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 was cheaper to film outside of Los Angeles; this required the construction of elaborate 'New York' street sets for 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 made the best of it by repurposing the sets for an original post-apocalyptic action script he had. Some work still had to be done to transform 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 regularly said that costumes were also constructed for the Spider-Man and MOTU II, and were reused in Cyborg, and this has gone on to become an oft-repeated factoid; yet the leaked scripts for Spider-Man and MOTU II don't really make it seem like they would have been costume-heavy productions. The former only required costumes for Spidey himself; the latter 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; following the template established by 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.

I suspect another component of Blade's costume was also reused in Cyborg, namely the studded leather harness; it was heavily distressed and slightly altered for its reappearance, this time worn by Ralf Moller over a heavily distressed vest. Straps of the harness seem to have been placed back to front, and the shoulder plates have been heavily altered; I wonder if this was originally perhaps a 'stunt' Blade costume?

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!

Also reused was the robe worn Dayle Haddon as the titular 'cyborg' Pearl, which was originally made by Bob Ringwood for David Lynch's Dune, worn by one of the many extras playing the Arrakis maids.

I don't know if the reddish gown or hood were bought items, or more wardrobe stock items - the cut of the gown does look similar to the Arrakis maids, so perhaps it was one of the extras costumes barely seen in Dune.

Another reused item in Cyborg is the vest worn by an unnamed bartender in one brief scene; it was originally made by Ann & John Bloomfield for 1984's Conan the Destroyer, worn by Tracey Walter.

Other costume pieces that I suspect were reused items; 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.

Conan the Destroyer had dozens of costumes made for background performers. Given one costume definitely was from Conan, why not the few other anachronistic costumes? Italian post-apocalyptic films regularly reused costumes from the peplum wardrobe; Cyborg was a rare example of an American production doing this trick.

However, Cyborg had a few 'futuristic' costumes; 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 wanted a futuristic flair.

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 a black gown over his jumpsuit.

The officer's 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 contenders for a Cyborg costume possibly originating from MOTU II are the helmets that are 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. Several suits of armor and uniforms were made for the first Masters of the Universe, there would have been no need to make more for a sequel mostly set 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 the original 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 with wearer's nametags, we'll never truly know. But it can be safe to assume that no costumes in Cyborg were reused from the cancelled Spider-Man or MOTU II.

Masters of the Universe (1987)

Costume Design by Julie Weiss

Masters of the Universe was somewhat of a gamble by its production company, The Cannon Group. The usually thrifty studio had been branching out into more expensive productions, and it was hoped that doing a tie-in to Mattel's successful toyline would guarantee that they had the next Star Wars.

(Of course, Masters of the Universe was anything but Cannon's Star Wars. Not only was it a box office bomb, but helped contribute to the company's liquidation a few years later. The fact that its director, Gary Goddard, later turned out to be a disgusting pedophile only served as a final indignity on the film.)

At any rate, Masters was an unusally lavish production for Cannon, with elaborate sets and dozens of costumes being made. Julie Weiss' costume designs were partly drawn from production illustrations by esteemed artists such as William Stout, Jean Giraud aka Moebius and Ralph McQuarrie.

While Julie Weiss enlisted Western Costume Company to construct the costumes, many specialist propmakers were required for the armor 'hard parts' of each costume. These will be named on each costume as this article.

A bit like the original toyline's designs, Masters' costumes pull from both science-fiction and 'barbarian' fantasy influences. The costume made for Dolph Lundgren as the titular He-Man, consisting of shoulder plates, a harness, cape and leather pants, is firmly inspired by the latter.

Similarly informed by the pseudo-historical designs of the fantasy genre is the robe worn by Billy Barty as Gwildor, consisting of a highly-detailed shirt, tunic and cloak.

Much more inspired by futuristic space opera designs (in fact, resembling unused Ralph McQuarrie designs for Star Wars) is the jumpsuit and harness worn by Chelsea Field as Teela. Notice how the collar, like a lot of the 'hard' costume components in the film, has highly detailed decoration.

Similarly futuristic is the armored costume worn by Jon Cypher as Man-At-Arms, consisting of a mandarin-collared top and suspended pants made of a leather and nylon blend. The uniform is worn with a futuristic helmet and chestplate, evoking the original toy's design.

Several futuristic soldier costumes, with custom-made helmets and armor plates, were made for the extras playing the Eternian soldiers.

More in line with the film's 'fantasy' trappings is the white robe and crystalline headdress made for Christina Pickles as the 'Sorceress', who spends most of the film imprisoned by Skeletor.

Two sadly briefly seen costumes on the good guys are the wide-shouldered blue robe and gold-lined white gown worn by James Tolkan at the film's end, as well as the Ancient Greek-inspired dress worn by the lady alongside him. I highly doubt these were wardobe stock, especially with how many costumes were actually made for the film!

Of course, one of the film's most memorable elements is Frank Langella in his turn as Skeletor, with his shiny costume playing just as much a role as his performance! The Skeletor costume consists of a silvery undergarment, leather chaps coated in leather detailing, and a cape.

Also worn with the costume are an ornately detailed chestplate and shoulder plates, as well as an electronic gauntlet constructed by propmaker Michael Hood.

The 'God Skeletor' costume is the same design as but all in gold, with the addition of an ornate helmet. The helmet was based on Stout's artwork and made by Douglas White and his company Makeup Effects Laboratories. Did Makeup Effects Lab also make the 'hard' parts of other costumes in the film?

A very glamorous costume was made for Meg Foster as Evil-Lyn, consisting of a lavendar unitard covered in beads, worn with a cape made of gold lame on the outside and burgundy velvet on the inside. Other details on the Evil-Lyn costume include the collar fitted with beads, and a metallic breastplate.

A similarly golden costume was made for Robert Towers as the hyena-like Karg, consisting of a quilted golden jumpsuit, adorned with a fur-lined cape, golden ruff collar and metallic armor pieces.

A less explicitly futuristic costume was made for Anthony De Longis as Blade, consisting of a leather harness with spiked shoulders and silver bands, and a long chainmail vest. Worn with the armor is a custom chin-guard fitted with a futuristic eyepatch.

Costume Reuse note: The chainmail vest and gauntlets were reused in Albert Pyun's Cyborg two years later, worn by Vincent Klyn's wasteland bandit. I also suspect the leather harness (or at least one of its stunt doubles) was distressed and worn by Ralf Moller as one of the bit-part bandits in Cyborg.

The costume made for Tony Carroll as Beast Man, while partly a 'monster suit', also required an armor vest, leather chaps and distressed trousers to be made and worn as part of it.

The armor suit and helmet made for Pons Maar as the lizard-like Saurod was based on Stout's design, but the fabrication of the costume fell to Douglas White's Makeup Effects Laboratories, with no assistance from Julie Weiss or Western Costume Company.

Costume Reuse note: The helmet, as well as other armor pieces, was reused in cheapo b-movie Star Hunter in 1996. It's even on all the posters for the movie!

Four actors pretending to be monsters, and a real monster. 

 

When it came to the uniforms of Skeletor's troops, the Star Wars influence became most pronounced. The technicians of Skeletor's army wear black uniforms, with tunics evoking older military uniforms.

The actual soldiers of Skeletor's armor heavily evoked Star Wars' stormtroopers, especially with the shared inspiration in knights' armor. The Skeletor soldiers' armor was made by speciality prop makeup and creature effects firm Robert Short Productions.

The 'warlord' costumes' quilted jumpsuits were manufactured by Centre Theatre Group. The chest armor was fitted with electronics to light up, and the helmet had a more sleek shape.

Robert Short also produced a very similar design of armor for the 'centurions' acting as Skeletor's personal guard, with brass chest armor and shoulder plates instead.

Costume Reuse note: At least one set of the centurion armor was reused for one of the bandit extras in Pyun's Cyborg two years later.

Short also made severl sets of armor for the troopers serving Skeletor, with sleek helmets very much resembling Darth Vader's iconic helmet. Just like with the centurion and warlord armor, the quilted undersuits were made by Centre Theatre Group.

Many of the images on this article (as well as some additional info on which costume house the costumes) came from Larry McQueen's Collection of Motion Picture Costume Design, while the information on which propmakers made the 'hard parts' of each costume came from Cinefex #31.