The custom Halloween prop company in China had sent photos of the manufacturing process along the way and even a walk-around video showing people standing next to it for scale before Sophie Jenkins’ package was readied for shipping to Australia.
But even then, Sophie wasn’t fully prepared for what jumped out of the box last week.
“I did a little unboxing video for my Instagram page, which was really fun, but I didn’t realise how quickly it was going to blow up,” she says.
“It’s got two giant industrial fans in it and within 30 seconds, boom, it just went up.”
It’s a 10-metre-wide inflatable spider, now perched between two gum trees out the front of her Kambah home like it’s crawling out of its nest, and dubbed ‘Mortein’, or ‘Morty’ for short.
“It’s a lot bigger than I was anticipating!”
It’s the centrepiece for arguably Canberra’s biggest Halloween display.
Sophie, on the corner of 31 Gallagher Street and 1 Samson Place, decorated her house for the …