the Creature carts from Gore galore with one of their huge costumes on it, great way to utilize an actor several times!

[wickedfarmer]

Gargoyle Shock surprisingly HIGHLY effective.

I have had some of the big Scarefactory pieces like Impaler, Scissor Serpeant, and Slayer on the pediment at beginning of my haunt for years to set the mood...eye candy that people think are cool. I figured that the Gargoyle Shock I bought in 2010 would get some people. It FAR exceeded my expectations as to scaring people. Nobody .....okay MAYBE 10 people all season saw that the gargoyle was actually a girl that was going to step out at them as they walked by. And her blood curdling scream combined with surprise just feet away made this my best animatronic purchase ever. Too bad it was SO effective. I will not run it next year or two so people forget about it.