The Body Part Toss Game

Thanks, Screaming Scarecrow Studios, for this gristly and very valuable contribution!

Why do most haunters haunt? Because we have tons of fun doing it!

From building spooky props to putting together creepy Halloween costumes to scaring the pants off trick-or-treaters and rewarding them with candy, we just plain love it. Most Halloween haunters find all aspects of home haunting fun!

With that in mind, and in an effort to provide our Halloween guests with more gruesome entertainment, the lurking lunatics at Screaming Scarecrow Studios have put together the following simple game.

Our Body Part Toss Game, or BPTG, was relatively cheap and simple to build and it should last a good number of years.

YOU WILL NEED:

• plywood (see below)
• supporting wood, if desired (see below)
• nails
• plastic body parts (buy these BEFORE shaping and cutting your holes so you know how large to make them)
• jigsaw
• red paint
• white paint
• old clothing
• expanding foam

SOMETHING TO TOSS BODY PARTS AT:

Start out with a 4’ x 8’ sheet of plywood. Plywood may cost a bit more (look for deals),  but it will accept paint better and last longer in the outdoor elements.

We chose cheap, quarter inch thick, spruce plywood (rough not finished). This made the finished product light and portable.

Quarter inch plywood may occasionally be a bit flimsy, so we screwed a 2” x 2” wood frame to the back of the plywood. This not only gave the BPTG rigidity it also gave us a good solid piece of wood to screw a stand to if one was to be used.

OUTLINE YOUR VICTIM:

For this, we simply laid the plywood down on the ground and then positioned a willing victim on it. We then traced the basic sprawled body shape with a pencil.

Once this shape was traced, we cut out the holes for the parts to be tossed into during the game. We made the holes vary a bit in size and shape in order to provide different levels of challenge.

After the holes were cut and all the rough edges sanded down, we painted the plywood white. If you want your reds to pop out under any lighting, you need to put them on white! It’s an amazing (and gruesome) effect.

Once the white paint dried we created body shapes such as chest, arms and legs using stucco wire. We like using stucco wire because it makes for a stronger wire frame form.

After the wire body shapes were created we attached them to the plywood in their proper spots. We used nails for this because the portion of the nails that were sticking out the back of the quarter inch plywood could be bent over flat so they would not be sticking out dangerously.

NOTE: At our haunt, for added insurance that nobody gets poked by any protruding nails, we have an actor dressed up with a fake chainsaw retrieving the tossed body parts for our guests.

DRESSED TO DIE FOR:

After the wire body shapes were all attached to the plywood it was time to dress our victim.

In order to do this we cut the back out of an old used shirt and pair of pants that we had lying around. Next, we cut straight up the back of the legs and the arms of the pants and shirt.

With the clothing opened up in this manner we are able to wrap wire frame with the clothing, stapling the clothing to the plywood along the edges as we went.

DETAILING THE GAME:

Finally we added all the gory details, such as blood on the clothes, blood splatter on the plywood and of course, the steaming pile of entrails!

For the red paint we used high-gloss red spray paint. Painting the clothes and the areas around the holes was easy; we just used as much as we thought looked impressively splattered (see the image for reference).

Creating the blood splatter and drips was a bit tricky with spray paint. We used an ordinary stick and while the game was leaning upright and while holding the stick above the game, we sprayed the paint onto the stick (holding the nozzle close to the stick), letting the excess paint run off the stick. They ran downward. The effect was perfect.

For the final touch, we used expanding foam to make the entrails. After reinforcing the waist with extra stucco wire, we put a small chicken wire basket inside the pants so that there would be something for the expanding foam to sit on. Then we sprayed. Caution: as the name says, this expands. Use just a little, then add on.

Just some extra words of caution here: ALWAYS READ AND FOLLOW THE MANUFACTURE’S DIRECTIONS when using expanding foam products.

We always wear protective gear when using this stuff, especially eye safety goggles. This stuff is so sticky the only way you can clean it up is with acetone when it’s wet and a sander when its dry. You DO NOT want to get this in your eyes. We’ll say it again: be careful!

HALLOWEEN FUN WITH YOUR BPTG:

Time to play the game! Assign points depending upon how far away the hole is, whether the correct body part goes into the correct hole, and how irregularly shaped or difficult the hole is.

Thanks for reading and Happy Haunting!