Meaner Neener
This was a prop resulting from some experimenting with spare parts. How-To under construction!. The motor is one of those types that you see in Christmas reindeer. The head rocks back and forth, kind of like the montster is saying, "Neener neener neener", so my wife has been calling it a Meaner Neener prop. The video is the best way to see what it does. I haven't decided for sure where to use the prop yet. I might have its head sticking out of the rose bushes in the front of our house, or peering over the top of a tombstone. I'll probably have to experiment with how it looks when I start to set up our display.


Parts list:
  • Wood plank (to attach everything to)
  • 1" PVC T joint
  • 1/4" PVC T Joint. An elbow would work fine, I just didn't have one lying around.
  • 1/4" PVC
  • 2x4
  • Motor
  • Wighead
  • Mask


Here you can see how everything is pieced together. I've labeled the pieces of PVC to try to make it easier to explain how things piece together.
  1. I screwed the 2x4 perpendicular to the wood board.
  2. I screwed the 1" PVC T to the top of it. This serves as a point for the thinner PVC (Part E) to rotate freely in
  3. I don't have measurements for the PVC, but Part B is going to be attached (using a machine screw and nut) to the crank arm on the motor (Part A). Depending on what type of motor you use will change how you do this. Note that Part B should be longer than the crank arm is.
  4. Part B will be connected to Part C, again using a machine screw and nut. And the other end of Part C will go into the 1/4" T joint (Part D) as shown in the picture.
  5. Part E goes through the 1" T joint, and into the 1/4" T.
  6. Next I'd recommend you turn on the motor, and try moving it around a bit to find the best location to mount the motor, where things run the smoothes.
  7. Then attach the motor to the 2x4. This completes the mechanism.
  8. Then just add a head to the front, and Voila! For my head I cut the neck off a wig head, and drilled a hole in the back of the head, big enough for the 1/4" PVC to fit. I used some hot glue to hold it in place. Then I have this great mask over the wighead. I'll also be painting mine black so it doesn't show up as much at night.


I didn't put specifics on the motor above, because there's so many different kinds of motors people use. But here's the one we used. The original crank arm wasn't long enough, so I removed the crank arm and replaced it with a section of PVC. The crank shaft on the motor had a small hole for a screw to go into. So I drilled a hole through the PVC, and screwed it to the crank shaft on the motor. It was a bit wobbly, so I used some hot glue to hold it in place. Not the most secure, but it appears to work good enough. And the price was right!