"Big Head" Dancing Skeleton Autopsy
Featuring the "Big Head" dancing skeleton from Wallmart
A steal for only $14.88! :)

Click any image for full size picture, Posted 10-02-2003 10:30pm CST

So what does it do? When you hit the "demo" button, this guy sings "super freak" while gyrating his hips the way the old "dancing santa" worked. Ick! However, his mouth is *very* well coordinated with the music and his eyes light up with the jaw opening. His head pans back and forth as he sings. Frankly, I bought this with the intedned purpose being disection! BWAHH haah haaaaa! >:)

 

I wanted to see if this would be easier to convert to an animatronic talking skull than a bucky servo skull. Since it already had animatronic (ok, really *cheap* aniamtronics!) built in I figured for $15 I couldnt lose! It turns out that it is a surprisingly well made unit. The skull has LED eyes that can easily be removed, the Skull itself is made of sturdy plastic and held together with phillups screws. When I operned it, I discovered a small motor that when energised, winds a rubber lead up around it's shaft drawing the jawbone down (not very elegant, but effective). The teeth are actually rubber inserts that make the closing of the jaws almost noiseless. All in all I was impressed.

I removed the old jaw-motor and used the mount to place a servo for Jaw control. I'm going to investgate hollowing out the eye sockets to place ping-pong ball type eyes that can swivel in their sockets next. :D Stay tuned for more pics as they come!

--Vern

On to the SERVO install!