About PHANTASMECHANICS

We first went online back in 1996 as a source for ideas and inventions related to Halloween decorating. Shortly after that we began selling kits of our popular effect, the Flying Crank Ghost, or FCG. Within a few short years these spooks were all around the world in haunts ranging from private homes to major theme parks. The most frequent feedback we got was how the effect stopped cars in front of darkened windows and yards containing our floating spooky apparitions. We began building these in all sizes, and our customers used them in innovative and surprising ways. A Google search for FCG or Flying Crank Ghost will yield many, many results.

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We began adding other effects as time went on, and these also became kits for sale. The most popular  of these was our Hitcher prop. We were in business for 11 years, and rather than close the site, we decided to continue as an idea house.

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Doug is retired now, but continues practicing as an imagineer and producer, after a long career working in the haunted attraction industry. His biggest project was the construction of a 'hard-top' (permanent-style) dark ride, built entirely in-house at New Orleans' famous House of Shock, where he was chief imagineer at the time. This had 7 vehicles with 4-6 passengers each on a 450' track, with a ride lasting 4 minutes. The ride opened in a beta version, and carried many passengers; alas, before the second year, the haunt lost its lease, and sadly, the ride had to be sold. That entire story will appear here and as a YouTube video series.

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Now Doug and his wife Barbara are working as imagineers on the social media service Second Life, creating content, making machinima video and building 3D mesh creations. They have developed a unique hybrid technique using multiple platforms that they hope will yield great results in the near future. Keep visiting this site in the months and years to come for more surprises!