Tomatoes, killer or otherwise?

Three things came together to produce this scenario. One was seeing this video, https://makezine.com/2012/06/24/attack-of-the-killer-tomato/ It shows an automaton made by Keith Newstead as a donations box for Occombe Farm in Devon, UK. The second thing was a memory I have as a boy waiting to get my hair cut in the local barber’s shop. All