Letting kids turn sticky slime into candy on Halloween night
As a kid, and still now, Halloween has been my favorite holiday. What kid doesn’t love dressing up to run around at night collecting pillow cases full of candy.
In 2010 our friend Seth came up with the idea to make a “Candy Making Machine” that would turn slime into candy. He built the original version in front of his house in Silverlake, a neighborhood in Los Angeles. We helped him that night, making kids reach into a bowl of slime and instructing them to dump it into the machine and wait as the machine comes to life, bubbling and moving as the slime is processed into Halloween candy. Of course, behind the scenes are people turning cranks, triggering sounds, and dropping candy down tubes.
We took the concept home with us, and added a year’s worth of new ideas, and came up with something that amazed both the neighborhood kids, and their parents. (I think a lot of the time, the parents actually enjoyed it more).
Check out the video, (it’s missing the step where the kids drop the slime into the green tube).
Build Your Own
Machine Elements
I used metallic or weird looking objects I found around the house. Anything that looked otherworldly can work. The basics are:
- 8′ x 4′ piece of plywood for the face of the machine
- Various colors of spray paint – I used silver, black, a rusty orange, and a moldy green
- Two large diameter tubes – One for the “Slime In” and one for the “Slime Out.” I used the end of a leaf blower and the core of a roll of butcher paper
You can get fancy and use whatever you think looks cool. Some other items that I used include:
- Foam Core – used for the gears
- Small glass beads – spray painted them and used as “rivots”
- Lights – Strobe, different colored bulbs, black light
- Remote controlled electrical outlet – used to trigger lighting effects once slime has been put in the input tube
Slime
Check out the video to the right to get a sneak peek of your creation. It’s pretty cheap, and was better than I expected it would be.
You need:
- 1 1/2 cup of water
- 1/2 cup (4 oz) glue – something like Elmer’s – try to find clear, as white will make the slime more opaque
- 1 teaspoon borax
- food coloring (how can you not use green?)
Directions:
- Mix 1 teaspoon borax in 1 cup water. Stir until the borax is dissolved.
- In a separate container, mix glue with 1/2 cup water. Add food coloring, if desired.
Slime Video
I mounted a monitor to the back of the plywood, so the screen could be seen from the front, and found this great continuous slime bubbling video from VimeoRepeat.com. This played on loop the whole time. A few kids became transfixed on the bubbles, and paid no attention to the candy coming out. Super cute.
Sound Effects
I recorded a collection of sounds from the internet, and mixed them using Audacity, a free audio editing program. Feel free to use this file.
If you have fun ideas for trick-or-treaters, or new ideas for the Candy Making machine, post them in the comments below.
