Countdown to Halloween Day 8 - Trash Can Frankenstein Monster Prop

This is a project I've had in the back of my mind for a long time - creating a fairly simple to build giant robot out of junk. Ken Wingard and I teamed up this week and made it a 7 foot tall reality. The design was inspired by using a 5 gallon paint bucket as the head, and being flat topped, it naturally lead to him becoming the Frankenstein's monster. Scaling off of that, a 32 gallon trash can made for a great torso. Once all assembled, having a clunky feel, he had to have a fun cartoony look.

Here are the initial sketches roughing out how I thought could be built (happy to say almost exactly how it was actually made).

Ken has posted a detailed step by step (including process photos) on his blog.

Wait! Before you visit his page, here's a couple of extra project details of note.

First, here's how the hands were made by recycling milk jugs...

Second, for the finished prop, I drew face details and printed on label paper. They were then simply cut out and stuck on. Here they are if you want to swipe and use for your own bucket headed monster (click on to enlarge).

Okay that's it, you can go to Ken's page now. Wait! One more thing... this is a project that can be customized to almost any other vision. Classic retro 50's B-movie robot anyone?