Halloween & Attractions Show 2019

Hey A New Blog Post!!!
March 21st-24th was the Transworld Halloween & Attractions Show in St. Louis, MO. This was our 9th year as a vendor, and at least the 13th year for Patrick & Doug to attend this show. Was there a lot of cool new stuff? I wouldn’t know, I was too busy working our booth, playing Puppeteer, throwing heads, and talking to customers to see most of the show floor again. So here are some pics I was able to get at the show, mostly of our booth.

Projected video running at the booth

Doug & Jenn hitting a photo opp before the floor opened

 

Ripper Crate Creature

 

Pat with the New Half Zombie Psy-co Clown

 

Munch with his own banner

 

Polly with Lunging x-46

Steve with the new Fun House Illusion Box

Rebecca with Flo Wheelchair Lunger

DINO HAMMERS!!! The new Moving jaw T-Rex Dino Hammer

DINO HAMMER!

Crate Creatures with their own banner

Busy Booth!

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Just a few shots Behind the Scenes, going inside the Studio at Robot Monkey Lab, Inc. (VFX) – Photos By Lily Voss

Here’s a quick glimpse at the creative space and folks at VFX. See some shots of the paint booth, molding and casting area, sewing area, and puppet storage area. See Patrick Voss (company owner/artist) and Doug Schaefer (production manager/artist) getting their hands dirty (and painted) in the studio. As they both work daily on product orders and creating new creatures for haunted attractions, theme parks and more.

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We first heard about ScareLA at the West Coast Haunters Convention when many people were asking if we were planning on vending there. After doing some research we decided to give it a try. We had no idea what to expect, but it looked promising with a high attendance from the previous year and that this year was looking to be much larger. Plus, some of the people connected to it, vending at it, and …it’s in LA!

 Well, ScareLA turned out good for us…in sales and connections. It was great to see a lot of folks we know from the industry, like Necrotics Creations, 10-31 Store (Fog It Up!), Trick or Treat Studios, and so many more.

Could not believe the crowds! We took puppets out to entertain the line before the show opened and the line filled a huge hallway in the building and then went down the length of the building outside and around the corner and half way down that street. Obviously, LA has some Halloween, horror and haunt love.

Some ScareLA hi-lights…

Got to meet Spooky World creator, David Bertolino, who helped inspire many haunters…including Pat.

We unveiled our “just for fun” puppet project Saturday night at the party…”Glenn the Judge”. Our homage to SyFy Face Off Judge Glenn Hetrick. First people we ran into were Face Off contestants, Alana Shiro And Keaghlan Ashley. Their reaction was worth the effort. Glenn the Judge also had a photo op with former Face Off contestant Frank Ipollito, and current contestant Cig Neutron.

We were a little stunned when John Landis (Director – American Werewolf in London, Blues Brothers, Animal House and Thriller, etc.) stopped by our booth. He was very nice and complimented our puppets, then took the time for a photo with us. I still can’t believe that really happened.

Rannie Rodil, a “professional weirdo” @ Rannie Rodil Cosplay – (alien pic)

Daniel Roebuck (Actor – The Fugitive, Final Destination, U.S. Marhsals, and more.)

Kirk R. Thatcher (Jim Henson’s Creature Challenge, Muppet Treasure Island, Star Trek IV) really liked our puppets –“They were awesome! The clown was particularly creepy and realistic! Great work and fun puppet based illusion!”Kirk was such a down to earth, nice guy to talk with and really enjoyed meeting him. Thanks Kirk!

All in all, ScareLA was a great time, where we met a lot of great people and saw friends new and old and spread the word of VFX Creative Studios to the West Coast. We’ll leave you with some more shots from the show, and know that there may be another whole blog post on the mis-adventures of Glenn the Judge in LA.

The post ScareLA 2014 appeared first on VFX International Sales.

The following is a list of 13 things that were reported to have happened back in 1919 when the two coincided.

1. The Warwick Hotel in New York City could not get the water to run on the 14th (13th) floor until the next day.
2. Savannah, Georgia had hospitalized 13 sailors that came in on a ship that day, the next morning the sailors were missing and the port had no records of the ship ever docking
3. The 13th Police District in Philadelphia reported many bizarre occurrences that had not happened up until that day, including Flickering Lights, doors closing on their own, and jail cells that would not open. They renamed the district to the 14th, and never had the issues again
4. One Massachusetts town reported 13 stray black cats were seen sitting on the stoop of the local church at 1pm (13:00 hours)
5. At some point on that day the Capitol buildings of what were the first 13 colonies reported losing power for about 13 minutes.
6. A town in Texas had a massive fire and lost 13 buildings.
7. The police in one Rhode Island town had 13 arrests for attempted murder that day, but not a single crime of any type reported the day before or after
8. 13 children in Lincoln Nebraska went missing that day and all turned up in their beds the next morning, and have no recollection of what happened to them the previous day
9. The Mayors of 13 Pennsylvania cities all reportedly each lost a finger from horse bites that day
10. The Capitol Building in Annapolis, Maryland reported its State Flag was turned upside down 13 times that day and fixed, but no one was ever seen turning it the wrong way.
11. A ladder sales man went missing in New York and was found deceased 13 days later, in his neighbors shed, apparently bludgeoned by the “lucky” horseshoe that had hung over the sheds doorway
12. The 13th Ward in New Orleans, Louisiana had a breach in a levee and 13 people died in the floods
13. 13 people drowned in a boat accident in the Chicago River and were never identified

So what will happen on this Full Moon and Friday the 13th?

1. At least 13 people will read this blog post that I made up and believe it.

The post Beware the Full Moon & Friday the 13th appeared first on VFX International Sales.

200 plus speakers

200 plus Speaker Grills

The Minion Actor Sound System is quickly approaching final stages of production. Just about all the parts are now in stock with our manufacturer, pretty much waiting on the shell/case that everything is built into. There are over 200 speakers wired up and waiting to be  screwed into the cases.
The grills are all in and just need to be popped out of the sheets to be screwed on to the cases as well. Also, the grills will be even lower profile than the last prototypes that most of you have seen at Hauntcon, Transworld, HauntX & West Coast Haunters Convention, so they will be a bit smaller that what you’ve seen.

The Hacker Kits for wiring up a prop, weapon, or costume with triggers/buttons (and activated with wireless control) are all coming together. The Buttons are all attached to the small boards with screw down terminals, so no soldering is required.

Lots and Lots of Buttons

Then the Retail boxes and Labels are all being put together, if you see in the shot the box Says USB/Download cable, that is changing. Now you will have a separate AC adapter, because the Battery will be more powerful. Also you may notice that we may be using a USB flash drive for the software now which will be easier/quicker for loading both for production and for your use as a customer. Plus there are a number of small Laptops that don’t have CD/DVD drives anymore, so it eliminates that issue.

Minion Box & Label

So, what does this all mean? Well, it means we are still on track for a June release of the Minion Actor Sound System! Which will give you plenty of time to play with your new favorite toy, and start adding sounds and triggers to your Props and Costumes.

Buy your Minion Actor Sound Systems here at VFXCreates.com

The post Minion Actor Sound System ™ Update appeared first on VFX International Sales.

So we started our creepy photo shoot with the new, Johnny the Maniac puppet, Fully expecting someone to see us being strangled by a guy in an orange jumpsuit an call the police on us. Surprisingly we made it through Johnny’s shots and still no Police (or locals with banjos).
Next we were on to our new zombie attack puppet, “Harry”. We decided to get a little more brave, and went into the doorway of the boarded up old farm house, never straying to far from the threshold. In the videos we shot, you can probably hear the broken glass being kicked around on the small concrete porch.

We did some shots of the new clown Attack Puppet, “Chompers, and the new Family Friendly scarecrow, “Hank” by the old dilapidated barn. The roof was old rusty pieces of corrugated metal, that was constantly flapping in the wind. At one point it was mentioned that we expected a full on “Final Destination” moment where the metal roofing would fly off the top of the barn and sever our heads from our bodies in the middle our creepy photo shoot, and no one would find our bodies for a few days. Luckily that didn’t happen, but we then found someone’s shooting range behind the barn, with spent shotgun shells strewn about the ground (and one golf ball) again leading us to believe we would be hearing the disturbing sounds of banjos plating in the distance.

We also shot some photos of Psy-co in front of and inside of a oddly located busted out shed of some sort in front of the house. That building too, had broken glass in and around the doorway.

Of course we had to take our new “Rodeo Clown” with us to the photo shoot out in the country. “Cleatus” seemed to fit right in to the surroundings, and at that point we figured if anyone came up to us, we’d just let “Cleatus” tell them to not mess with us, ‘Cause he’s Local’.

No VFX Creative Studios, Attack Puppet, creepy photo shoot would be complete, without our star “Sally”. We finished up our session with “Sally” and started to get a little more brave at this point, and even took some photo/video inside the house (but not too far inside).

Check our blog and website later for more of the photos and some videos from our outing, which I’m happy to report, no injuries or police involvement (or banjos).

The post Creepy Photo Shoot appeared first on VFX International Sales.

The Monster Makeover Challenge is Sponsored by:

• Paasche Airbrush Company
• 1313fx Fright Zone
• Zombie Skin
• Rad FX
• Roy Wooley FX
  

Rachel had to submit photos of recent Make-up designs that were her original work. Below are images that she submitted for consideration for the Monster Makeover Challenge. Rachel calls the couple “Distorted and Diseased”. The female character (modeled by Rachel’s Sister) is “Distorted” with teeth growing outside the Skin. The male character (modeled by Rachel’s boyfriend) is “Diseased” with infected looking skin complete with puss filled blisters that are overtaking his face.

Rachel Rieckenberg

Rachel also had to submit a short biography. Rachel grew up in Southern Illinois and has been doing makeup since she was a kid, and by the time she was 16 she knew that it was what she wanted to do for a career. After high school Rachel attended Joe Blasco Makeup Center East in Orlando, Florida. After makeup school Rachel moved back to the St. Louis/ Southern Illinois area in 2007 and landed her first job doing makeup for the movie Shadowland. Several other movies followed including Joint Body, 23 Minutes to Sunrise & Fatal Call. You can see all her movie credits on IMDb.

Rachel Rieckenberg, Key Makeup Artist, on the set of Fatal Call with Kevin Sorbo

Rachel has been working with us here at VFX Creative Studios since April 2013. Among other things she has helped with mold making and painting for our puppets and props. Recently she helped design and sculpt several of the new puppets we will reveal at the 2014 Transworld Halloween & Attactions Show. So Rachel will be pulling double duty at the Transworld show, helping with the VFX Creative Studios Booth (#1115) and competing in the Monster Makeover Challenge. So come meet her at our booth and see some of her work. Then head over to the Monster Makeover Challenge to cheer her on to victory.

The post MONSTER MAKEOVER CHALLENGE at Transworld 2014 appeared first on VFX International Sales.

We left our Fairview Heights, Illinois studio early in the morning on Friday before the trade show. As our GPS was routing us a different direction than I had traveled  to Houston before we called ahead to the hotel to make sure everything was good down there. Turned out that some bad weather had hit the southern area we were traveling to, and there was ice on the roads, and people traveling from Alabama, Florida etc. were stuck on bridges trying to get to the show. Luckily we were routed around it, because we heard some horror stories of 7 hour drives taking 14. 

Hauntcon in Houston 2014, as with most trade shows or conventions, we met a lot of new people and customers. Everyone we met was great, its the Haunt industry, how could they not be. The guys at Flatline Radio, Tristin and Dustin, were terrific. I did some on air interviews with them with the Minion Actor Sound System™ with me dressed as a Knight complete with Monty Python Sounds, and the Puppets, and if you give me a microphone I’m going to say something weird, funny or crazy.

We had Sally and Psy-cho the Clown with us, as well as the Scarecrow and we brought the prototype of our New Victim Puppet.

 Then while Pat and I were talking with Ed at the Distortions booth, we look over and Mike is being interviewed by a local Houston news station (video here) about Hauntcon in Houston 2014.

We were quite a loud booth, with our puppets and the new Minion Actor Sound System™, we kind of felt bad that we were right next to the workshop area at the show. RJ Haddy of Face off and Rad fx, was about to begin a class, and he noticed we were a loud bunch and mentioned he needed to use a Minion to teach his class, so I let him borrow one.

Only since I mentioned it already, we had a small complication with our hotel reservation, and a roll out cot had to be utilized to fit our crew. The cot was apparently comfortable, but had a tendency to collapse at one end or the other, or both, if you moved wrong while sitting on it. So just imagine a grown man, Mike (who is in the Television Interview), gingerly climbing onto the cot and then turning around and holding up both hands for someone to hand him his blanket so he wouldn’t collapse the cot. It looked like a small child begging for his “Banky” I laughed out loud and still laugh when I think about it. It may not have been as funny as I remember, but that’s what happens after working a trade show all day, I get a little loopy.

Thanks to everyone that came out and talked to us at Hauntcon in Houston 2014. It was a great experience, and we’ll see many of you again at the Transworld Hauntshow in March. Maybe we’ll see you at Hauntcon in New Orleans in 2015.

The post HAuNTcon in Houston 2014 appeared first on VFX International Sales.

We know Sally attack puppet will miss her friends and family, so be sure to visit our facebook page so she can see how all of them are doing.

Sally attack puppet’s Friends and Family

• Psycho the Clown (Sally’s Twin Brother)
• Bob the Zombie (Sally’s “Half” Brother)
• Mr. Wolfman the Werewolf (Sally’s pet of course)
• Cornholio/Cob Goblin the Scarecrow (Sally’s Brainless buddy)

Be sure to visit VFX Creative Studios at Hauntcon (booth 1406) or Transworld (booth 1115), or Selling Halloween at Halloween & Party Expo (booth 1309) or Transworld to see the Sally attack puppet in action and sign-up to take her home with you. You can also see our new line-up of products, that continues to grow every day, and will include some “Family Friendly” products…like a goofy zombie. We may also have some awesome display pieces like this one that had its debut at the 2013 Walker Stalker Con, in Atlanta, Georgia.

See you at the show!

The post Sally Attack Puppet wants to come home with you! appeared first on VFX International Sales.