Recycled Movie Costume Mysteries: Where Did Cyborg's Costumes Come From?

The late Albert Pyun was a director adept at working within the confines of a low budget; this made him a mainstay for Menahem Golan's Cannon Group, the company behind 1989's Jean Claud Van-Damme vehicle Cyborg, made during the company's twilight years. Golan's attempts to break into the 'respectable' Hollywood market only resulted in hastening the company's decline, thanks to a series of expensive (by Cannon standards) flops such as Superman IV: The Quest for Peace and Masters of the Universe.

The genesis of Cyborg was Pyun being hired to direct two movies that ultimately that never were made; the prospected Spider-Man movie, and a sequel to Masters of the Universe; judging from Pyun's interviews and leaked scripts, it seems that the former would have been the more expensive movie. Filming took place at Screen Gems Studios in Wilmington, North Carolina, as it would be cheaper to film outside of Los Angeles; this required the construction of elaborate 'New York' street sets for Peter Parker's life in Spider Man. These sets were to be also used for Masters of the Universe II which like the first it would have been mostly set on Earth; Pyun's plan was to shoot the two movies back-to-back, using one set for both pictures and saving Cannon money.

Disaster struck when both Marvel and Mattel revoked their deals with Cannon; several million dollars had been spent constructing the New York sets in Wilmington, and now it was all for nothing; Pyun ultimately made the best of it by deciding to repurpose the sets for an original post-apocalyptic action script he had; some work still had to be done transforming the New York set into a dilapidated war-zone, with of course extra location shooting at various abandoned industrial locations to help sell that this all took place after an apocalypse.

What has always baffled me though, is that Pyun has regularly said that costumes were also constructed for the Spider-Man and MOTU II that never were, and this has gone on to become an oft-repeated fact about Cyborg; yet the leaked scripts for Spider-Man and MOTU II don't really make it seem like costumes would have been made for either production. The former would have only required costumes for Spidey himself; the latter production would have been almost entirely set on Earth with Skeletor possessing a human industrialist, and what few scenes on Eternia surely would have just reused the first film's costumes?

Adding more doubt is that none of Cyborg's costumes feel like they came from or belong in any superhero or fantasy movies; the bulk of the cast are all clad in the usual post-apocalyptic trampy gear. Dirtied up shirts, leather jackets, sweatpants, sports armor, combat fatigues, and so on; nothing akin to the DIY brilliance of Norma Moriceau's work on the Mad Max films.

What few costumes in Cyborg weren't just dirtied up contemporary gear? First would be the outfit worn by Vincent Klyn as the film's antagonist, wasteland bandit Fender Tremolo; his shirt with its puffy, doublet-like sleeves, wide collar lapels and a streaked fabric has an anachronistic feeling. It could have been bespoke made by Cyborg's costume designer Heidi Kaczenski, but it could also have been a thrifted bit of obnoxious 80s fashion that was altered to appear ragged. And perhaps, it could have been reused from another production, but if so from what?

One thing is for sure; the chainmail vest and wristguards were not made for Vincent Klyn; they were reused from the costume designed by Julie Weiss to be worn by Anthony De Longis as Blade in the first Masters of the Universe, with the Skeletor crest removed. Additionally, some armor pieces made for one of Skeletor's soldiers in that film also turned up in Cyborg, worn by one of Fender's goons over dirtied up contemporary clothing. This lends credence that MOTU II would not have had costumes made for it, as the original film's costumes were still ready to go!

Some minor parts also break the film's general costume design sense; Ralf Moller wears a leather harness fitted with chains, Dayle Haddon wears a tattered tan robe, and two of Fender's bandits wear stitched leather tops; however, these don't resemble anything from either the Masters of the Universe film or the original toyline. The real origin for can be inferred from the vest worn by the unnamed bartender Van Damme talks to in one brief scene; it was originally made by Ann & John Bloomfield for 1984's Conan the Destroyer, worn by Tracey Walter.

Conan the Destroyer, and Conan the Barbarian before it, had dozens of costumes made for background performers; the drab fabrics and leather of the reused outfits below feel like they would have originated in either film; given one costume definitely was reused from Conan, why not the few other anachronistic costumes? Italian post-apocalyptic films in particular were notorious for reusing costumes from the peplum wardrobe; Cyborg was a rare example of an American production doing this trick.

However, Cyborg had a few costumes leaning more to the 'futuristic' angle; sticking out among the hordes of tramps is the silvery plastic vest worn by Jean Claude Van-Damme himself, the same material coating the football armor worn by one of Fender's bandits. This again doesn't feel like a reuse of any potential MOTU II costumes; more likely costume designer Heidi Kaczenski thought to add some futuristic detail to Van Damme's costume, and thought to use some of the leftover material on a bit-part player.

In addition, several soldiers wear what are clearly off-the-shelf jumpsuits minimally altered with strips of shiny black dotted rubber - NOT the same material used for the silvery plastic vests above - with their officer wearing over his jumpsuit a black sheet cut to be a gown. His jumpsuit has seemingly been altered to have a panel of the rubber material over the chest - this is very, very cheap costume design, and doesn't indicate that they had costumes to reuse from a more expensive production.

The only strong contenders for a Cyborg costume possibly originating from MOTU II are the helmets that are only seen very briefly in Cyborg; looking remniscient of knight armor, I could imagine them being worn by Eternian characters; but this could also just be a coincidence. Again, several suits of armor and uniforms were made for the first Masters of the Universe, so there would have been no need to make more for a sequel mostly taking place on Earth.

The helmets very brief usage in the final film is also bizarre as usually when it comes to low budget films you show off everything you've got. But perhaps they were shown more in a scene that ended up on the cutting room floor? Or maybe most of the cast could not wear the helmets due to size limits; it's hard to say. Nothing confirms that these were definitely reused or not.

But maybe the real answer is that nothing actually was reused from either Spider Man or MOTU II as no costumes worth reusing were made for either film , due to being contemporary, lower budget productions. Perhaps the reality of reusing the expensive Spider Man sets, and Heidi Kaczenski's reuse of costumes from fantasy films like Masters of the Universe and Conan the Destroyer, blurred in Pyun's memory.

Cyborg's near-future, apocalyptic setting would have limited what sort of costumes could have been reused for the production, hence why only very few costumes in the final film are reused from other productions. This would still have been hard work for the costume department, as all the utilitarian, contemporary clothing they bought would have needed to be severely weathered to transform into wasteland garb.

The shooting of Cyborg was a harrowing experience for Pyun; the miniscule budget, urgent redressing of existing sets and extra location shooting, Van Damme's bad behaviour on-set (resulting in a cast member losing an eye!), and the usual pressures of working under Golan & Globus (the latter throwing a stapler at Pyun as a way to show disapproval for his ideas); of course the finer details would be lost.

Unless any costume polaroids showing the costume tests for Pyun's Spider-Man and MOTU II ever materialize, or Fender's jacket is auctioned showing how many performers wore the costume, we'll never truly know. But it can be safe to assume that, for the most part, no costumes in Cyborg were reused from other films, and what few were did not originate from either of these cancelled projects.