Grim Reaper |
My apartment community decorates its Club House at Halloween, and one of their props is a really cool homemade Grim Reaper. I very much liked this prop, and of course, I wanted one for my display. Although I had intended to build my own Giant Grim Reaper, I discovered a commercial product that would do just fine. Again, I purchased the item from the Halloween USA store, and it went for a steep $69. However, I just HAD to have him, and I am sure all you Halloween nuts out there like me understand.
Again, I secured the Reaper into a bale of straw, instead of the ground. (My yard holds a lot of water, and we had received a bit of rain right before Halloween; I was afraid that the soggy earth would not support either the Skeletons or the Reaper props!).
After a couple Halloweens I changed the Grim Reaper a bit. I really didn't like the way the Reaper's head looked, so I added a mask to make him a bit more realistic. The hooded mask is a white skull that resembles Skeletor from the old He-Man cartoon. In my humble opinion, it made the Grim Reaper much scarier and improved the prop a great deal. Later I built five big Monsters which I based on the Grim Reaper designs. Make sure to take a look at those designs to see how you can build your very own towering menaces for your Halloween display! |
The Reaper has a PVC pipe frame, with adjustable arms and hands. The PVC pipes screw together with connector pieces to secure the frame, and two giant stakes at the bottom anchor the Reaper into the ground. The right hand holds a permanent plastic scythe while the left hand is empty. The hands and face are a glowing green, and it comes with a back robe and hood. All in all it is an impressive prop, but a little flimsy.
Because the Reaper is so tall, he tends to rock a bit in the wind. I tied the Reaper off both to wooden stakes in the front and back in order to steady him further. The Reaper's robe hides these tie-downs from sight. These extra measures really help to keep the Reaper in place. Once I had him tied down, he would rock a bit in the wind, but never came close to falling over. The Reaper was placed in the back corner of the yard, due to his size, and loomed over the whole haunted cemetery.