No honorable hacker or modder can be satisfied with a simple candle inside of a pumpkin.  How boring!  Us proud nerds step up and create unique, appealing, and downright stunning pumpkins complete with lasers, LEDs, robotics, motion sensors, whatever it takes!  Here are some of our DIY Halloween favorites:

• If all else fails, just build a gigantic pumpkin cannon and launch them.

Lasers and LEDs:

Learn to stuff a laser light show inside your pumpkin or stuff it full of LEDs which flash to music.  Check out the laser pumpkin featured at the top of the screen.

The SteamPunkin:

Based on the super popular steampunk craze, this pumpkin is fitted with plenty of gadgets including LEDs and motion sensor which shoots steam out of its ears when someone walks by.

Silly String Motion Sensor:

A simple motion sensing circuit using infrared LEDs and a servo motor sprays silly string at unsuspecting trick-or-treaters.  A superb, simple project to make your house unique.

Wireless Surveillance Pumpkin:

Although this project barely made the list since it involved little hacking, the concept is still pretty unique and worth a mention.

Super Mario 1-Up:

Instead of using the complex circuit in the pumpkin below, this project keeps it simple by flashing some RGB LEDs to create multicolored mushrooms from Super Mario brothers.

Color Changing Pumpkin:

Instead of buying store bought merchandise like the surveillance pumpkin above, this guy built a completely custom infrared sensing circuit to control the color of his pumpkin via a universal remote.

The Classic Cylon:

The classic “knight rider” circuit is a great edition to any pumpkin and is a simple, straightforward circuit to build.

The SpiderBot Pumpkin:

Even though this is a basic hexapod robot with a pumpkin on top, it’s still guaranteed to freak out trick-or-treaters.

Honorable Mention:

While these don’t involve electronics or circuitry, they’re still incredible and deserve to be part of this list.  Be sure to subscribe to HacknMod because you dont want to miss out on future DIY posts!

Just when you thought that Hexapod robots were the best, the guys of at the Tekkotsu lab at Carnegie Mellon University develop the Chiara robot, a fully articulated 6-legged robot, which claws and high-end webcam for precision navigating and decision making. Featuring an Open-source design and future upgrades and interface options via USB. Best of all, it runs on Ubuntu Linux. Check out the full details, as well as a video showing this advanced robot below. Don’t forget to visit the Hack n Mod store for materials and supplies for your next hacking projects.

If you’re into robotics, you’ll love:

• Build a Heavy Duty Six Legged Robot
• Incredible Walking CNC Robot Router
• Build a Heavy Duty Six Legged Robot

The giant robotic spiders (Yes, it’s a couple), have been ‘engineered’ by the French performance art group La Machine. The spiders are far away from the shores of France as they prepare to be the attractions of Expo Y150, a 5-month festival in Yokohama.

The event is still a few days away but the two 12-meter (40-ft) tall, 37-ton arachnids are already drawing the crowds. They are fully mobile and as the video shows, it’s shooting steam and water from its mouth and rear end. Water cannons, fog machines, lights and live music complete the Hollywood style FX effect. The effect deepens as the day turns into night.

Check our more photos of the 40 foot monsters at La Machine and Flickr.

Similar Robotics Projects:

1. Incredible Walking CNC Robot Router
2. Create a New Robot Life Form (Seriously)
3. Make your own Telepresence Robot

Learn to build your own six legged robot with an attached CNC router for a head.  The demonstration video is fantastic, showing the robots mobility while it carves an intricate 3d human face.  You can even build your own.  The site sells kits with everything you need or you can purchase the servos and other parts in our online store.

• To see the development of this robot, learn more about the project.
• Learn more about hexapod robotics.
• View all of our robotics projects.

Vaguely similar to a horror movie with it’s sinister sounded cutting tool and eerie walking…