Steel Wool PAX Booth 2024 Animatronics & Props
(2024)
With 2024 being FNaF's 10th Anniversary, at Steel Wool Studio's PAX celebration we wanted to have even MORE practical props for the event that year- we ended up getting to do 2 new characters, aswell as 2 life sized character statues! (and also giving the PAX 2023 props a refurbishment!)
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Our first build for this project was Caution Bot- I really wanted to bring the character to life in a similar manner to Disney’s Star Wars droid meet and greet characters- though they ended up being a little more of a Wall-E type!
I prototyped the Body and Head using 3D printing in the initial testing phases- although the main chassis of this build is made from an aluminum frame I assembled using parts similar to those seen in battlebots. I included some lighting in their eyes aswell as a neck gimbal system to really make it come to life-
While all of those details were important to making a great meet and greet character, the most IMPORTANT thing to capture for me was the ability to spin in place like they do in FNaF Security Breach!
Our second meet and greet character was Roxanne Wolf (also from Security Breach!)
Off the bat I knew I wanted to have an upgrade of Freddy’s eye system- so that’s what I got on designing first. This was an interesting challenge- Roxy has VERY big eyes, and not much space to work with since there is also a helmet and human head in the mix of the space I have to work with. I ended up coming up with a design that allowed for both eyelids to move independently with full eye control.
The bulk of her suit was done very similar to Glamrock Freddy, constructed from printed parts coated in a durable resin shell- with the added hair and tail pieces being fabricated from foam and rubber to get that solid look she has in the game.
At PAX, she was wonderfully preformed by Isabel Dennison (who is also one of our puppeteers for the other characters!) and fans could meet her 2-3 times a day for photo ops! Really glad we were able to make Roxy to go with Glamrock Freddy- hopefully in the future we can do the rest of the band!
For our two static characters, I constructed the Puppet from FNaF 2 and the mysterious new character Jackie from Secret of the Mimic!
The Puppet was 100% foam fabricated from patterns made by hand, with stretch foam at the joints of the shoulders, elbows, and wrists to be able to lift her arms up and JUMP out of her box to scare guests. We weren’t able to use the mechanism in action at the convention this year- so I implemented a jumpscare system with a speaker and flashing eyelights in place of the lurching action.
The Puppet has always been one of my absolute favorites in the whole series so it was great to be able to build an official prop of her!
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Now for Jackie- the new character from Secret of the Mimic. I can’t say much about her due to the fact her game has yet to release- but her fabrication process was very collaborative with the design team in making her look as accurate (and terrifying) as possible to her game counterpart!
Some small design changes were made in the transition to a practical character- specifically the ruffles were a point of contention in adapting her, I went through a few iterations that were more stiff until I ended up going with the final realistic look for them. The build is fully posable- she’s more of a gigantic action figure than a prop, her arms are extendable, fingers are bendable at the digits, and the neck and jaw can be posed!
During the prep for PAX this year, I was also tasked with designing our exclusive Tokens and Tickets, aswell as some of our giveaway items like the Cassie Pin and paintable figures.
I designed and prototyped 3 of our exclusive Cassie Pin, the models and prototypes of which then went to YouTooz, who produced a short run of them as sturdy enamel pins!
During that process I also designed and made all of our Paintable Figure heads which were given away at the beginning of each day of the convention- made from Resin, we had Glamrock Freddy, Classic Freddy, and Mr. Cupcake!
I had sized these out to also work as custom replacement heads for the FNaF Funko figures for those who wanted to use them for customs. As for the tokens and tickets, I did the art and designs through Photoshop- here are what the final pieces look like!
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It’s always super fun to get to do work with Steel Wool- looking forward to working with them on another set of builds in the future!