10 Awesome Rick Baker-Created Movie Props You Can Buy
Rick Baker has created some of Hollywood's most iconic creature designs—and you could own a piece of one.
Have you ever wanted to own a Gremlin marionette from Gremlins 2: The New Batch? Or the head, hand, and foot skin of the titular sasquatch from Harry and the Hendersons? Or perhaps a replica of Michael Jackson’s hands, created for 1988’s Moonwalker? Now you can, thanks to special effects makeup artist Rick Baker.
Baker—who, over his 30-plus-year career, has made creatures for everything from An American Werewolf in London to the Men in Black films—is downsizing his company Cinovation’s space. Rather than throwing out what he doesn’t have room for, he’s offering up the 400-plus items to movie fans in an auction put on by The Los Angeles Prop Store.
The actual auction takes place on May 29, 2015, but you can get a jump on procuring your favorite items by placing bids online or by phone. All bids start at just $5, and there’s no reserve. Here are a few items we’re thinking about snatching up.
1. Mid-Transformation Werewolf Back Mold // An American Werewolf in London (1981)
Baker created this mold of David Naughton’s torso to create the skin for the werewolf transformation scene in director John Landis’s horror-comedy classic. According to the listing, “The three-piece hydrocal (or similar material) mold includes a core that fills the majority of the space within the mold, producing only a thin skin when casting material is injected. Both the front and core pieces are marked 'AWL Mid-Trans Core' in black ink. This piece has undergone sympathetic conservation and stabilization ... The mold shows some wear from production and age, such as chips and cracks, and remains in overall fair condition.”
2. AWIL ‘Jack’ Zombie Face, Neck and Hand Appliances // “Thriller” (1983)
When it came time to create the zombies for Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” music video, Baker did a bit of recycling: According to the listing for this lot, which includes four foam latex appliances, “this piece was likely made from make-up created for Griffin Dunne in John Landis’s An American Werewolf in London.” The neck and blender pieces are unpainted.
3. Harry Head, Hands, Feet, and Muscle Suit // Harry and the Hendersons (1987)
Bigfoot enthusiasts will want to bid on this lot from William Dear’s late-'80s comedy Harry and the Hendersons, which was worn by stuntman Dawan Scott during the film’s production. According to the listing:
The latex mask features hand-punched hair on the face and top of the head, faux fur lining the back of the head and lifelike paint detail. The hands are constructed of foam latex with attached nylon fabric wrists and hand-punched fur. The feet are similarly constructed, with latex shoe pieces, hand-punched fur, and attached nylon fabric with buttons for attaching to a hair suit... Both the hands and feet have been painted with lifelike detail in exposed areas. The Harry muscle suit (not pictured) was worn by stunt performer Dawan Scott during production. The suit includes a two-piece muscle suit, a pair of hands, feet, and a stunt mask. The muscle suit consists of a full nylon blend jumpsuit that zips up the back and features foam padding sewn onto the arms and legs. The jumpsuit is marked "Dawan" in black ink along the interior of the zipper. The second suit piece is an upper body muscle suit that zips in the back and features foam padding and rib texture pieces.
There's some wear and tear from production—the listing mentions paint flaking on the hands and scuffs on the feet—but overall, the pieces are in good condition.
4. Test Isobar Monster // ISOBAR (Unreleased)
According to ScreenCrush, the basic plot of this unmade sci-fi film from the early 1990s was “a plant-like alien [running] amok on the maiden voyage of a futuristic transatlantic train.” Disaster-obsessed director Roland Emmerich was to helm the production; Sylvester Stallone, Kim Basinger, Walter Matthau, and Jim Belushi all signed on to star, and Baker began creating monsters for the film—including this guy, a “a tentacle laden squid creature” that has “several poseable tentacles with malleable armature wires in their interior.” Unfortunately, Carolco Pictures filed for bankruptcy before Isobar could get off the ground.
5. Gremlin Skeleton Puppet SFX Rig // Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)
This creepy skeleton—which is made of resin bones with foam cartilage—was used in a deleted scene from the electrocution sequence of Joe Dante’s Gremlins sequel. The puppet “features latex entrails, a cable-controlled neck, and four rubber tubes that run along the spine and into the skull. The rig was designed to have slime pumped up through the tubes which would drip out of the Gremlin skull to accentuate the melting effect. The cable controls connect to two joysticks used to control the puppet. The piece is presented on a black wooden base.”
6. Orson Welles’s Ear Appliances // Ed Wood (1994)
To play famed director Orson Welles in Tim Burton’s Ed Wood, Vincent D’Onofrio had to don these prosthetic ears, which “are made of foam latex and feature feathering on the edges for use in blending the edges to the actor’s ears. The ears are cast in flesh toned latex and now feature slight discoloration on the tops of the ears. Despite this wear, these pieces remain in good condition.”
7. Two-Face’s Facial Appliance // Batman Forever (1995)
Baker made this appliance for Tommy Lee Jones, who played Two-Face in Joel Schumacher’s schlocky Batman Forever. The appliance was made of foam latex and is painted in great detail with various tones of purples and pinks. A thin plastic shell is attached to the underside of the appliance that was meant to cover Jones’s hair. The appliance shows some wear due to age, with the edges of the appliance now dry and cracked in areas, however the piece remains in otherwise good condition.” This piece was likely never applied.
8. Edgar Stretch Rig // Men in Black (1997)
Now you can add a (partial) Edgar suit to your closet. This stretch rig, created for Barry Sonnenfeld’s sci-fi comedy, is made of silicone with foam latex appliances on the cheeks and hand-punched hair on the face and scalp. According to the listing, “This skin was used on Edgar’s body when it is thrown down after the bug takes him over. Later appliances were put on the head, possibly to be used for when the skin is taken out. The mask ... features clasps along its bottom edges meant to hook into an effects rig or body.” It comes on its original plaster bust form and is in good condition.
9. Samara Facial Appliance // The Ring (2002)
Baker wasn’t only tasked with creating out-of-this-world aliens and rotting zombies: He also created this eerily lifelike mask of Daveigh Chase, who played the tortured child ghost Samara in Gore Verbinski’s The Ring. According to the listing, “Cast in silicone, the bald appliance has been airbrushed to match Chase’s skin tone, and includes hand-punched eyebrows and eyelashes. The appliance resides on a biscuit foam bust of Chase, where it has been pinned to the foam.” Though there’s some wear, the piece is in overall good, but used, condition.
10. Lawrence Talbot Animatronic Transformation Puppet // The Wolfman (2010)
This bust was created at a point in The Wolfman’s production when the filmmakers wanted to do the transformation practically using makeup effects. Eventually, director Joe Johnston chose to go the CG route, but you can still catch a glimpse of the puppet which, according to the listing, “is seen in a brief cutaway in the scene in which Lawrence and Gwen Conliffe (Emily Blunt) visit the lake.” Baker told Popular Mechanics in 2010 that “there are better makeup materials now, but I actually used materials that were basically the same ones I used on An American Werewolf in London, because there are still advantages to those materials.” The bust has a foam-filled interior (which houses the effects mechanics) and foam latex skin, which “has been painted in great detail to appear as though the wolf is slowly infecting Del Toro ... The puppet is mounted to a plywood base board and shows minor wear due to production use, but remains in good condition.”