I’ve been covering Tractor Supply Company’s Halloween releases for a few years now. Their holiday label, Red Shed, always offers some interesting items, often with a farmhouse bent. This year is no exception, as they have added a skeleton cowboy to their line.
What Is the Red Shed LED Skeleton Cowboy?
The LED Skeleton Cowboy is a 60″ animatronic with moving mouth and lasso. It has the following features:
- Perfect addition to your western Halloween decor or haunted farm display
- Motion-activated skeleton comes to life when people approach
- Sound effects, lasso action, mouth movements and glowing red LED eyes and chest create a memorable Halloween surprise
- Classic skeleton wears a cowboy hat, bandana, cowboy boots and gloves fit for a true ranch hand
- Standing an impressive 60 in. tall, this life-size skeleton instantly becomes the centerpiece of your outdoor Halloween decorations
- Ground stakes help keep the skeleton stable and secure
- Battery-powered for easy setup
- Requires 3 AA batteries (included)
- AC adapter also included
- Available exclusively at Tractor Supply
The LED Skeleton Cowboy retails for $199.99, and is available online at Tractor Supply Company’s website, or at your local Tractor Supply Company.
Assembling the Red Shed LED Skeleton Cowboy
The Cowboy Skeleton comes in a pretty slim box. They’ve packed a lot into a small space- you’ll probably want to use a plastic bin to store the animatronic in after you break him down, rather than trying to fit everything back in the box.
Assembly was very easy for the skeleton. You start by putting together the base and adding the leg supports.
Plastic boots and bones go over the leg supports, and then the torso (with head included) simply clips into the legs.
The two arms are connected together by the rope for the lasso. The arms clip into the torso at the shoulders, and you connect a sole wire between the right arm and a wire in the chest.
The left arm is poseable, and you can raise, lower, and twist the forearm.
To finish assembly, you slot the hard lasso loop into the right hand, and then place the felt hat onto the head. Velcro on both sides of the skull holds the hat in place.
Here’s the fully assembled Skeleton Cowboy:
The Skeleton Cowboy comes with two stakes to keep the prop in place if you place it on your lawn. It can operate either via batteries, or a plug that goes into the back of the skull.
The prop also comes with a “Try Me” button (aka a step pad) in case you want to use that to activate it instead of motion sensing.
Here’s the Skeleton Cowboy operating via motion sensor:
Of course, for full effect for a Halloween animatronic, you need to wait until dark. Here’s a look at some of the different phrases that the Skeleton Cowboy comes with. These were all triggered with the “try me” button.
Red Shed LED Skeleton Cowboy – Final Thoughts
Now, obviously this isn’t going to be a prop that fits in with everyone’s Halloween display. It’s exactly as advertised: Skeleton Cowboy. But if your yard is full of skeleton horses and cows (also available at Tractor Supply Company, by the way) then this is definitely the animatronic for you.
One of the things that’s great about the Red Shed LED Cowboy is that it’s a very easy prop to assemble. You only need one person to put it together, and everything fits together nicely.It doesn’t have a ton of movement, but the rotating lasso is definitely effective. The movement of the jaw syncs up pretty well with the sound clips, too. And there’s a nice variety of phrases available, so you won’t be hearing the same line over and over.
There are a couple of features that I really appreciate, especially in a relatively inexpensive animatronic. One is the inclusion of a “try me” button. For most animatronics, you have to purchase a step pad separately, so it’s nice to see it in the package. The motion sensor works very well for this prop, but a step pad will definitely keep it from triggering every time a car drives by.
It’s also nice that you can choose between battery or AC power. While most people generally prefer plugging in a prop, sometimes you want to place an animatronic somewhere that might be inconvenient for a power cord.
And the Skeleton Cowboy has another feature that always makes me overjoyed to see: it’s rated for outdoor display. So you can display it on your lawn indefinitely (though you may want to cover it or take it indoors during a torrential downpour).
The Red Shed LED Skeleton Cowboy may be a bit of a niche purchase for Halloween displays, but what it does, it does well. It looks great on display, lights up nicely, and has a good variety of phrases that definitely fit the theme. Unfortunately you can’t control the volume, but the sound levels seem to be good. Overall, this is a fun animatronic for your lawn, and if you like how it looks and sounds, then you should be more than happy picking up the LED Skeleton Cowboy.
For more information or to make a purchase, head over to the Tractor Supply Company website.
Tractor Supply Company provided a prop for evaluation, but had no input into this review.
