Iconic VFX Pioneer Phil Tippett Is Closing Shop — Countless Sci-Fi Props Are Up For Sale

If you watch the end credits of Jurassic Park, you’ll see a role that doesn’t appear in any other movie: Dinosaur Supervisor. Phil Tippett is credited with this job, leading many fans to make memes saying “You had one job, Phil!”

But Phil Tippett is more than just a punchline. He’s also a special effects legend, pioneering the use of stop motion and other classic techniques in the foundational sci-fi and fantasy movies in the ‘80s and ‘90s. But now, he’s hanging up his sculpting tools and retiring, but not before selling off his vast collection for fans to enjoy.

Clarity Estate Liquidation recently listed a massive fire sale as Phil Tippett was closing his animation studio in Berkeley. Over the course of three days — and an extremely limited admission based on an in-person sign-up sheet — “hundreds (maybe thousands) of movie props, models, prototypes, and film used items” were sold off in a massive liquidation sale. “I’m retired from the racket,” he told Berkeleyside. “My last major project was the Twilight series.”

And there’s plenty of history to be mined there: Tippett began his career using stop-motion animation to create the holochess scene (and playing a cantina band member) in Star Wars: A New Hope, and worked on the rest of the original trilogy in the years to come, as well as Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Willow, RoboCop, and dozens of other iconic movies.

In 2021, Tippett released his long-in-the-works passion project, Mad God, a fever dream of stop-motion and fantastic creatures. Though it quickly became a fan favorite, for Tippett it was a long and laborious project, one he described to Inverse as “pursuing your dream then finding out that you're chained to a rock, and there’s a bird eating your liver.”

“For my own sanity, I’ve got to just put Mad God behind me and say it's done,” he said. “It's actually been very cathartic, doing that; it's just really important for me to close that chapter and move on.”

This sale is another end of an era, as it’s part of Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings for Tippett Studio. However, just because the Berkeley location is closing, it doesn’t mean that Tippett’s legacy will end. “We have recently decided to evolve our physical footprint and production approach, and to exit our longtime Berkeley facility,” the company posted on Facebook. “As we make this transition, Tippett Studio continues its visual effects and animation work across film, television and entertainment. Our operations in Canada also continue, including our Toronto studio, which is currently in active production on a large feature film.”

So while Phil Tippett and his vast collection of collectibles may not be in that building any longer, his impact on visual effects will live on.

Want more about Phil Tippett? Stream the excellent documentary series Light & Magic on Disney+ right now.