The Plans: Designs and Drawings of
the Sandworm
Maiden Voyage: Rehearsal at SCM's
Workshop
Performance: The Sandworm in Action
The Giant Sandworm was created as a Halloween Parade comission for the Sci-Fi Channel, to promote a serial dramatization of Dune, the classic science-fiction novel by Frank Herbert.
The largest puppet ever to appear in the Village Halloween Parade - and quite possibly anywhere - the Sandworm measured 75' in length, 12' in diameter at its widest point, and 17' at its highest extension. Veins of illuminated green wire pulsed erratically, like flashes of lighting, down the length of its body, while an ominous mist (The Spice) billowed out whenever it opened its cilia-covered mouth.
The Sandworm required thirty puppeteers and three marshalls. Riding high atop the beast, a costumed Worm-master held fast the taut lines, whose role was both technical and dramtatic - serving as pulleys to operate the head and mouth, and also as the reins by which the Worm Master seemed to guide the enraged monster up sixth avenue.
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