An Original Screen Matched Gremlins Animatronic Movie Prop

LIKELY THE ONLY HERO GREMLIN puppet REMAINING

Introduction

When we added our first Gremlins puppet to the collection in September 2020, we assumed it would likely be the only opportunity to acquire a piece from the original 1984 film. Props from the first movie are incredibly rare, with only a small handful known to still exist today.

To our surprise and excitement, we were later able to add a second puppet to the collection— this time, a hero animatronic “Super Gremlin” head—thanks to the generosity of a crew member who had worked on the film.

As is the case with many surviving Gremlins props, only the head and severed cabling remain. These puppets were designed with a heavy, fully-articulated head and a much lighter, hollow body, which placed considerable strain on connection points like the neck. Over time, these areas were often the first to fail, leading to decapitations. Unfortunately, restoration techniques that are common today weren’t widely available when these puppets were first damaged, and as a result, it’s usually just the heads that were saved while the bodies were discarded.

Arrival

Foam latex is an ideal material for performance puppets—it holds fine sculpted detail, takes paint beautifully, and remains flexible enough to allow for lifelike movement. The downside, however, is longevity. The foam used on the Gremlins puppets was never intended to survive four decades. Even under the best conditions, foam latex has a limited shelf life and eventually breaks down into dust.

When we acquired this head, we knew it was a special piece—but also incredibly fragile. At times, it felt like even breathing too hard near it could cause catastrophic damage. The ears were folded inward, metal armatures were poking through, and the jaw was literally hanging off.

Before sending it out for delicate restoration, we performed a 3D scan using our incredibly detailed Artec Space Spider. Knowing it would never be in this exact condition again, we wanted to preserve its unique and eerie look—a digital snapshot of a moment frozen in time.

Reshaping the Gremlin

Tom Spina’s team, led by artist Patrick Louie, faced the daunting task of restoring a remarkably dried-out Gremlin puppet head. The first step was stabilizing the piece and gently repositioning its features to their original form. This included carefully unfolding the ears, which had curled inward over time. I was convinced they had practically fused to the cheekbones—but with a little restoration magic, they were coaxed back into shape.

Next came the process of rebuilding areas where the foam latex had disintegrated or fallen away. Archival material was used to reconstruct missing sections of the ears and cheekbones, while the melted eyebrows required subtle reshaping. All the new material was carefully textured to match the surrounding surfaces, ensuring the repairs blended in seamlessly with the original design.

Various Stages of Restoration

photos by tom spina DESIGNS

Finalizing the Puppet Restoration

Once everything was stabilized and the textures were seamlessly matched, the final step was carefully paint-matching the repaired areas. Rather than replicating the puppet’s original color, the team matched the aged, weathered tones that had naturally darkened over time—ensuring the restoration remained true to the puppet’s current, authentic look.

Screen Matching the Hero Animatronic Head

Of the surviving Gremlins props (excluding Mogwai), most are “butt puppets” like the other ¾-scale Gremlin already in our collection. So when I noticed wires protruding from the back of this head and lens-like components embedded in front of his eyes, I knew this piece was something truly special.

While it was undergoing restoration, I set out to determine if I could screen-match the puppet to its appearance in the film. Since nearly all Gremlins were cast from similar molds and only varied slightly in paint and finishing details, this would be no easy task. Fortunately, this particular Gremlin had a few distinctive traits that made it stand out.

Nictitating Membrane - According to CWI head 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.