I was thinking something along those lines. I have a low voltage solenoid to move the grim reapers mouth. Its DC but i connected AC into a triac then rectified it after. That one is fine but i guess the rectifier or the fact that its low voltage helps that one out.

This must be the earliest that everything has been working and this time the circuit isnt resetting itself because everything runs through triacs instead of relays.

Heh, I made an animated gif that fades between my normal avatar and my halloween one like yours but the forum wouldnt let me upload it and it wouldnt let me link to it from my site either. I think the static one looks good enough though.