I had a few people wanting to see some of these props in action so I made a little video. I didn't know that the quality would suffer so badly when I sent it to YouTube, but you get the basic idea. The credits at the end, which are hard to read even if you watch it in full screen mode, are basically thanking my son for standing out in the cold wind and operating the switches for me while I made the videos. You can see him jumping up and down in the background on one of them. I think that was from a combination of being cold and being excited that he got to operate the switches. The music on this video is by Igneous Flame.
Here's what I did with my third toepincher coffin. It has an air cylinder inside that opens the lid so that this guy can say hello to everyone. This one is also controlled by a switchboard and will be activated as people walk by. I had to put this one behind a fence where little hands can't reach, because the lid slams shut rather fast and loudly... not that any hands would probably be reaching in there, but you never know.