Pumpkin Thing

Our cousin used to host a pumpkin-carving party every year. After making one or two jack-o-lanterns, I thought it might be fun to try something else. That "something else" ended up being a life-size replica of The Thing from the Fantastic Four.

The Thing made out of pumpkins, wearing cut-off jeans.

More accurately, I was inspired by the barely related Hanna Barbera animated series from 1979, where a kid would put two rings together, say "Thing Ring, do your thing!", and turn into the famous orange rock man.

A boy puts two rings together and gets covered with orange rocks to become The Thing.

It all came together over the course of a week. I started with this sketch, that frankly looks a bit more like an angry Frosty.

Very rough sketch of a muscular person with a pumpkin head. Front, top, and side view.

I brought that into GIMP and made a colorful mockup. Note the abs. At that point, I thought I'd be painting the pants on.

A colored version of the sketch, now covered with orange rocks and blue shorts.

That mockup looked good enough that I decided to continue. The plan was to make a frame, and figure out how to attach the pumpkins later. First I sketched a frame in Inkscape, then I made an actual 3D model in Wings 3D.

The sketch now with a sort of skeleton drawn inside.

The skeleton made in 3D.

From there, I used a Python script to parse the 3D file and calculate how much wood I needed. I got a bunch of 2" x 60" strips of wood, about 1/4" thick, and began construction. I cut them to length, then used glue and a brad nailer to hold them together. (The leftover strips have been used in various projects over the years, and I still have a few.) Despite its looks, this ended up being surprisingly sturdy.

The wooden skeleton standing in front of a car and a piano in my garage.

I gutted and smashed ten pumpkins to make the rock pieces. Then I had to figure out how to attach them to the frame, which ended up being the hardest part.

I wrapped the entire thing in chicken wire, then used beading wire to individually tie each piece on. I used a wooden skewer to poke two holes, threaded the wire through, and twisted the ends together. This may be the only time in history that someone has sewed vegetables.

Chicken wire spread across the chest of the skeleton.

A chunk of pumpkin tied onto the shoulder with wire.

I spent the entire day of the party tying on pieces of pumpkin (with help from others). Then I got a pair of shorts, cut them in half so they could wrap around, and tied them on too.

The skeleton partially covered with pumpkins. Piles of pumpkin pieces are on the floor.

Now I had a headless pumpkin monster standing in my garage. I left it behind while I went to the party.

Instead, I brought a single pumpkin, just like anyone else. I sat at a picnic table and carved a simple jack-o-lantern.

But when night fell, before the reveal and judging, I slipped away to get the body.

The Thing made out of pumpkins, standing outside in the dark, lit by a light bulb in its chest.

Not to be outdone, Mezrus brought a spinning pumpkin ferris wheel that he made inbetween bouts of working on The Thing.

A wooden ferris wheel with pumpkins as the cars.

For about a week afterward, The Thing sat next to the highway for everyone to see as they drove by. But when the pumpkins started to rot, we took it away and smashed it to bits.

As The Thing would say, "It's clobberin' time!"

Pieces of The Thing smashed on the ground outside.

– WT

2025-01-18