We just passed the “Halfway to Halloween” date, which landed midway between April 30th and May 1st. And so it’s about time to start sharing with our readers some of the great ways you’ll be able to decorate for spooky season!
You may recall that I reviewed a couple of Lowe’s 12-foot animatronics in 2024: the Bone Collector and the Scarecrow. While Lowe’s will be releasing a bunch of all-new animatronics later this year (including a 12-foot vampire!), to mark “Halfway to Halloween,” they re-released a few of their more popular 2024 pieces. One of those is the Haunted Living Haunted Sea Diver, part of their Haunted Harbor collection.
What Is the Lowe’s Haunted Living Haunted Sea Diver Animatronic?
The Lowe’s Haunted Living Haunted Sea Diver Animatronic is a 72″ indoor/covered outdoor prop manufactured by Tekky and distributed exclusively at Lowe’s. It retails for $349 and is currently only available at Lowe’s website (though it may become available again to purchase at stores this Fall). Here’s the overview from Lowe’s:
- IT came from the bottom of the deep dark sea…to terrify the company! Life-size Animated Haunted Deep Sea Diver includes elaborate steampunk diving suit with harpoon gun and seaweed details, LED lights and cinematic sounds.
- The Haunted Deep Sea Diver makes the scene this Halloween as a premium animatronic, engineered for maximum fun and fright by Lowe’s Haunted Living and Tekky.
- Deep Sea terror comes alive to reveal it’s gruesome, green glowing skeletal face! Realistic side-to-side movement, scary sounds from the sea, and terrifying LED lighted skull face reveal!
- Sound, human, or footpad/button activated (footpad/button sold separately).
- Easy to assemble, battery-operated “fright prop” for convenient display — no wires to trip over (4AA batteries included). Or power your prop with the 6V 2A DC adapter — included — when a standard outlet is available.
Assembling the Lowe’s Haunted Living Haunted Sea Diver Animatronic
Assembling the Haunted Sea Diver was fairly straightforward. Basically, if you’ve ever assembled an animatronic, you should be able to put this one together in just a few minutes. And even if you haven’t, the included instructions are easy to follow.
Several of the components were attached to the cardboard divider with twist ties, so this did slow down the initial assembly. However, the trade off is that the parts were secure during shipping so arrived in perfect shape.
I had a nice surprise while unpacking all the pieces: the base came with an attached sandbag! Many animatronics need to be weighted down to stabilize them, so it made me smile to see a sandbag included in the box.
Here’s a quick look at the assembly:
Click to view slideshow.The only slight snag I had was with getting the clothing up over the clear shoulder piece. It did take me a few minutes to accomplish that task, partly due to the thickness of the costume. However, that extra padding really helps to sell the diving suit look (though the costume has a very pronounced crease in the right leg that I’ll have to try and iron out).
Once assembled, all you have to do is connect a few wires, and then plug in the control box. The control box seems identical to those used in the other Lowe’s/Tekky animatronics that I’ve reviewed. The Sea Diver can be activated either by the motion sensor on its front, or using a separately available step pad.
Here’s a look at the Haunted Sea Diver, all lit up:
I took him outside in the evening to shoot a quick video, where you can see him perform his two phrases:
Lowe’s Haunted Living Haunted Sea Diver Animatronic – Final Thoughts
I think that the Haunted Sea Diver is one of the best-looking animatronics that Lowe’s has sold in recent years. The thick costume really helps give the illusion of a bulky, old-fashioned diving suit, and the molded plastic gloves and boots look great, both in their sculpt and in the paint work. But the best part of the animatronic has to be that seaweed-covered diving helmet, with the glowing skull inside. That really sells the whole “haunted diver” bit, and creates a wonderfully eerie effect.
This is an animatronic that can certainly be a bit creepy, especially at night. My girlfriend’s teenage daughter got a bit of a jumpscare just from walking in and seeing it standing in the living room. But it’s also pretty family friendly. There’s no gore, and the voice lines are more Pirates of the Caribbean in flavor. And if you’re of a certain age, you’ll definitely be reminded of Captain Cutler from Scooby Doo.
There are a lot of things Lowe’s and Tekky got right with this animatronic. Besides the great overall look, I loved the inclusion of the sandbag and batteries. I would have preferred to have seen a bit more seaweed on the model, but that’s something that can be easily, and inexpensively, added.
If you watched the video I shot, you’re sure to notice something that I discovered right away: the motor is very loud. Granted, I can turn up the voice volume on the animatronic, but that doesn’t change the volume of the mechanism itself. I also wish that there was a bit more complex movement to the animatronic than simply turning side to side. I would have loved to have at least seen the jaw move as he spoke. However, the simple motion is still fairly effective in bringing the Haunted Sea Diver to life (or undeath). As a friend suggested, it would look great posed with some tentacles, as if the Diver was trying to escape the grasp of the giant octopus that had doomed him.
Overall, the Haunted Living Haunted Sea Diver Animatronic is a great-looking piece, and will fit into your decorations well if you’re going for a nautical horror theme for Halloween. Lowe’s also has the lighted Kraken lawn decoration and a Steering Captain animatronic from 2024 in their Halfway to Halloween offerings, so you can easily build a horrifying seafaring display that way.
For more information or to purchase the Haunted Living Haunted Sea Diver Animatronic, head over to Lowe’s website.
Lowe’s provided a Haunted Sea Diver for evaluation, but had no input into this review.
Fonte: GeekDad - Leia mais