When most people think of “impulse items” at the store they think of candy bars or those magazines on display in the check-out lane. Technically I suppose an impulse purchase is any item you hadn’t specifically intended on purchasing. For me, that happened to be a 12′ Halloween skeleton last weekend which, at $299, cost way more than a candy bar.
Home Depot has been selling this particular skeleton for a couple of years now, but finding one has been nearly impossible. They don’t sell a lot of them and I guess because of that, the don’t keep many of them in stock. I’ve seen pictures of them online, but only two in person (both of which were on display outside local businesses).
Last week Susan and I stopped by Home Depot to pick up a handful of bolts and screws and were surprised to see all the Halloween decorations out on display. I love looking at all the Halloween items for sale at Spirit Halloween and Big Lots, but I always forget that many of the big box stores stock seasonal items as well. There’s nothing better than walking into a store that sells tools and plywood and being greeted by a shelf of animal skeletons.
It doesn’t take much to distract me, and soon my mission to buy nuts and bolts was aborted as I wandered aimlessly into the Halloween section. I was right in the middle of telling Susan about the gigantic skeletons Home Depot had last year when Susan found one in the box, hiding under a shelf — as much as one can hide a large, 85lb box.
The box was so large, in fact, that it wouldn’t fit in Susan’s SUV. Instead, we had to double back to the house and return in my van (which was an adventure unto itself). A short time later, the large box was inside my van, parked in my driveway. The box is approximately 4-foot by 4-foot by 2 1/2 foot, so it was easier to leave in the van until it was time to assemble it. After laying (in rest) in the van for about a week, I wrangled my buddy Jeff to come over and help my assemble the beast.
The first step of any project is to lay out all the parts, and our porch furniture was just the right shape and height to make a convenient work area. The parts were labelled like an Ikea shelf, and the instructions were printed directly on the box.
Theoretically it’s possible to assemble Home Depot’s 12′ Skeleton by one person, although it was much easier with two. The skeleton’s interior structure consists of a series of square metal tubes that slide together and lock into place; the hollow bones then slide over the metal poles.
And in case you’re wondering, the instructions suggest assembling the bottom half first and then leaning the skeleton over the box horizontally to attach the top half. Much easier than using a ladder.
You can tell someone that a 12′ Skeleton is tall, but it’s not until the thing is assembled and you can see it in relation to other things that the reality (and ridiculousness) of the thing sinks in. Here you can see Jeff in relation to the skeleton as my dad looks on. For reference, Jeff is just a tad over six-foot tall.
The skeleton comes with with a wire that runs from the base to the top of the spine and back, which makes the structure “less wobbly” than one would think. That being said, Oklahoma wind gusts can be surprisingly strong, and so we ended up securing him to one of my building’s roof-supporting beams.
The skeleton was advertised as coming with “LED eyes” which I assumed would be two small lights. Instead, the eyes are tiny LED screens. The eyes continually look around and blink. It’s difficult to see them in sunlight, but at night it looks absolutely fantastic.
I have strings of LED lights hanging on my building and more LED lights inside the pool. I’ve experimented a bit with mixing and matching colors, which gives some great effects. The lights have the wonderful side effect of making the skeleton easily viewable from the street that runs behind our house. The biggest surprise that came out of this purchase was hearing people honk as they drive by the house in the evening.
