Santa, sleigh and reindeer.

timon

timon

New member
I thought they no longer produced Santa and his sleigh plus the reindeer so you had to find them use but I guess not. Considering what they go for used the new price is not too bad. $135 for Santa, sleigh and one reindeer and $50 for each additional reindeer. An entire set would be $535 plus shipping/tax depending on where you live.

http://www.seasonsla.com/16480.html

Now if I could only fine that post which showed the sleigh plus 9 reindeer all hung from two long cables.

Edit: I found them, it was on the LOR forum. Here they are for others to checkout.

They were originally posted by Beiilll. There are other pictures but I posted the most informative. Beiilll used clear PVC tubing to hold the pairs but I think that flat 1/4" Plexiglas would work also and is a little easier to find. Don't know where he got Rudolph, he seems to be in the same scale but is much different. I like him. I can see using pixel strips for the reins and using a chase pattern on them. I like the idea of mounting the controller under the sleigh. Feed power and DMX and bingo, one great looking team.

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timon said:
I thought they no longer produced Santa and his sleigh plus the reindeer so you had to find them use but I guess not. Considering what they go for used the new price is not too bad. $135 for Santa, sleigh and one reindeer and $50 for each additional reindeer. An entire set would be $535 plus shipping/tax depending on where you live.

http://www.seasonsla.com/16480.html


Now if I could only fine that post which showed the sleigh plus 9 reindeer all hung from two long cables.
Click to expand...



I have that santa/sleigh with 2 reindeer on my roof. I would like to add two more reindeer for next year. They carry that line at menards, or at least they did last year and it was 30% cheaper than that.
 
Americansale.com in Illinois had them for half price but I just checked and they are all out online but you could call the stores.
 
I found the post showing the set mounted on cables, it was on the LOR forum. Here they are for others to checkout. I also put this in the first post.

They were originally posted by Beiilll. There are other pictures but I posted the most informative. Beiilll used clear PVC tubing to hold the pairs but I think that flat 1/4" Plexiglas would work also and is a little easier to find. Don't know where he got Rudolph, he seems to be in the same scale but is much different. I like him. I can see using pixel strips for the reins and using a chase pattern on them. I like the idea of mounting the controller under the sleigh. Feed power and DMX and bingo, one great looking team.

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First off, sorry that I have not been on this forum for quite some time. My bad!
Second, I'm glad you like the looks of my sleigh and use of a controller with it. It did provide quite a hit this year since I was able to get it hung out in the display finally.
My Rudolf is a Grand Venture reindeer while all the others are the Empire ones as well as the Empire sleigh. I did mod the sleigh and santa so that the light for santa is one channel and the sleigh is on another channel (probably because I had 16 channels to play with!).
You can find the Grand Venture reindeer on eBay most of the time it seems as they are fairly common.
I used the 2 color rope light only because I had that laying around as well and figured that it was a simple way to make reins for the sleigh. It would be great to use pixel strip and have some chase work with it though.
I used 1" polycarbonate tubing for the spacers to hold the deer and cables apart as I had it from another project and it is very hard and holds up well. It won't bend or sag over time like regular plexi will and works much better in freezing temperatures as well. The poly tubing comes from US plastics: http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=23791 for your info.

The other pictures on that post that Timon referenced over on the LOR forums were from a fellow out in Colorado that I have been chatting with about his sleigh and how he motorized it to make it go out and then return to the start point. He built some very heavy duty pulley and motor systems for his.
I want to get mine to fly across my property as well but still need to find a couple of 40 foot TV or radio towers to use on each side of the property to go between for cabling and some other effect items that I want to do.
Let me know if there is anyting specific that you would like to see or know about this or any of my other display items. Now that we are past the holiday times, I hope to spend a lot more time on some of these forums as well as more learning of the DIY route as I will be adding RGB to my display as well and have quite a few other project items that I want to build in the next couple of years.
Bill
 

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That is a regular C7 bulb as are all the ones in the reindeer. Santa's sleigh has 3 - 40 watt bulbs in it. Each reindeer has 3 bulbs as well.
 
wood_guy said:
I just picked up one of the santa and reindeers. What size and type of bulb did you use for Rudolph's nose?
Click to expand...

I think most people just use a standard C7 cord set. Cut off the end of the nose and then clip the socket in there facing out. You'll probably have to fish the socket up through the inside because the plug probably won't go through the hole. Alternately you could cut off the plug, feed the cord into the nose, clip the socket in place, fish the cord out below and splice the plug back on.

TED
 
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Ted is correct or you can buy the sockets for C7 or C9 from a lot of places. I bought a lot of them and then used the green zip wire from CDI that has the UV additive in it to help with long term sunlight exposure and made custom cords for all the deer and sleigh. It let me run the zip wire all the way from each reindeer to the sleigh where I have a weatherproof container under the sleigh with an LOR controller in it to run each deer, the sleigh, and the two color rope light. Each deer has 3 sockets in them that I fished the zip cord through the blowmold and out each hole to attach the socket to. Then I just zip tied the zip wire to each blowmold and then to the galvanized cable that attaches each deer together and to the sleigh.
Doing it this way also let me coat the ends of the zip wire with liquid electric tape and the sockets with a little bit of silicone to seal them. I also used silicone dielectric grease around each bulb to prevent moisture from getting into them. Takes some extra time to do but makes a very good connection and as water resistant as possible for long term usage although it is still very easy to remove a socket and change a bulb if every needed.
 
Thanks for the tips. I was tossing out some Halloween stuff and found a pumpkin that had a red C7 bulb. I would really like a LED C7 retrofit bulb, but I can't find any locally. One store had 3 packs, but none in red. It seems like one C7 bulb will not illuminate the reindeer much. I thought about stuffing a short string of LED lights inside.

Now I need to build a mounting base so the santa and reindeer can sit on a gable peak of my roof. I'm leaning toward a plywood platform that I can weight down with paver blocks or similar. I was planning on stapling old carpet to the base to protect the shingles. I need to be able to disassemble everything for storage, including the santa and sled. I put threads on the rods that hold the sled rails together so I can use wing nuts, instead of the hammer on caps it came with. I'm replacing all the screws with stainless ones. I'm adding some extra washers so screw heads wont pull through.
 
OK. I got my rig all assembled and put up. The first picture is of how I wired in Rudolph's nose. Quick disconnects were used between the nose and body bulbs for a complete disassemble of the whole rig for storage. The second picture is the mounting base that goes under the sled. I'm using two paver bricks to weight it down. The third picture shows the sled attached to the base using some plastic strap hanger and screws. I threaded one end of the metal rod that goes between the sled rails. That way I can use a wing nut on one end and the hammer on non-removable cap on the other end. The forth picture is a indoor lightup test. I added red and yellow mini lights for the sleigh reins. The last picture is the final installation on the roof.
 

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I am going to try and pick up a whole set here after Christmas and try and motorize it to go through the yard. I have always loved the look of these. Thanks for sharing the pics.
 
Nice job on the sleigh and mount! That looks so sweet on the roof like he is taking off to the next house. I would bet you get a lot of comments on it from people who see it.
 
I just posted a thread regarding the Santa and reindeer. Looking to put them on my roof this year. Any ideas or suggestions in regards to mounting them?
 
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