The Joe Dante Polaroid Collection

NEVER BEFORE SEEN GREMLINS PRODUCTION POLAROIDS

Introduction

At the very start of Gremlins production, special effects artist Chris Walas was busy assembling his shop, CWI, and navigating the whirlwind of early creature development. Eager to demonstrate that real progress was being made, he documented his team’s efforts in a series of Polaroids shared with director Joe Dante— capturing everything from early Mogwai face sculpts and animatronic Gremlins in progress to the RC Corvettes built for Gizmo. This sampling of 130 original production Polaroids offer a rare, unfiltered look at the creative process behind one of the most iconic creature features of the 1980s.

Mogwai Puppets and Early Gizmo Designs

Among the most charming and revealing images in this collection are the early Mogwai and Gizmo Polaroids, which document the creature shop’s playful yet meticulous approach to bringing these characters to life. These photos showcase key stages in their creation: rows of freshly furred Mogwai faces lined up like a production line, a mechanical puppet mid-transformation in its iconic “unfurling” pose, and even visual notes from director Joe Dante himself— whiteout applied directly onto prints to test out new facial highlights and design tweaks. It's a rare, tactile glimpse into how personality was crafted frame by frame.

Mogwai Facial Expressions

To bring the Mogwai to life with a wide range of expressions, the effects team developed a library of interchangeable facial components—foam latex pulls that could be swapped between takes to reflect different emotions. These Polaroids capture that process in detail, showing an array of distinctive Mogwai faces mid-production, from curious smirks to startled wide-eyes, many of which are instantly recognizable from the final film. This modular approach was crucial to animating the puppets with consistency and personality, allowing the filmmakers to match emotion to action without the need for additional puppets with permanently affixed expressions.

The Chris Walas Original Sculpt

In 1982, Chris Walas was handed the task of bringing to life a brand-new creature based on an early version of the Gremlins script by Chris Columbus. What he initially sculpted was a smaller, more compact creature— a mischievous and creepy design, but in a size that would ultimately prove difficult to animate on set. This original concept would later evolve into a larger, more puppeteer-friendly version sculpted by Tony McVey, but Walas’s prototype laid the foundation for what the Gremlins would become. The Polaroids in this collection signed by Chris himself, offer a rare and fascinating window into that early vision.

Gremlin Puppet Production

The production of the Gremlins puppets was a groundbreaking achievement in practical effects, and these Polaroids capture the intricate stages involved in bringing the animatronic creatures to life. Taken during the height of production in 1983, the images reveal the meticulous craftsmanship behind these state-of-the-art puppets— from the internal mechanical rigs to the detailed latex skins. Notably, several of the photographed Gremlins feature the rare nictitating membrane, a translucent inner eyelid that added an extra layer of realism— just like the one preserved in our own animatronic Gremlin head. At the time, assembling these complex puppets required a blend of artistry, engineering, and innovation, and these behind-the-scenes glimpses highlight just how advanced and ambitious the work truly was.

Specialized Props

In addition to showcasing the core Mogwai and Gremlin builds, the Polaroids also highlight a number of specialized puppets and props crafted for specific script moments— each one tailored to a key beat in the film. Among them are detailed shots of the electrical box created for the scene where a Gremlin rewires the street lights, the miniature RC Corvette built for Gizmo’s climactic dash through the department store, and the scorched, skeletal head of Stripe used in his dramatic demise.

Special thank you to Joe Dante, Mark Alan, Alex Kirschenbaum and Rory Gamble for their help on this project!