I've always looked forward to Halloweens. It's probably because I loved it so much as a kid, but was never really allowed to participate in it. Last year's haunt went very well, and it was the first exposure the kids on my block had of the Magic Mirror, unless that is, they ventured to my old place in 2007 when I first used the Magic Mirror prop.



Last year's Magic Mirror was a hit, btu this year I wanted to add to the experience. Last year, the candy was dispensed through a simple hole in the Lion Detail's mouth. This year I wanted more interaction and for the tot's to feel like something magical happened. So I set out and constructed a magic box table. The premise behind this is that there would be an empty box on the table in front of the Magic Mirror. The Mirror would then ask the tot's if they wanted candy, and of course they do, it's Halloween!

I would then use a pre-programmed script to run music and speech while I got the contraption set up to dispense candy. Well that idea almost got flushed down the toilet due to time constraints, and the fact that my original design epically failed in my garage at 3pm on Halloween day.

So my plans had to change, I frantically rummaged through my garage and found a few items that helped me pull this effect off. Originally I had planned to do a sliding table design, where the bottom of the box would drop straight down guided on rails. I would then just have to push the box bottom back into place after I had placed the candy. Unfortunately this is what failed, the rails fell off due to the constant up and down motion of the wooden box base, and couldn't support the weight. I also had no more time to fashion thicker rails.

Luckily I found an unused hinge from building my fence at the old house. This allowed me to convert the sliding rail design into a hinge design. I found that placing candy in the hinge design was quite a bit harder and slower, however if I wanted to do something different, this is the route I had to go. So after a few minutes of cutting, screwing and pounding, the trapdoor system turned out to work effectively enough for the haunt.

Unfortunately again, by the time I had fixed the magic box prop, time had run out for me to fashion a pre-recorded script and audio for when the "magic" was supposed to take place. So I winged it.

Here is how the flow of events worked; tots would wake the mirror up by saying trick or treat. I'd then talk to them by asking how their night was and what they're names were, and also commented on how cool they're costumes were. Having this interaction is vital for the tot to believe that the prop is physically real, and can see what they are wearing and listen to what they are saying. I'd then ask the tots who had the best magical powers out of the group. I'd then ask that tot to close the lid on the box, wave their hands around the top and sing me a short song like twinkle twinkle little star or the alphabet song.

This gave me time to open the trapdoor, place candy inside, shoot a stream of fog from my machine into the box and close up the trapdoor. By the time they were done singing, I'd ask them to open the box and to many tot's amazement, they helped the Magic Mirror materialize Candy in the box with their own magical powers.

this of course didn't work with the older kids, however I did try to make them sing for their candy as well.

I also did boarded up windows for the house to make it more "haunted". Next year I'm not sure what I want to do. I still want to make a pirate ship out of my front porch but we'll have to see. The minor upgrades and additions this year took up a lot of time I didn't have. Perhaps I just need to start earlier in the year!