“Where can I get a Gremlin?” was the question Ian Grant asked himself when he first saw the comedy-horror Christmas film at the drive-in back in 1984. “I was probably too young to see it,” he admitted. Although the film fueled nightmares of little green monsters under his bed, it also sparked a lifelong obsession (love and fear are closely related, after all).
It took nearly four decades for Grant to make his childhood dream a reality. He acquired a rare gremlin puppet from the first movie on eBay, and it was in rough condition—typical for other 35-year-old puppets. Grant worked with foam-latex restoration artists to repair his treasured prop back to form, while preserving its original elements. This was the start of the Gremlins Museum—a quaint office and hallway in Grant’s home—which now displays dozens of original props, puppets, scripts, and posters from Gremlins and Gremlins 2: The New Batch, as well as hundreds of pieces of merchandise from both films.
The giant screen-used Gizmo immediately took our breath away when we walked into the room. Crafted for the sequel, this large-scale animatronic puppet was used for close-up shots in the film and reportedly cost approximately $250,000 to produce. While as many as 20 little Gizmo puppets were created for the film, only one giant Gizmo (or as Grant calls it, the “hero puppet”) was made. “When I first got him, he kinda had a deer-in-headlights look to him,” Grant recalled. But during the restoration process, his wide-eyed facial expression was adjusted to make him look calmer, sweeter, and more like himself.
Beside the giant Gizmo are his normal-scale animatronic Mogwai buddies from Gremlins 2, including Mohawk, George, and Daffy. It can’t be overstated just how soft these guys looked. We asked repeatedly if Grant ever gives his puppets a pat on the head or a belly rub, but he stressed that they were far too fragile. However, he did confirm that Daffy was just as soft as he looks: “I had to touch him a little bit extra to get him situated on his stand.”
Owning and restoring these pieces of film history is a big job. These puppets were not made to last, and Grant reveals that if they are not maintained, they will essentially turn to dust.
“Everybody that owns foam latex stuff has this nightmare of waking up to foam dust everywhere,” he said as we gasped in horror. All the puppets at the Gremlins Museum are showcased and preserved in museum-quality glass boxes. “This is their safe place,” says Grant. “Nobody can hurt them in the box.”
Facing the Mogwai is Grant’s collection of Gremlins. He owns three gremlin puppets from the first movie and an original sculpt, which was used to create the puppets. While the Gremlins in the first film are fairly generic creatures, the sequel is a different story (perhaps you know, if you’ve seen the Key & Peele sketch). The Gremlins in The New Batch are unique little monsters with names, personalities, and special abilities. Grant’s collection includes Bat Gremlin, Vegetable Gremlin, Lenny Gremlin, George Gremlin, Phantom Gremlin, “Out of Ammo” Gremlin (who shoots at John Wayne in a western scene which appears in an alternate VHS cut of the film), and most importantly, Greta Gremlin (aka the Girl Gremlin). Grant owns the “hero puppet” of Greta, meaning she was a functional animatronic and used in most of the movie scenes, as well as the sexy press pics. Grant notes that his puppet is the one used in the “iconic hand-on-hip” photo, which I, as a Greta stan, of course knew what photo he was talking about.
Other props in the museum include Gizmo’s pink Corvette, a Gremlin-used chainsaw, and a tiny gun (fired by a bandit Gremlin), all of which were used in the first film. Grant has acquired most of his props and puppets by becoming friends with folks who worked on the film and negotiating sales before they go on official auction markets. He noted that auctions are a losing game, considering that fees are high and that “there will always be someone with more money than you.” One of whom is Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson, who is apparently also a Gremlins prop collector. “There was a big auction in 2022, and I went in hoping to get a bunch of stuff, but he came in and just killed everybody. I can’t compete with a billionaire.”
Since the museum is in Grant’s home, it is not open to the general public, but he welcomes a handful of passionate fans and media inquirers to take a peek at his collection. He also runs an extremely detailed online archive with virtual tours of the collection so that the creatures can be enjoyed by all. As of now, he has no current plans to expand the museum, but has considered contacting the Museum of Pop Culture to display the collection to the masses. However, the transportation of these fragile artifacts is a cause for concern. “It’s literally my nightmare…” he said with a laugh.
