Impressions of the Transworld Show

There were a lot of great vendors this year at the show. While Mark concentrated on stuff for making props, Michael and I were scouting out the make up, masks, and eye candy props.
Had a great time talking to the Graftobian Reps. Learned a few tricks that I had never thought about before with make up and costume styling. Checked out Bloody Mary and her make up. It's a lot better than what it was several years ago. She showed us a lot of simplistic things that we could do that would cut down on applying make up to a large group of people.

Now with the Props, I still think that Scare Factory has the best offerings around. A lot better variety than what they had last year. Also, if you want the big prop scares, they have it. Enjoyed the real flesh feel of the hand, placenta and foot pieces from Plastastic Zone. Very realistic and creepy feeling. Another of my favorites was a group that had a body pile that was just great. The parts were realistic and particularly hardcore gored. Unfortunately, I do not remember who the vendor was. Distortions had a few props that were likable, but there were not as many cool ones as the ones that they have had in prior years. Plus, they seemed to have hiked their prices up.

The ideas that Michael and I are kicking around are some life mold work. Making our own gore props would cut down significantly on expenses, especially for adding more eye candy in the Haunt. Body parts would work out in quite a few spots to add just the kick we are looking for. Gored out chest cavities, ripped off arms and legs, eye balls in a jar, etc.

I was especially surprised at the quality of most of the mask vendors. My favorite was from a company called Immortal Masks. The Boar and the The Zombie were particularly good. Looked and felt as if they would last four or five seasons.

Ghost Ride had some great body props. The frozen corpse body props were pretty good. The only bad thing is I don't think that they would quite fit into our Haunt.

Overall, the offerings this year were pretty good and gave us a lot to think about for this upcoming Haunt Season.

Favorite Vendor-Scare Factory

Got to hang with some of the crew from Scare Factory. If you want some great quality props, check them out at: http://scarefactory.com. Here's a picture of some of their handy work.

Transworld HAA Show

Went to the trade show this week and it was a pretty good time. Got to talk to plenty of prop maker's and got a few really nice props and some great ideas. Dr. Mudgett and I are going to work on a few things of our own that should turn out to be pretty decent. Big thanks to Mark for letting me and Dr. Mudgett tag along with him. Was pretty disappointed in not getting to meet Mommie D., but maybe I will run into her at the Midwest Haunt Convention.

St. Louis Transworld HAA Show

Today is the beginning of the Transworld HAA Show in St. Louis, Missouri. There are going to be a lot of vendors with a whole slew of great new products and props. I will work on updating with ideas, pictures, etc. The fun begins in a couple of hours. I am like a kid at Christmas so inevitably, I can't sleep...lol

Hot Girl Zombie Bite : How to : BFX

Really hoping that someone down in the Cave will work on this effect. It will probably be down to Michael and I, but I really do think that this would be really good down there and looks pretty simple to pull off. Unfortunately, to do it repetitively could be problematic....lol

Old Picture of Jebenezzer Law Found in Great Grandma's Attic

This is supposedly an old picture of Jebenezzer Law found in Great Grandma Law's attic after her death in 1948. Judging from the age of the photograph, it looks to be about 1930 and would appear to be down in the Cave. Jebenezzer would be approximately 60 years of age at this time.

It looks as if he has his trademark chain and a large wound on his left hand side.

Make Up Experimentations

Been messing around with some blending techniques on the last night of the show. Went darker around the eyes hoping to make the open wounds pop a little more. Blended the flesh and blood tones closer to the hair line. Did a little black on the lips for a bruised look. The gray in my hair is my own...lol. Should have probably skipped the purple...it didn't add anything to the look.

The finishing touches were green hair spray in the hair, beard, and sideburns. Unfortunately, I have to wear glasses, so they really don't add to the look except to get mistaken for Tommy Chong. The darkness of the Jail Cell helps in hiding any screw ups with my make up. I also let my hair out so it is flying wildly around my face...that is another good way of hiding make up lines, etc.

The prosthetic in this incarnation of Jebenezzer Law is from Boneyard FX and it's their Burnt model. I liked it since it gave me an opportunity to make it look rotted, which is the effect I was looking for with Jeb's face. Previous incarnations used wound make up kit, random prosthetics, and my first full facial prosthetic....Scarred. Now, the only drawback I have with any full facial prosthetic is my facial hair....their is a lot of trimming involved to free up the chin area.

The next incarnation of Ol' Jebenezzer, I would like to rot even further with bone showing through, etc. We shall see.