Little Dustin Horner

Here's a quick prop I finished up this week. After seeing the Frog Queen's awesome Trick-Or-Treaters, I decided that I needed to make one, too (imitation is the most sincere form of flattery!). I wanted a little something to mess with all of the people who came past the Cemetery on Halloween night. And Little Dustin Horner is that little something.

See, Dustin is a frightened little child, trying to muster up the courage to walk up to the Cemetery to get his candy. But only we know that he will never do it. Because he's made from PVC. And he will stand at the bottom of the driveway the entire night. Frozen with terror, his only real purpose for the night will be to simply stand there and get in the way. And we'll watch all of the concerned parents and other trick-or-treaters awkwardly interact with (and walk around) him as they try to go up the driveway for their treats.

I made a quick trip to the thrift store last week, where I scored a little jacket, little jeans, little shoes and little gloves all for $11. To my surprise, the jacket had a small name tag area on the inside, where Dustin got his name...

I made the body out of 1-1/4" PVC. The leftover length of pipe is being used to make a few more flicker candles. Smart, huh? I used plastic chicken wire to fill out his little chest and newspaper to fill out his little legs.

His right hand is made from rolled-up newspaper fingers taped together inside the glove. I used a coathanger wire for each finger on his left, as it needed to be bent and rigid in order to hold his jack-o-lantern bucket.

I used a 1/2" drill bit to drill through the bottom of each shoe and drove 2 pieces of 1/2" rebar into the ground (one for each leg), pulled the shoes over the rebar and set the leg tubes over that. I added a styrofoam wig head (painted tan) and an old Frankenstein mask that had been in the attic for the past 10 years and he was ready to go...

I can't wait to see the way people interact with Little Dustin Horner all night. I wonder how many of them will understand? His fear is real, even if his body is not...

And hey, we're down to 10 days before the big night! Time to start checking the weather report:

Cloudy, high of 46 degrees, low of 39 degrees, 20% chance of rain

This will of course change 10 more times over the next 10 days, but the fingers are crossed that will we have great weather. And our fingers are crossed that you will, too...