Evolution of the Talking Skull

mrwizzer · Evolution of the Talking Skull

Welcome foolish mortals,

While we're unveiling our histories, I may as well let you all know how I got here. I'm Mike Fox, the other half of the growing Skulltronix team, otherwise known in the haunt community as MrWizzer.

Many of you may have been following my progress over the past decade as one of the pioneers in building animatronic talking skulls. Though I still get dozens of visitors daily to my how-to website on how to convert a singing Christmas tree into a talking skull. http://www.foxproductions.tv/haunts/TalkSkul/talkskul2.html , that particular incarnation was only the first step along this path, as the skulls got progressively more sophisticated each year.

After the Douglas Fir hack approach, I moved on to servos controlled via basic stamp for much more control and realism, at the expense of having to spend hours creating tedious code in pBasic. The reward... Wilfred the Ghost Host was born. http://www.foxproductions.tv/haunts/VideoClips/ghosthostmovie.html

The following year, I explored servo animation software in place of pBasic and created a couple of new friends for Wilfred... Hugo, the giant-sized talking skull, and Albert, the dancing vampire whose undulating body movements were the result of hacking a Walmart dancing Santa. Thus was formed the "Terrible Trio", whom I had sing a medley of spooky (but fun) tunes for the crowds.
http://www.foxproductions.tv/haunts/VideoClips/terribletrio.html

In 2004, I left the confines of my garage and teamed up with Jerry and his Scary U team who put on a large community event each year in a local park. That year I created the next step in the evolution... the Seance Witch, which featured the addition of articulated eyes and even a servo driven hand to move the Ouija board planchette.
http://www.foxproductions.tv/haunts/VideoClips/seance.html

While I wouldn't classify her as being "crude mechanically" as Jerry puts it, (she'll vex you for that Jerry!) the design admittedly didn't lend itself to being reproduced for sale and providing the reliable performance necessary for shows night after night in any and every kind of setting.

This is where Jerry's brilliance came to the table. While recovering from an illness, Jerry utilized the time to redesign the inner workings of the skull, analyze it's weaknesses, and come up with a product that would work reliably and effectively time and again. He hand crafted the necessary components , experimented extensively with casting materials, conferred with experts in the LED field, implemented those great color-changing eyes, and more until we finally had a product like none other... the Skulltronix!

Jerry continues to make improvements on the design to this day (we're on Rev 3 at present), while I concentrate on tapping my acting and broadcast background to create new voices and characters. The future looks bright as Skulltronix headquarters moves from Jerry's living room to a large new warehouse and production facility. We're brainstorming on new ways to improve the product, to give the haunt community some of the coolest props and tools to take their haunts to the next level as well.

Let us know what you'd like to see in the next rev. Fill us in on new characters you'd like to see us create and make available.

Looking forward to the next step in the Evolution of the Talking Skull!

Happy Haunting!

MrWizzer (aka Mike Fox)