Hey y'all! It has been a WILD month so far...
About two weeks ago we got hit with the largest hail storm in the history of our city and we were right in the middle of it! We had softball size hail hit our house for about 30 minutes and it completely smashed our roof, destroyed both our vehicles, broke windows in our home, it was crazy. Luckily nobody was hurt but cleaning up after it and dealing with insurance, etc. has been a huge distraction that we didn't expect to be dealing with du...
2023-10-10 14:29:06 +0000 UTC
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This week we're trying something a little different and doing a Dollar Store Challenge makeover on Home Depot's new "Lethal Lily" witch animatronic!
She's 7' tall and has a "swamp witch" theme. Her posture out of the box is a bit robotic so we immediately fixed that (with a hammer...seriously) but what's great is she has full servo movement in her eyes, head and, mouth! The movement i...
2023-09-26 15:14:11 +0000 UTC
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Hey all! We were shooting for a new video this weekend but this thing is taking way longer than we planned. We're turning "Darling Dolly" into The Other Mother from the film Coraline. This has been one of our most requested creatures to build so when the Darling Dolly came out this year it was perfect!
The animatronic is already really close to the right shape. It has this great big hunch in it's back and kind of falls forward with this long creepy arms and hands. It's still been a lot ...
2023-09-15 23:52:21 +0000 UTC
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Hey y'all! We are really excited about how awesome this new project turned out and wanted to show you IMMEDIATELY!!!
We transformed Spirit Halloween's Jumping Spider animatronic into this new glowing spider, inspired by one of the bosses from a video game coming out soon. We've done a lot of spiders but we always have one big issue: they're basically invisible at night! We wanted to try this glowing spider to see if we could create an outdoor Halloween prop that would look really cool a...
2023-08-31 17:51:50 +0000 UTC
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Hey everyone! We're soft-launching a brand new shop for the 2023 Halloween Season!
https://shopwickedmakers.com
Loads of new shirts and merch with exclusive designs and other fun stuff as well.
As thanks for being part of our community, here's a 20% coupon:
WICKED20 (Valid thru 8/23)
Over the next few days we'll be collecting feedback and tweaking things, ...
2023-08-21 21:41:41 +0000 UTC
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Hey y'all! We're still tinkering with this guy. Video miiight be out tomorrow morning but we'll see how today goes. :)
We ended up completely reworking the animatronic mechanism... Not because it didn't work, but because we wanted it to be smaller. We originally had him wearing a baggy white shirt that was meant to cover up all the pvc stuff in his waist. Turns out the shirt just didn't look good at all, but when we removed the shirt, suddenly the PVC was totally visible and ru...
2023-08-12 14:56:03 +0000 UTC
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Okay so we pivoted a little... :) We realized with what we'd built so far that it would read a lot better as a drunken pirate swaying back and forth with a bottle and sword than just a zombie coming out of the ground. Also we just love pirates...........so you know how it is!
So now we have...the ZOMBIE PIRATE ANIMATRONIC!
Instead of coming out of a mound of dirt he'll be propped up against something with a bottle of rum and his legs sticking out in front of him. Also one of the l...
2023-08-04 21:53:48 +0000 UTC
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Hey y'all! Happy AUGUST! Spooky season is just about upon us and we're working on a TON of new videos. We're going to get as many out as we can this season and keep you posted behind the scenes along the way. :)
In our next video, we're building an groundbreaker ZOMBIE out of PVC that uses an animatronic mechanism to sway back and forth. It'll be built all from stuff you can get at the store....
2023-08-01 21:41:17 +0000 UTC
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We started editing the video today for the Barbie house and seeing it at the beginning when it was shiny pink and filled with toys was a WILD contrast to where it's sitting today. We've been working on it for weeks so you kind of forget when you've been staring at it so much, but WOW. What was once Barbie's iconic happy place is now her worst nightmare, just the way we wanted it!
We've got 3 different digital screens, numerous lighting effects, countless hours of painting and sculpting,...
2023-07-17 19:36:54 +0000 UTC
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Hey y'all! Our video this month is a Barbie Dream House makeover where we're turning the classic dollhouse into something out of Barbie's nightmares! With the Barbie movie coming out in a few weeks this seemed like a fun and nostalgic thing to do. :)
We've still got a long ways to go but a bunch of pictures are attached so you can get an idea of where we're at so far.
The general idea is that we're focusing on the interior this time instead of all exterior like we did on our last ...
2023-07-11 14:39:25 +0000 UTC
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As seen in our Huggy Wuggy animatronic, we designed some adjustable 1" PVC hirth joints, flanges, and rotating joints that you can print and use for your projects.
The downloadable STL files and info are below.
Hirth (Ratchet) Joints
These fit 1" PVC and are printed in two parts. They're designed to fit a 1.5" long 1/4"-20 bolt. Recommended print settings below.
Flanges
These fit 1" PVC and are printed as a single piece. They ha...
2023-06-24 14:53:24 +0000 UTC
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We're almost done! The fur suit is finished and we're finalizing the head.
We shaped it out of foam so it's really light and added a joint on the inside of the "neck" (more like inside his head, he doesn't really have a neck...) to allow the head to tilt back and forth as he moves. We weren't sure if this was going to work at all but the video above is our first test and it worked great!! We're going for just a subtle bit of secondary motion in the shoulders, arms, and head, that are al...
2023-06-19 22:25:22 +0000 UTC
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This is going great!! We've got the wiper motor all wired up with a speed controller and the torso is rotating back and forth nicely! It's also standing up tall on the PVC legs without issue using the custom PVC joints and flanges that Jay designed. :)
We also designed a rotating PVC joint using a bearing for the neck/shoulders which gives it some secondary motion that can be seen in the video above. Basically as the torso tilts back and forth, gravity naturally moves the freely rotati...
2023-06-14 13:52:15 +0000 UTC
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We're finally doing it!
We've always wanted to build our own animatronic but it seemed like a daunting challenge. Conceptually it shouldn't be that hard, right? PVC frame, motor moves a thing which pushes and pulls another thing, wrap a character around it and BAM!
Or, well, something like that...
In reality, it's of course been a bit more challenging... The classic wiper motor is great for high-torque movement but they're really heavy! Balancing the prop so it stands up on ...
2023-06-07 21:02:00 +0000 UTC
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Hey all! In our attempt to get more projects out (we're aiming now at every 3 weeks), we've been heads down and hard at work on our latest makeover: we're making Choo Choo Charles who is basically a corrupted Thomas the Tank Engine. AKA demon spider train, total nightmare fuel!
We started with an animatronic RC spider toy and have been converting it into the train, building most of it from scratch using balsa wood, 3D printed parts, clay, and some other fun stuff.
My favo...
2023-05-18 14:08:51 +0000 UTC
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Hey all! We've been hard at work at something a little different for next week's video. We're converting a small dancing toy into Freddy from FNAF!
Five Night's at Freddy's is a hugely popular horror/scary game series about animatronics that come to life at night. It's by far the most requested character(s) we've ever had so hyped to be finally making one!
For our first go, we decided to make small version to get familiar with making the character. We might do more ...
2023-04-30 20:35:55 +0000 UTC
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Hey all! We've been hard at work in the shop, taking "The Hauntress" from Spirit Halloween and transforming her into the iconic Ghostface killer from the Scream films.
We really enjoyed the fresh new look of the mask from Scream 6 so we went with that version for our makeover and it turned out AWESOME! Jaimie had a blast painting it and adding texture and as always we tried and learned some brand new techniques on camera so you can learn along with us. :)
Can't wait to share...
2023-04-04 19:03:17 +0000 UTC
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Weâre almost done with one of the wildest makeovers weâve ever attempted. Itâs become a bad habit that each project is getting more complicated because itâs not sustainable for making videos, and we wonât be doing this in every videoâŚBUT it sure is awesome when we get towards the end of a big one. đ
In this video you get to come with us on a journey of discovery, learn new techniques with us, meet new friends, and ultimately witness creating something absolutely amazing t...
2023-03-07 20:05:14 +0000 UTC
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Hey guys! Weâve got a new project in the worksâŚweâre turning âNightcrawlerâ from Spirit Halloween into a âClickerâ from the Last of Us!
The Last of Us is HBOs biggest show ever and is based off of one of the greatest games ever made. If you havenât checked it out itâs really incredible.
The monsters or âinfectedâ from the story have been infected by a fungus and turn into these ultra creepy mushroom zombie things.
Not only are we sculpting and making s...
2023-02-26 23:59:21 +0000 UTC
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Hey y'all! We've been working the last few weeks on a new animatronic makeover where we're turning the crawling monster hand from Spirit Halloween into Thing T. Thing from the Addams Family/Wednesday!
It originally came with a loose/badly painted latex glove and our initial plan was just to repaint it and maybe add the scars/sutures. In the end we decided to actually sculpt a brand new hand from clay, create a plaster mold, and cast a new latex glove and paint it that way. (So ...
2023-01-17 15:01:16 +0000 UTC
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Join us for some fun and casual pumpkin carving this weekend!
On Saturday at 5pm CT, we'll be live in Discord carving a couple of pumpkins with the kids. You can carve along with us or just tune in and watch. Hope to see you!
How to join Discord (It's Free):
1. Never joined before? Click this link: https://discord.gg/MtrHrxa
2. On the left side, you'll see the different channels and...
2022-10-28 15:27:42 +0000 UTC
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Hey y'all! We're squeezing in one last crazy makeover project before the end of the season. This one will release on Sunday morning as usual!
We started with the giant "Nozzles the Clown" animatronic from Spirit and are turning him into...any guesses? đ
He's still got a ways to go but Jaimie was excited to finish the painting on his face and wanted to show you. Hope you're having an excellent week so far!
~Jay
2022-10-25 20:49:52 +0000 UTC
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Hey all! Attached below are the PVC measurements for our Georgie mannequin from the video above.
We're not exactly anatomy experts but we're pretty happy with how everything came out and he looks like a proper 6 year old when we stand him up in the yard.
The pants size were "4T" and everything else should be linked in the YouTube video description.
To assemble it, we used a tiny bit of hot glue on some of the joints to hold them in place if they were a little loose but other...
2022-10-22 16:10:19 +0000 UTC
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So someone on a YouTube comment had a really fun idea to turn âLucky Bottomsâ from Spirit Halloween into the Pennywise/It spider creature. We decided to go for it and weâve been having a blast so far making this guy into this huge monstrosity. đ His legs and frame are made of pvc and weâll be giving him all kinds of stuff to get him looking closer to the It creature.
Weâre aiming to have him done for this Sunday but always hard to tell with these projects. Weâll see!
<...
2022-10-07 00:24:11 +0000 UTC
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Hey y'all! We put together a package of 15 different tombstone shapes in a variety of formats, as well as a bunch of Epitaphs, Names, and Years you can mix and match to make your own tombstones!
This weekend we're releasing a video on how to makeover a store-bought tombstone and add your own stuff to it, so these will help a lot for that!
(You can find the downloads below.)
Each .ZIP contains three formats: PDF, JPG, and SVG.
The tombstone tem...
2022-09-30 20:06:38 +0000 UTC
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After another marathon week, we managed to get this strapping young lad finished just in time for the video release tomorrow morning. đ
(There's a short video of him in motion on Discord in the private channel.)
We gave him wings, new arms, all new clothes, and so much more. Looking forward to showing you the full video!
This project felt like bringing together all the cool new stuff we've learned this season into one thing and we're so happy with it! Felt like we leveled...
2022-09-24 21:20:01 +0000 UTC
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You know what's funny is when we started these makeovers, we expected them to be these easy projects. So easy that we might even release them mid-week, in between "bigger" projects. What has happened in reality? These things are kicking out butts lol.
They're huge fun and we love how they're turning out. The issue though is we keep wanting to do MORE things to them. Like on this scarecrow, for instance, we've given him all new clothes, painted his face underneath, made a new burlap head...
2022-09-10 03:54:24 +0000 UTC
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Today's video is a DIY Spellbook made from an old thrift store book! We made it using simple techniques that you can try at home, including putting your phone inside to create the animated eye effect!
Below you'll find 10 different versions of the animated eye video. Jay made these using Unreal Engine and used actual motion capture so you're looking at his eye motion transferred onto these eyes!
There are vertical and horizontal versions and we've rendered it out...
2022-09-04 14:39:32 +0000 UTC
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Hello everyone and hello to all the new patrons over the last couple of weeks!
Our community is growing like crazy and we're so happy to have you along for our first year as "full-time" creators. đ Also...HAPPY LAST DAY OF AUGUST! September is finally here and that means time to kick it into gear for Halloween prep if you haven't already!
Okay so, we have an extra video coming out this week tomorrow afternoon, it's collaboration with Derek from VanOaks Props! We did a "Chopped"...
2022-08-31 23:13:01 +0000 UTC
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Newest video is up! We gave Spirit Halloweenâs Empty Soul Girl an ultra creepy makeover! Easy to and only takes a couple hours. Enjoy!
2022-08-21 15:26:25 +0000 UTC
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