The creature effects for the surreal scifi/horror flick Xtro (1982) were handled by Francis Coates and Richard Gregory. Thei work included the crab-walking creature (Tim Dry - one half of the mime musician duo Tik & Tok - in a rubber suit), the skeletal final creature (a puppet) and several prosthetic makeups for the transformations. Coates had been to this point a sculptor for both the BBC and the White Horse Toy Company - his earlier monster-making duties had been helping make monsters for Doctor Who, and the R2-D2 suits for The Empire Strikes Back. Richard Gregory ran the freelance firm Imagineering - that also worked plenty on Doctor Who - and later provided animatronic masks for Gerry Anderson's Space Precinct. Coates confided to me in an interview that his monster work on Xtro - partly based on sketches by production designer Christopher Hobb - was his 'rebellion against constant Doctor Who monsters that were just men in silly hats'!
You can actually read the interview here (providing Tumblr doesnt shadowban me for it) where Coates work on several films - ranging from The Neverending Story to The Mission - is highlighted!
A few weeks ago I did a phone interview with Francis Coates , a British sculptor who has been working in the industry for decades, and whose
