Surely one of the greatest honours of working on an official Star Wars project is getting to create a new Weird Little Guy. A time-honoured tradition stretching right back to Yoda, Salacious B Crumb, and the Ewoks, in the world of videogames it’s more recently brought us BD-1, Greez, and, uh, that little droid that floats over Iden Versio’s shoulder. My new favourite is, of course, Nix—your thieving armadillo-axalotl companion in Star Wars Outlaws.
Now he’s made the jump from pixels to reality, thanks to the puppeteering work of the extremely talented team at Lightning Cosplay.
Built in just four weeks as part of a promotion with Ubisoft, he looks almost movie quality, with an articulated mouth and eyes, realistic fur and scales, and the most adorable widdle feet you’ve ever seen. Yes they are, yes they are! The shorts of him in action are really impressive—but honestly I was even more dazzled by the fully-documented process of his construction. It’s the kind of expert crafting that seems indistinguishable from magic to my simple eyes. Though be warned that you will witness such horrors as an entire table covered in disembodied Nix faces.
Maybe it’s because I watched The Dark Crystal at a particularly impressionable age, but I find the Henson-esque movement and textures of this Nix absolutely delightful to watch—I wish there was a longer video of him just vibing. And let me give Ubisoft its props too: it really illustrates how strong the original design is, with its contrast of soft fur and rough scales, and expressive yet animalistic face.
This certainly isn’t Lightning Cosplay’s first rodeo. Based in Germany, the team (couple Laura and Ralf) has previously worked on such diverse and mind-boggling videogame-related projects as creating a Monster Hunter greatsword, a full Warframe cosplay, and a life-size Botchling from The Witcher 3 (not for the squeamish). This is their first proper step into puppetry, though, and it has me hoping they’ll make more adorable little sidekicks in future. Definitely give them a follow if, like me, you’re dazzled by anyone making anything more complicated than a Warhammer figure.