Prehistoric pumpkins take over Finlayson Drive on Halloween

About 45 pumpkins, some wood, bits of recycled styrofoam and two and a half days of work.

That’s about all it took for Yellowknife artist Dean Robertson to build a roughly 15-foot-long T-rex sculpture on his front porch– the latest in a years-long series of Halloween creations.

Robertson said that on Halloween, there’s often a “huge pile of energy” at his house on Finlayson Drive with hundreds of children trick-or-treating.

Last year, 324 children knocked on his door and this year, he expects to see about 400 if the weather cooperates.

Last year, Robertson crafted a pumpkin sea serpent. Before that it was a werewolf, a scorpion and a centipede.

He said he enjoys seeing children react so positively to his sculptures.

“Their attitude encourages me to keep doing it because they actually are very respectful. They’re very polite,” said Robertson.

“They always stop even though they’re in a rush to go get more candy.”

A professional museum taxidermy artist, Robertson is no stranger to animals, both real and fantastical.

Robertson said his sculptures are usually dependent on the types of pumpkins available at the grocery store leading up to Halloween.

He said the building doesn’t usually take too long “once you get into the groove of things.”

“It’s more of the engineering behind the skeleton of it, because that’s the most challenging part,” said Robertson.

“It’s got to be strong, it’s got to [hold] a lot of weight – can’t have it falling down on people.”

He said he tries to create something more technically challenging, and requiring more pumpkins, every year.

“I just try to do things for people to lift their spirits and make them happy,” said Robertson.

“If you make just one person happy, it’s worth it, right?”