Brock Otterbacher

Creative Director, Toys & Collectibles

Mondo and IRON GIANT seemingly go hand in hand. We've had Iron Giant grace pretty much every category of product we make - we love him! In the spirit of this, we felt he would be perfect for our Mondo Tee-Kis line of ceramic mugs, and well, see for yourself!

We brought on Joe Allard for the initial design...

...and did just a few minor changes to it, mostly simplifying here and there, and giving the Giant some nice tiki-esque thumbs up:

Brad Bird, the film's director, gave minors notes:

And we were good to send over to our friends at Tiki Farm! Tom "Thor" Thordason did a pass, adding more wood checking (simulated wood splits) and gave IG a more carved look.

We decided to change the opening for various production and aesthetic reasons.

And then it was off to sculpting! Here's the pretty darn near final sculpt for the mug:

And then comes the fun part - picking glazes! We of course had to do a GREY version as the main release, with the added touch of the white eyes to really add character to it. People seem to always dig our wiped mugs (or as we call the finish BONE), so that was next. Then came a glaze we call GHOST, which is one of my personal favorites; as the wiped blue on white really pops on the shelf. In addition to these glazeways, our friends at the Alamo Drafthouse will be offering a brown version in March, just in time for READY PLAYER ONE, in which the Iron Giant makes an appearance.

We hope you enjoy drinking out of Iron Giant as much as we had making him!

Just on the horizon for Mondo Tee-Kis, the Great Old One - Cthulhu, designed by William Stout as the first mug in our Designer Series.

After that you'll want to get your hands on this damned dirty ape, as the Lawgiver tiki mug will judge you from your shelf.

And then - well let's just say that the next few have two things in common: 1) they're based on movies from the same director, and 2) they are things that want to eat you.