Bob
Bob in the Birds Haunt in 1994. Don't You
Just Love That Haircut?
Bob started out life in 1994 as a
prop in the Movie-themed haunted house. I wanted to create something that looked like
it had been (and was being) pecked to death by a flock of birds. The
inspiration came from the Hitchcock movie (I have never seen the remake,
so I don't know how close Bob gets to that.) I actually drilled through
a plastic eyeball and the head and glued a straw inside the entire head,
going from the right eye out the back of the head. I then used a coat
hanger wire and a small, low RPM motor with a wooden wheel attached the
cause the bird to peck at Bob's eye. It was quite effective. To give him
the proper terrified look, I cut the jaw on the skull open and
reattached it at an impossible angle. You can't really see it in these
photos, but the prop has a fully sculpted tongue and mouth in there. The
body was made using foam-stuffed clothing.
Bob as a Half Body Prop in 1995
After his debut at the Movie House,
the Bob head kind of sat around. Then an opportunity
arose to create a half-body prop for an asylum-themed haunted house in
1995.
Suddenly Bob's head was needed again!
The prop at right was created in several pieces using all kinds of materials. I cut the back bone out of a 2x4 and sanded it down to give it a curved look. I built an entire rib cage for the prop using Romex wire and then covered it with cloth. I then put a layer of foam-covered chicken wire around the sides to give the prop a layer of skin and covered that up with the shirt, stiffened up using fabric stiffener. The guts were created using liquid latex. The arms were also 2x4s sanded and filed, the hands were plaster cast and the manacles were made of carpet tube. The head was all Bob.
This prop was so well liked that I wound up using it in 3 different haunted houses. Unfortunately, someone broke into the last house in which Bob appeared and destroyed him. All that we found of him was the poly-foam skull the head was based on and the 2x4s that used to be his arms.