Prop artist Chad Taylor prepares pieces of craft foam to make the leg piece for a suit of Iron Man armor.
A breastplate prototype for a suit of Game of Thrones Kingsguard armor at Chad Taylor's home in Cleveland, Tenn.According to comic-book lore, an inscription on the side of the war hammer Mjölnir reads: "Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor." In the 52 years since the Norse God of Thunder's comic debut, only a handful of heroes - and a few villains - have been privileged to wield the legendary weapon.
Chad Taylor couldn't care less if you're worthy. Pay him $350, and he can build a Mjölnir replica for you out of fiberglass and resin in about a day. Unlike its magically enchanted metal counterpart, it probably wouldn't survive a clash with a frost giant, but it'll look nice on a shelf or as part of a costume.
Mythical hammers barely scratch the surface of the prop maker's crafting repertoire. In a tent-covered workshop behind his carport in Cleveland, Tenn., Taylor can reproduce pretty much any pop-cultural bit or bauble, from Star Wars light- sabers and suits of Kingsguard armor from "Game of Thrones" to the LED-bedazzled helmets worn by electronic music duo Daft Punk.
"It's really bad. I can't turn on the TV without thinking, 'Man, I have to make this stuff,'" the 27-year-old chuckles, his teeth shining through a red beard that spills down onto his chest. "It's the same thing with comics and games. It's really hard not to want to make everything all the time."
In the three years since he founded his prop-making company, Incognito, Taylor has established a reputation in the costuming community for churning out screen-accurate reproductions of popular characters' attire and accessories. Driven largely by word-of-mouth, he has taken on commissions for customers all over the world, sending 3-D-printed thermal detonators (you know, like Leia had when she was rescuing Han Solo in "Return of the Jedi") to the Netherlands and suits of Iron Man's armor to Hong Kong.
Growing up, Taylor says, he spent a lot of time helping his father work on cars. As a result, he says, he intuitively understands mechanical systems and how their component parts interact. That's a crucial skill to have when tackling new commissions, which usually require him to figure out a working design schematic from nothing more than reference images.
"Being around [mechanics] your entire life, the world gets really small really quick because you learn how everything works," he says. "Because of that, when I look at something now, I'm like, 'Hey, I know how to replicate that.'"
Taylor became interested in prop making in 2005, when he decided to wear a costume to the DragonCon pop culture convention in Atlanta. A lifelong fan of Star Wars, he wanted to attend dressed as the infamous bounty hunter Boba Fett, but when he priced handmade outfits online, he experienced a bad case of sticker shock.
Instead, he decided to try and build one of his own from sheets of PVC foamboard. Because of time constraints, he settled for making a suit inspired by - but not identical to - Fett's iconic armor, but he still turned heads at the convention. When he decided to craft a new suit for a subsequent convention, he placed the original on eBay, where it sold for $900.
"I was like, 'Wow, I didn't realize somebody would pay that much for it,' so I built another set and sold it. And another set and sold it," he recalls. "I probably sold six or seven of them."
In 2006, Taylor added to his crafting skill set during a six-month program for students at Walt Disney University in Florida before moving back to Cleveland.
One of his clients is Layne Henderson. Three years ago, she decided to attend the DragonCon convention dressed as Saber, a character from the Japanese animated series "Fate/Stay Night," but she knew the costume wouldn't look right if she wasn't carrying the character's massive sword.
With the convention fast approaching, a friend suggested she reach out to Taylor for assistance. About a month after agreeing to the $250 asking price and sending him reference photos, Henderson received the completed replica, and people still compliment her on it at conventions.
"He put a lot of work into it; it's really detailed," the East Ridge resident says. "It's really hard to make something like that yourself, so having someone else make it, you know how much work and time they put into it. It was definitely money well-spent."
Over the years, Taylor says, he's dabbled in many fields, from auto body work and air conditioning repair to pizza delivery, but he felt continually drawn back to the idea of turning people's fantasies into tangible realities. In 2011, he decided to try his hand at full-time prop making after securing a lucrative subcontracting project creating a life-sized tree and monkey for the office of a pediatric dentist in Knoxville.
The same year, he founded Incognito, which he ran out of the Cleveland Bradley Business Incubator until earlier this year, when he relocated to his home off Keith Street. By early next year, he says he plans to move into a permanent facility, preferably a gallery/workshop in either Chattanooga or Knoxville.
Since Taylor founded his company, about 98 percent of his commissions have been from costumers around the world. Every year, he ships dozens of orders to complete their outfits, from smaller pieces such as artificial wings and weapon replicas to full-body pieces and do-it-yourself kits that customers can assemble and paint themselves.
His most lucrative product by far is a ready-to-assemble set of Iron Man armor, of which he has sold about 50 in the last 18 months. Even at $500 a piece, they're just a fraction of the cost charged by many fabricators online, Taylor says.
"Some of these Iron Man kits go for $6,000 on eBay," he says. "They're nice, but the general public can't afford that. It's hard for people to spend that kind of money."
Taylor says the vast majority of his clients seek him out because they're avid fans who want to dress as a particular character but lack the skills or work space to craft a piece on their own. So long as he thinks it's doable - which basically means anything that doesn't involve overly elaborate sewing - Taylor will take on just about any project. That willingness to accept sometimes deeply complicated assignments means he's usually working on a three- to six-month lead time for new commissions.
"There's not much I can do super-quick just because ... if I do it super-quick, the quality drops," he says. "Sometimes, I look at something and think, 'Oh, I've got that all day long,' and then I get in it and realize, 'Crap. I didn't realize it was this detailed.'"
Some of Taylor's current projects include costumes based on armored heroine Samus Aran from the "Metroid" video game series, the robotic suit worn by DC comic villain Lex Luthor and an elaborate set based on iconic Spider-Man arch-nemesis Venom.
The Venom suit has been in production since May and has been a bear, requiring Taylor to suss out a way to replicate the villain's bulging musculature and hulking physique without sacrificing mobility. At $5,000, he says it's probably the single most expensive commission he's taken on.
In a home office filled with Star Wars memorabilia and in-process costume components, Taylor's hard drive is overflowing with file folders containing 3D models of projects he's created or would love to tackle in the future. One day, he says, his dream is to build a life-sized replica of Luke Skywalker's X-34 landspeeder and his droid companions C-3PO and R2-D2.
However, making everyone else's dreams a reality doesn't leave much time for personal projects, he says.
"Plumbers have leaky pipes; that's my problem," Taylor says, laughing. "I never get to wear anything ever. I really miss wearing costumes, but it's like, 'I made this. This is awesome. Now, I need to sell it.'"
Even if it means sacrificing his own costuming ambitions, he says he still gets a thrill from transforming pop culture icons like Thor's hammer into real-world objects.
"I feel like ... Boba Fett slaving over a tool bench working on his armor - that's what it feels like," he says, grinning. "Even though that's not what it is, for my fantasy, that's how I look at it.
"That's why I keep doing what I do. I can't help it."
Contact Casey Phillips at cphillips@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6205. Follow him on Twitter at cphillips@timesfreepress.com.