An Original Screen Matched Gremlins Animatronic Movie Prop

LIKELY THE ONLY HERO GREMLIN puppet REMAINING

Introduction

After adding our first Gremlin puppet to the collection in September 2020, we figured that it was probably the only time we would be able to add a piece from the original movie. After all, puppets from the first film are incredibly rare, and there are only a small handful left in the world.

Thanks to a special crew member on the movie, we were able to add a second Gremlin puppet prop to the collection, a hero animatronic "Super Gremlin" head.

As with many of the remaining Gremlins props, all that’s left is the head and cut cabling. Gremlins have a heavy head and a hollow body, which puts pressure on connection points like the neck. Over time, these pressure points are the first to break down from wear and tear, in this case leading to an untimely decapitation. Many of the restoration techniques that are now common weren't as widely known when these puppets were damaged, and sadly, more often than not, only the puppet heads were kept.

Arrival

Foam latex is a fantastic material for performing puppets as it allows beautiful detail and paint retention while still being flexible for lifelike motion. A drawback, however, is that foam used on the Gremlins just wasn't meant to last 40 years. Even in the best conditions, foam has a shelf life as it slowly degrades into dust.

We knew when buying this head that, while special, it was incredibly fragile—at times felt like breathing too hard next to it could cause catastrophic damage. The Gremlin's ears were folded in, ear armatures were poking out, and the jaw was quite literally falling off.

Before sending him out for some delicate restoration work, we did a quick 3d scan of him with our Artec Space Spider. Figuring he would never be in this condition again, it was a nice way to lock in his unique and creepy demeanor.

Reshaping the Gremlin

Tom Spina's team, lead by artist Patrick Louie, had the difficult task of working on an impressively dried out puppet head. The first step in the restoration process was getting everything stabilized and back into its originally intended position. This meant gently folding the curled in ears back. I thought for sure those ears were essentially melted into the cheekbones, but with a little magic they were brought back into shape.

The next step was adding archival material back into spots where foam had turned to dust or had simply fallen off. Pieces of the ear and cheekbone needed replacement material and the eyebrows, which had melted, needed some subtle reshaping. All the material was added back in a way that mimicked the surrounding texture so as to look as seamless as possible.

Various Stages of Restoration

photos by tom spina DESIGNS

Finalizing the Puppet Restoration

Once everything was back in place and texture-matched, the final step was paint matching any repaired material. This was done in a way that matched the worn color that had slowly changed and darkened over time.

Screen Matching the Hero Animatronic Head

Of the remaining Gremlins props (not including mogwai), almost all that survived were the "butt puppets" similar to the other 3/4 Gremlin in our collection. So when I saw wires coming out of the back of this head and clear lens-like objects in front of his eye, I knew he was incredibly special.

While it was being worked on, I set out to see if I could screen match this puppet. Pretty much all Gremlins came out of the same molds, and with only very subtle paint differences this was going to be a difficult task. Thankfully, this Gremlin had some traits that made him unique.

Nictitating Membrane - According to creature creator Chris Walas, there were only a couple puppets that had this eye feature. If you look closely on the 4k cut of the film, there are a few scenes with a foreground Gremlin with a frog-like clear lens in front of his eye. Chris Walas has stated, "While it was a nice effect, it added issues with the eye mechanism, and up until the advent of high-res scans, not really all that visible." This helps us narrow down the potential candidates pretty well.

Tooth Gap and Mouth -  It sounds funny to use a tooth pattern as an identifiable feature, but this Gremlin seems to be missing a top left tooth. All the Gremlins used the same teeth, so if there's something missing or jutting out, that helps us in the quest. Strangely this Gremlin also seems to have teeth too big for his mouth. There could have been a point in early production when all the kinks hadn't been worked out and the mouth foam shrunk more than expected, thus the teeth jut out more than in other puppets. Subtle, but it's an identifiable feature to look out for.

Paint Patterns - Finally, as a last confirmation test, we can use the paint stripes on the front and back of the ears to make sure they match. The foam has clearly shrunk in the years since filming, so this has to be taken into account. Also, we needed to use photos from pre-restoration, as some of the ear foam needed repair once unfolded.

Eliminating the non-matches.

Knowing that this was a foreground animatronic helped us greatly when we started our search for this Gremlin. Similar to the Gremlins 2 puppets, many of these were used multiple times between scenes, so you can start compiling a database of characters. An obvious example is one of the caroler Gremlins has a missing front tooth and he appears later in the theater scene clear as day.

After reviewing the movie, sometimes frame by frame, we analyzed all the major foreground Gremlins in the movie. After a certain point of matching them between scenes, it became apparent to us where the Gremlin fit into the picture.

It was easy to eliminate every foreground Gremlin that didn't have a nicitating membrane, as the 2019 4k cut made spotting the eye details a much easier assignment and eliminated many of our targets.

For the remaining Gremlins with the clear eye lens, one was featured in the kitchen and reappears as a caroler. He was designed to have a distinct upper eyebrow which didn't seem to match the look of our Gremlin.

The next was the Gremlin that rewired up Kingston Falls' traffic lights. Membrane is present, but it had a distinct Stripe-like under lid that just didn't match.

The cigarette chomping Gremlin in Dorry’s was very close, but I didn't feel confident his ear ridge spots matched.

The extreme closeup theater Gremlin which says "yum yum.” This one was clearly rigged up with more controls to be able to move his tongue and face more than ours was, despite my desire for him to be "the one" (easily my favorite Gremlin moment). Similar "Super Gremlins" animatronics like him were the cookie Gremlin in the kitchen and also the traffic light Gremlin mentioned above.

The Screen Matches.

After all that, who was this Gremlin? When you start going through the plentiful screen grabs on this project like I was and classifying all of them, it gets a touch overwhelming. But when things start lining up, it's like a giant exploding light bulb goes off.

The Deagle Electric Chair Gremlin

This was the first character I found where the evidence just screams a match. First off, this Gremlin looks exactly like the head in his current condition. Eyes and expression match, teeth position match, teeth look like they're too big for his mouth match. This was simply a wonderful find, and I feel very confident he's our guy.

Popcorn Bowl Gremlin

The next scene our Gremlin appears in is in Dorry's Bar. There's an extended shot of a Gremlin sitting in front of a popcorn bowl and interacting with another beer-holding Gremlin. If you look closely, the membrane is present, he is missing the back side tooth, the teeth look too big for his mouth, and the paint matches. This Gremlin ever so kindly spins around for a full view of the puppet, revealing the two centered circles on the back of his head. If you look closely, the right side one is slightly raised, which matches our puppet.

and lastly, my favorite...

Gangster Gremlin

This was truly a treat to discover. The Gangster Gremlin is in side profile for the entire shot while he tolerates a singing Gremlin with a bumblebee hand puppet popping up next to him. This gives us a good view of his unique left side teeth pattern. The closeup detail of the scan lets us see he has the same pattern as the other matching Gremlins, as well as some gunk that's still present on his teeth. His eye squint and overall expression also match our Gremlin, and the membrane is present as well.