Standing a menacing 6 feet in height, and ready, Mike Retodo's War of The Worlds Tripod was his 2006 entry into the 17th Annual Creatures and Models Show at the Marin County Fair.

Judges are senior model-builders at Industrial Light and Magic. The Tripod placed 2nd overall and also won a Special Achievement Award.

"Although it is nice to have won ribbons for my piece," Mike said, "for me, the real rewards are seeing the reactions on peoples faces when their jaws drop to the floor as they stare in awe at it."

I asked Mike to tell me a little about himself, and so from across an immense ethereal gulf, a mind that is to our minds as ours are to the beasts in the jungle - came an intellect vast, cool and unsympathetic. He regarded the Marin County Fair with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew his plans against it.

Looking back now, Mike kindles a tale about his past..."I remember the materials I had at my disposal. Cardboard, popsicle sticks and Elmer's glue spread about my bedroom floor. I had a copy of The Book of Alien which had pictures and drawings of the Nostromo. At the age of 11, I was determined to build this massive ship. I collected various model pieces and light bulbs overtime. Rumor had it that Alien was to be released on Betamax. I had to get a copy. I was ready, enthusiastic and had a lot of time to spend on this endeavor. As I cut and glued my first part, I had started my first scratch-building project. Little did I know that it would not be my last."

"Between my Cinema classes at San Jose State University I would watch my tapes of Babylon 5 and Space:1999. Being a sci-fi fan, I was drawn to the special effects and especially to the spaceship models. Martin Bower, Brian Johnson and Ron Thornton inspired me. I made a choice to become a professional model-builder."



"Throughout my model-building career, I have tackled many large and small scale projects. I had come to a compromise in scales, and decided to build my models at medium to big. I like to build big models simply to be in your face. For example, if you walked into an exhibit filled with sci-fi models built in small scales, I wanted my model to jump right at you, and then pull you in. That is precisely the effect I wanted my 6 foot Alien Tripod to have on people."

Mike landed his first model-building job at a company that made prototypes for various high-tech companies including NASA Ames. Now that he was building models in a shop, it opened up opportunities to learn hands-on professional skills from other experienced model-builders. His second and favorite position was with Academy Studios.

"My duties at Academy consisted of model-building and fabrication of museum props. I produced some of my best works there. Dinosaurs, trees, and giant insects were the normal subject. Fabrication skills were traditional and inventive - depending upon the subject at hand. So I learned all of the ins and outs of carving foam, painting with acrylics, sculpting in clay, and mold making. Those skills carried me into the work I do now, and enabled me with solid fundamentals in model-building and fabrication."


"When I decided on the size of the Tripod, I knew I could not go small. Having read the H.G. Wells classic War of the Worlds and watched Steven Spielberg's film adaptation, I knew that the only way to go was big and tall. It had to be taller than your normal human being, so I decided 6 foot plus would be the proper height."



"The head needed to be posed so that it could bend down and look at people with its blinding lights and reaching tentacles. If the size and sculptural elements did not draw you in the lights would completely sell the effect I was going for. I remember when I was walking into the exhibit hall to see the Tripod for the first time. You can see the lights from the Tripod at distance of 50 feet, and it was striking. The paint scheme is shades of burnt bronze, with silvers and grays. The exhibit lighting accented my paint scheme with tones of red, orange and yellows. This was a nicely unplanned touch of lighting that turned out to be quite interesting. It was as though with infinite complacence people went to and fro about their little affairs, the Fair was being watched closely by intelligences greater than mine!"

Check out more of Mike's Tripod

Well done Mike, well done.