This was my 4th Transworld and in my opinion the best yet. The show was bigger. It took up the entire convention room this year. Took me 2 days to really see the entire floor. Had everything for haunted houses, inflatables to zip lines. The wow factor walking in the door was huge. Gore Galore made sure of that! The giant snake head, their new caged characters walking around and loved the new upgrade to their tall creatures. They even offered an option to upgrade your previously purchased creatures to the new rig for a small price.
I saw an equal variety of options for haunts with a big budget and options for haunts on a very limited budget. There’s now quality animatronics that are affordable from every company.
Scarefactory always has impressive animatronics but they are far out of my budget but it was nice to see that you could get a giant creature for as little as $3,000. The shooting game was amazing and they were offering financing. However, I thought the shooting game that was not in the dark zone was suited for me better because an actor could have the targets attached to him. Also, required less setup time and was only about $6,000 for the whole package. Can’t remember the name of that company at the moment though.
My personal favorites are Poison Props. They seem to be the most well built, quietest and most startling animatronics available, not to mention they’re a little over $1,000. Loved the head ripper with a cage on its head.
Dark Raven reinvented their snakes in the form of vines and even had a creature resembling something out of “The Thing”. The movement of their props are incredibly smooth.
Distortions had an old man in a wheelchair that would cough/sneeze water on you and had a more detailed rocking granny that was about $150.
Frightprops was amazing as usual. We do a lot of purchasing from them. They always deliver!
Dead house designs has the most impressive booth. Not only are their projections fantastic, I got lighting technique ideas from those guys. It took me a minute to figure out their projector placement. Very nice guys to talk to.
Brutal Rust offers very realistic rust paint. How cool is that! That makes my life way easier and cuts down on time for sure.
Immortal masks continue to impress me. Their sculpts are the best in my opinion. The detail vs cost is unbeatable! You can get a very believable creature of almost any kind from them for around $600. I remember a few years ago that just wasn’t possible.
CFX brought a new character I really enjoyed called “The Boogeyman.”
It was nice to see such a wide variety of silicone mask makers. Altered FX now reinforces their masks for more durability and Shattered FX even had silicone half masks for those who are on a seriously tight budget but want that realism. It’s now possible to get a nice silicone mask for around $250.
1313FX Frightzone has nice latex half masks for $20 while others have similar styled masks as much as $60. Their masks are perfect for sliders.
Stiltbeast Studios had very cool, original, affordable masks. Not only were they $100, they were unique and unlike any other mask being sold. They almost sold out the first day.
Lots of companies offering full detailed costumes. I really liked Midnight Studios FX. Their latex wolves and creature costumes are highly detailed with hair and very affordable around $1,000. I like how they pour up the inside of their masks to keep them firm on your head.
I can’t say enough about Haunt Tactics. The plants were cool but I thought they really brought it with their full polyfoam costumes. For a full costume costing $1,000 you really get a great product. The improvements they’ve made in just one year has me really excited to see what they bring in 2013.
I noticed alot of new fog companies this year but it’s hard to beat Froggy’s product and customer service. It was nice to see others were handing out samples though.
Necrotic Creations had beautiful hand sculpted cameos.
It’s obvious our industry is impacting more than just the halloween enthusiast now. There were more ATM, Picture marketing, photo booths, ticketing companies and insurance than ever before. We’re being noticed that’s for sure.
Education seems to be the focus lately with How to dvd’s from Hauntworld, Stiltbeast studios make-up and actor training, Creature Corps TV Show and even Villafane had a how to sculpt pumpkins dvd.
I also enjoyed talking to the face off crew. They were all nice and willing to answer any questions I had about make up and special FX. Nix did demos at the European bodyart booth all weekend. I learned alot from watching him and the Wolfe brothers at Graftobian. Tate’s company “Ill Willed” had the best looking latex masks of all the face off cast in my opinion. Meeting Robert Kurtzman was a treat. That guy is a legend in my book and hearing Philip Morris speak was absolutely amazing as well.
Very few negatives but the one’s I did see were noticable from the start. The name tags looked very cheaply done and the bag I recieved was a recycled bag from last year. It said “See you in 2012” on it. The show room floor stage looked thrown together as well. In years past the stage was actually a “stage” not a platform on the ground. The PA system used was lacking. There was only one speaker hooked up. Nobody seemed to grasp the concept that you can’t walk in front of a speaker with the microphone causing a damaging hi frequency noise. My advice is hire an audio specialist. Our hearing is worth the money. Other than that I thought the show was a success. I learned alot, purchased some new things for our show and made many new friends. I look forward to see what it brings next year.
I saw an equal variety of options for haunts with a big budget and options for haunts on a very limited budget. There’s now quality animatronics that are affordable from every company.
Scarefactory always has impressive animatronics but they are far out of my budget but it was nice to see that you could get a giant creature for as little as $3,000. The shooting game was amazing and they were offering financing. However, I thought the shooting game that was not in the dark zone was suited for me better because an actor could have the targets attached to him. Also, required less setup time and was only about $6,000 for the whole package. Can’t remember the name of that company at the moment though.
My personal favorites are Poison Props. They seem to be the most well built, quietest and most startling animatronics available, not to mention they’re a little over $1,000. Loved the head ripper with a cage on its head.
Dark Raven reinvented their snakes in the form of vines and even had a creature resembling something out of “The Thing”. The movement of their props are incredibly smooth.
Distortions had an old man in a wheelchair that would cough/sneeze water on you and had a more detailed rocking granny that was about $150.
Frightprops was amazing as usual. We do a lot of purchasing from them. They always deliver!
Dead house designs has the most impressive booth. Not only are their projections fantastic, I got lighting technique ideas from those guys. It took me a minute to figure out their projector placement. Very nice guys to talk to.
Brutal Rust offers very realistic rust paint. How cool is that! That makes my life way easier and cuts down on time for sure.
Immortal masks continue to impress me. Their sculpts are the best in my opinion. The detail vs cost is unbeatable! You can get a very believable creature of almost any kind from them for around $600. I remember a few years ago that just wasn’t possible.
CFX brought a new character I really enjoyed called “The Boogeyman.”
It was nice to see such a wide variety of silicone mask makers. Altered FX now reinforces their masks for more durability and Shattered FX even had silicone half masks for those who are on a seriously tight budget but want that realism. It’s now possible to get a nice silicone mask for around $250.
1313FX Frightzone has nice latex half masks for $20 while others have similar styled masks as much as $60. Their masks are perfect for sliders.
Stiltbeast Studios had very cool, original, affordable masks. Not only were they $100, they were unique and unlike any other mask being sold. They almost sold out the first day.
Lots of companies offering full detailed costumes. I really liked Midnight Studios FX. Their latex wolves and creature costumes are highly detailed with hair and very affordable around $1,000. I like how they pour up the inside of their masks to keep them firm on your head.
I can’t say enough about Haunt Tactics. The plants were cool but I thought they really brought it with their full polyfoam costumes. For a full costume costing $1,000 you really get a great product. The improvements they’ve made in just one year has me really excited to see what they bring in 2013.
I noticed alot of new fog companies this year but it’s hard to beat Froggy’s product and customer service. It was nice to see others were handing out samples though.
Necrotic Creations had beautiful hand sculpted cameos.
It’s obvious our industry is impacting more than just the halloween enthusiast now. There were more ATM, Picture marketing, photo booths, ticketing companies and insurance than ever before. We’re being noticed that’s for sure.
Education seems to be the focus lately with How to dvd’s from Hauntworld, Stiltbeast studios make-up and actor training, Creature Corps TV Show and even Villafane had a how to sculpt pumpkins dvd.
I also enjoyed talking to the face off crew. They were all nice and willing to answer any questions I had about make up and special FX. Nix did demos at the European bodyart booth all weekend. I learned alot from watching him and the Wolfe brothers at Graftobian. Tate’s company “Ill Willed” had the best looking latex masks of all the face off cast in my opinion. Meeting Robert Kurtzman was a treat. That guy is a legend in my book and hearing Philip Morris speak was absolutely amazing as well.
Very few negatives but the one’s I did see were noticable from the start. The name tags looked very cheaply done and the bag I recieved was a recycled bag from last year. It said “See you in 2012” on it. The show room floor stage looked thrown together as well. In years past the stage was actually a “stage” not a platform on the ground. The PA system used was lacking. There was only one speaker hooked up. Nobody seemed to grasp the concept that you can’t walk in front of a speaker with the microphone causing a damaging hi frequency noise. My advice is hire an audio specialist. Our hearing is worth the money. Other than that I thought the show was a success. I learned alot, purchased some new things for our show and made many new friends. I look forward to see what it brings next year.
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