Steve Koci, who goes by the name of Halstaff on the forums and YouTube, is an avid home haunter who also writes for Nuts and Volts and Servo magazines. He participates in several different Make and Take groups where he frequently leads the builds and is a moderator at Haunt Forum and Garage of Evil. He and his wife began haunting 6 years ago and put on the haunt Sanctuary of Spooks in San Diego which is entirely staffed by animatronics. They’ve built and costumed all the props and focus on a “Spooky” theme without blood and gore. They employed over 45 animatronics and projections in their haunt last year and have plans to add more in the coming year. In addition to building all of the props, he also designs and builds most of the controllers that operate the haunt.

In 2013 they were proud to be selected as “Best International Home Haunt” in the Canadian Haunters Association Home Haunters Awards and were chosen for the “Best Motor Prop” for their Pete the Pirate prop in the Dead with Dave Home Haunters Awards. His newest creation, Papa VooDoo recently graced the cover of Servo magazine.

Steve’s new series in Servo Magazine titled Do It Yourself Animatronics began in the June issue with plans for many more installments.