SUMMONED: 2007
RESOURCES: Phantasmechanics, Spooky Blue’s
There’s nothing extraordinary about my first FCG other than I took some liberties with the design materials. For the most part I followed the directions over at Phantasmechanics but it wasn’t until I stumbled upon Spooky Blue’s site that I truly understood how the FCG works.
I went through several designs on paper before going on a whim and salvaging an old wooden kid’s easel my daughter had managed to break (it was repairable but one of those things that got abused and never used for its intended purposes - but kids are that way right). She was totally cool with what I did with the pieces and even sat on the floor and helped a bit.
For the motor I used one from one of the two animate Reindeer which got smashed by vandals last year (good thing I saved the parts). The other motor will be used in my Grave Grabber project (which will also use the remains of the easel pieces). The torque isn’t exactly great in these things and given enough resistance it switches polarization on starts turning the other direction. This resulted in some pretty comical movements from the FCG until I counter weighted it.
The remainder of the FCG was done right from the Phantasmechanic instructions (and let me tell ya, bending coat hanger wire into those little loops at the end to link the parts is NOT as easy as it looks - even with two pairs of plyers). The hands and head I improvised on and are nothing more than the remnants of your everyday “Skulls and Bones” set that can be picked up anywhere during the season. The skull is made of cheap lightweight plastic and is quite hollow substituting quite well for a foam head (I originally used the set placing them randomly into my yard haunt and I swear every year it seems like I have less and less pieces left each time).
These are a few shots of the end result. I’ll get a few better shots of the main rig up when I take it down to paint it.
