Sony Walkman Mascot "Plato" Pix

Jim Henson's Creature Shop was contracted to rebuild this "Plato the Alien" puppet for the second round of these commercials, and I built the head. The neck gimbal was pretty cool, but the trickest part was probably the articulated eyelids, which not only opened and closed but also could assume a variety of different shapes to convey different expressions. That was my innovation, but was almost never used on the shoots. This job was the beginning of the end of my relationship with Henson's, as my bitterness over their unfair policies regarding puppeteering was growing uncontrollable by this time. Don't get me started...