Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1538245
figures, all larger than life standing at around 10 feet tall. This project is similar to several projects Thingergy has done as nonunion work to get through the slowtimes between the larger union jobs. "This is the second time we've built Borderlands characters. Last time we built them, they were all around 10 feet tall and now the tallest ones are about 12 feet tall, and then the other ones are a lile more normal size but we're building a bunch of big, oversized character statues again." Throughout the shop, there are freelance costume and Prop Makers working on paern making, cuing fabric and foam into hundreds of paern pieces, sanding and painting hard goods for each character. Ippolito says, "Geing to do stuff that's not in the film industry gives a lile bit of a breakup and we get to do stuff a lile bit weirder and learn some new techniques and try some weird stuff. Building these costumes for these statues is different from building it for a performer, because now these things are in really weird poses, we have to build it so that it can go in this weird pose. You're practically stitching these things onto the statues. It's a lile bit different of a process, and it's got its own challenges." Bre Horn, a 705 Key Specialty Costumer, is working on paerning and building boots for three of the Borderlands characters. They explained that for "one particular character, there are more than 100 paern pieces, for each boot, so they are very intricate. When I really sat down and was looking through the paerns, I was like, 'Oh my gosh, there are triple digits of these things just for a set of boots.' So oen, when you look at a thing, you see the conglomeration, but for me, there's so many steps to that, and I haven't even goen to the fabric in leather aspects of the boots and I'm in triple-digits paerns. That part of it is always fun to me. The paern kill count makes me smile every time." Jordan Miller, a Local 705 Paern Maker, works on a character they refer to as "jacket girl" that she is paerning and creating the fabric herself as there are textured pieces on it that don't exist in fabric you can buy in stores, as well as creating piping and pintucking the complicated piece. They're just a couple of the freelance Costumers that Ippolito hires onto his projects, depending on the size of the project and whether who is available when not working on projects in other specialty shops. Ippolito says, "I'm going to pull from these specialists that are veterans before I want to pull from somebody that just fell off the turnip truck. With the budgets and the schedules that we have, I don't have time to train a newbie. I need people that I'm going to say, 'Hey, we have to build this thing and it's due in seven days,' and they can just go at it. People that I've worked with in the past, people that I trust, people that are recommendations from other people working here. Those are the people that I'll bring in because I just need to do it right the first time, period." The majority of their work was focused on specialty costumes and hand props, but it has expanded into all kinds of different projects. More recently, they have worked on the Momomon mascot costume and 42 FALL 2025 several props for the 2022 film Bullet Train and have done other mascot costumes since (Danny DeVito's mascot costume for 2024 Jersey Mike's commercial). They also built the red robes for the Red Wizards of Thay in 2023's Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. Thingergy has been able to do props and costumes for multiple productions but quite oen Top: Hard plastic pieces for the Red Wizards' robes in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves; above: Momomon from Bullet Train in progress; opposite: Borderlands 4 build.