This year, I tried to carve plastic pumpkins, and was thoroughly unimpressed.

Last year, when they dropped to $1.50 each, right after halloween, I picked up a half-dozen of them. I figured they’d be as easy to carve as pumpkins, but last longer. Turns out that the difference is bigger than that.

They’re made of polyurethane foam, and have a thin orange coating on the outside. This coating is harder to pierce than the skin of a pumpkin, so when you press on them with a knife, you’re just as likely to break all the bits surrounding it. Once you do cut into it, the foam rapidly starts to flake and disintegrate, making it very hard to do anything of detail. So it might be ok for jack-o-lantern type carvings, but isn’t great for delicate work.

It occurred to me after the first one that it might be interesting to try to carve it with a dremel. It worked out ok, but made an awful mess, with foam and dust all over the place.

Perhaps I’ll post some photos eventually. The one good point is that they’ll last forever.