SPINNING SKULL SHADOW SHADOW CASTER

Spinning Skull Shadow Shadow Caster, retail $16.99
Manufactured by (Unknown)
Last updated 10-23-10




The Spinning Skull Shadow Shadow Caster is a fairly large plastic "skull" with spooky cutouts in it; these are designed to project sillhouettes of things like bones, spiders, bats (the kind with wings, not the kind you hit baseballs with), skulls, crescent moons, and ghosts; using three high-flux ("spider") LEDs in orange, green, and blue. Not only do the LEDs fade and come up gently, the outer "skull" slowly rotates.

While in it's "ON" state, it generates spooky sounds as well - so it's not just a visual thing, it's an aural (something you can hear) experience as well.

The Spinning Skull Shadow Shadow Caster is both motion- and sound-sensitive, so it is supposed to "go off" when it senses Trick-Or-Treaters approaching or hears them talking and whatnot.

It is scary enough that you might well have to hose down little puddles of urine off your front porch on the morning of November 01 .
Yes, this is a good thing for a Halloween product.

No, that isn't a typo on this web page.
It really *IS* called the "Spinning Skull Shadow Shadow Caster".


See for yourself...this is part of the packaging material for this product.


Size of product w/hand to show scale SIZE



To use the Spinning Skull Shadow Shadow Caster, feed it first (see directly below), and THEN you can go and relax the embouchure* - er - uh - I mean - make Trick-Or-Treaters pee all over themselves. .

On the bottom edge of the unit, you'll see a small slide switch.
Slide it to the "ON" position, and place it on a flat surface where the sillhouettes will be projected and be visible to your intended viewers. The unit will go through one complete cycle and then go to "sleep" mode.

From this point, if the product senses Trick-Or-Treaters approaching or hears them talking and/or otherwise making racket, it will come on and run through one complete cycle, then automatically go to "sleep" mode again until the next hapless "victim" or "victims" arrive(s) & triggers it again.

Slide the same switch to the "OFF" position when finished using the product.



To change the batteries in the Spinning Skull Shadow Shadow Caster, unscrew & remove the screw (with attached washer) from the bottom of the unit, and throw it in the graveyard so the zombies find it, drop it into an open grave, and take a leak on it...O WAIT!!! YOU'LL NEED THAT!!! So just set it aside instead.

Remove the circular base of the unit, and set that aside.

Unscrew & remove the screw on the battery door, and set that aside too.

Unclip and remove the battery door, and...you guessed it...set that aside as well.

If necessary, remove the used AA cells from the compartment, and recycle or dispose of them as you see fit.

Install three brand spanken new AA cells into the compartment, orienting each one so its flat-end (-) negative faces a spring for it in each chamber.

Clip the battery door back in place, screw in the screw, place the circular base back on so that it's centered (it will "drop" slightly when this is so), insert & tighten that screw, and be done with it.
Aren't you glad you didn't throw that first screw into the graveyard with all those smelly, rotting, yucky zombies now?



This is a Halloween light designed to scare Trick Or Treaters, not a flashlight designed to be carried around, thrashed, trashed, and abused. So I won't throw it against the wall, stomp on it, try to drown it in the toliet bowl or the cistern, run over it, swing it against the concrete floor of an outdoor patio, use a small ball peen hammer in order to bash it open to check it for candiosity, fire it from the cannoņata, drop it down the top of Mt. Erupto (I guess I've been watching the TV program "Viva Piņata" too much again - candiosity is usually checked with a laser-type device on a platform with a large readout (located at Piņata Central), with a handheld wand that Langston Lickatoad uses, or with a pack-of-cards-sized device that Fergy Fudgehog uses; the cannoņata (also located at Piņata Central) is only used to shoot piņatas to piņata parties away from picturesque Piņata Island, and Mt. Erupto is an active volcano on Piņata Island {In the episode "Les Saves the Day...Again", Paulie Preztail says "Hey, ever wonder why this park's called 'Mount Erupto' anyway?", then Franklin Fizzlybear says "I think its an old native term. Means 'very safe.'"}), send it to the Daystrom Institute for additional analysis, or inflict upon it punishments that flashlights (that were born to be flashlights and nothing but flashlights) may have inflicted upon them.

If it fell in water and you suspect it got flooded, disassemble it as you would for a battery change, dump out the water if necessary, and set the parts in a warm dry place for a couple of days or so just to be sure it's completely dry inside before you reassemble and use it again.

If it fell into seawater, got thrown into a large pitcher of milk, if it fell in a root beer float, if somebody squirted a Massengill brand post-menstrual disposable douche or a Fleet brand disposable enema at it (and hit it with the douche or the enema), or if somebody or something peed on it, rinse all the parts out with fresh water before setting them out to dry. You don't want your Spinning Skull Shadow Shadow Caster to smell like seaweed, sour milk, flowers, fresh butts, or rotten piss when you go to use it next. Besides, salt (from seawater, disposable douches, disposable enemas, or uranation), lactic acid (from moo juice), glycerol (from antifreeze), or sugar (from root beer & ice cream) can't be very good for the insides.

So this section of the Spinning Skull Shadow Shadow Caster's evaluation will appear SIGNIFICANTLY more bare than this section of the web page on a page about a flashlight.

According to the packaging materials, this product is not a toy, and should not be used by children under 8.
On another part of the packaging materials, it lists a choking hazard due to small parts, and (for that reason) it should not be used by children under 3.



Photograph of the product, illuminated, of course.


Spectrographic plot
Spectrographic analysis of the LED (orange) in this product.


Spectrographic plot
Spectrographic analysis of the LED (green) in this product.


Spectrographic plot
Spectrographic analysis of the LED (blue) in this product.
USB2000 spectrometer graciously donated by P.L.

WMP movie (.avi extension) showing the product in action.
For some reason, it isn't showing the orange at all,
and only just barely shows the green.

This clip is approximately 1.869 megabytes (1,933,954 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than nine minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.
I cannot provide it in other formats, so please do not ask.








TEST NOTES:
Test unit was purchased at a Raleys in Sacramento CA. USA on 10-11-08.

* From the Star Trek: TNG episode "Future Imperfect".




UPDATE: 11-02-08
I used this product on Halloween to greet Trick-Or-Treaters as they came into the porch; I'd say that it "fired off" approximately 40% of the time. It actually scared several children away; it wouldn't surprise me one bit if the bottom part of their costumes were soaked with pee when they left but were dry before they came to our porch.


UPDATE: 10-20-10
I went to look for this product to make sure it worked properly prior to our deploying it on the porch on Halloween, but have thus far been unable to locate it.


UPDATE: 10-23-10
This product did turn up -- and right where it was supposed to be as well!!!








    MANUFACTURER: Unknown
    PRODUCT TYPE: Shadow-casting lamp w/spooky sound effects
    LAMP TYPE: High-flux ("spider") LED
    No. OF LAMPS: 3 (1 each orange, green, blue)
    BEAM TYPE: N/A
    SWITCH TYPE: Slide switch on/off on bottom edge
    CASE MATERIAL: Plastic
    BEZEL: N/A
    BATTERY: 3xAA cells
    CURRENT CONSUMPTION:
    WATER RESISTANT: Very light splatter-resistance at maximum
    SUBMERSIBLE: FOR GOD SAKES NOOOOO!!!
    ACCESSORIES: 3xAA cells
    COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: China
    WARRANTY: Unknown/not stated

    PRODUCT RATING:

    This is a seasonal product (Halloween), so a "star" rating will not be furnished.





Spinning Skull Shadow Shadow Caster *






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