Okay, boils and ghouls, here is my attempt at making a Kenner RGB Ghost Trap (which, oddly, was only originally released with Screamin' Heroes Peter Venkman).

It was made out of several basswood rods (whose thickness presently escapes me), a strand of bead-threading rubber that looked exactly like electrical cable (I might use it in other projects!) and a button, which currently serves as the foot pedal. This is a sort of hybrid trap, which takes equal parts RGB and Movie-style traps.

For the unveiling, I've asked Ray and Winston to give me a hand. They're sort of nervously peering over the trap–nervously because A) I didn't want their shadows to get in the way, and B) they're not sure if the ghost they caught will STAY in there!

Pictures tomorrow–I'm tired and ImageShack is being a swine.

Alright! Can't wait to see these pictures! Im excited.

Glad to hear you're excited, because I have an update–pictures still forthcoming, as I'm having a problem uploading them (they're bitmap images).

UPDATE, 8/11/08: For the cable, I've switched to a more conventional black string, because the original “electrical cable” stuff was too inflexible and caused the Mark I trap to shift around most disturbingly. I suppose if you were doing a photostory and you needed a close-up it would be excellent, but for my purposes, the ordinary black string works far better.

Use Photobucket.com. Its pretty reliable.

Right, PICTURES AT LAST!!!!!!!!

Turns out my pictures had too many megabytes attached to them. The moral of the story is “never put your pictures onto a jump drive, and if you must, make sure they're JPEG and not BMP images.”
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That said, here's Ray and Winston, nervously peering down at their new trap (well, peering down as much as the Kenner figures will allow) :

Here's a pic of the trap by itself, without the figures:



Notice the handle is on an angle–the superglue wasn't quite dry, the handle didn't look quite right, and I overcorrected. At least it looks better on the second one, which I don't yet have pictures of.

Slightly fuzzy detail shot of the side with two red bars on it. The bars aren't 3-dimensional; all details were drawn on first with pencil, then with Sharpie permanent marker.



EDIT: Slightly fuzzy? I should say REALLY fuzzy, but then you try taking a picture with one hand…

And, finally, a detail shot of the doors:

Here's the long-awaited recipe, a gift from me to all of you.

INGREDIENTS

*For the HANDLE, you will need a cylindrical wooden dowel rod, 1/8“ x 36”.
*For the TRAP, you will need a square wooden dowel rod, 1/4“ x 1/4” x 36". (For these, I used basswood rods, but you can use balsa wood if there's nothing else available–basswood is far more durable.)
*For the DETAILS, you will need a bottle of Gesso, a paintbrush, and Sharpie permanent markers in red, black, yellow, and metallic silver. (NOTE: You can use paints, if you wish, but I used Sharpies because they provided better control.)
*For the CABLE, you will need a length of black string/yarn. You can, as I said, use something that looks more like electrical cable, but string is suggested for flexibility.
*For the FOOT PEDAL, you will need to find a button that looks vaguely like a foot pedal (a tuxedo-like button works best).

You will need Superglue as well.
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DIRECTIONS:

Paint both DOWEL RODS with Gesso. One coat should be sufficient.

With a pencil, measure the CYLINDRICAL DOWEL ROD (the handle) to 1 millimeter in length, and the SQUARE DOWEL ROD (the trap) to 1.25 millimeters (if you cut to 1.5 millimeters, that works too). Cut the STRING at somewhere around 4 to 6 inches in length (this is more to your personal discretion).

With an X-Acto model saw(it's like a hacksaw), cut along the measurements you have just made, praying to God that you don't hit a knot along the way.

When these are cut, use the pencil to draw in the details: doors, “warning tape” insignia, and other stuff.

When the details are drawn, get inking!

When the ink's dry, glue the string onto the trap, set sideways on–this will ensure that the string “holds” on the back of the trap. You might need to put a bead onto there in order to hide that “join”, but since this is a small trap, nobody will care–it's the overall effect rather than the detail.

Glue the handle onto the top of the trap, taking great care to get the handle STRAIGHT and not at an angle (gently scoring a “guide” with a craft knife should help).

Finally, tie the FOOT PEDAL onto the string, gluing any exposed string onto itself to hide the “join”.

And…voila! An RGB/movie ghost trap!