OUR WORK
We design and build custom props, installations and practical effects for commercial spaces, events, exhibitions and productions. We're a small team based in Vantaa, Finland, with a broad range of experience. Below are the people behind the work and some of the projects we've built.
THE TEAM
MARIETTA
Concept design • 3D modelling & sculpting • mould making • casting • scenic finishing • painting • graphic design
FLORIAN
Fabrication • Electronics • Mechanics • Animatronics • Prop & Set building • 3D printing
CASE STUDIES
CASE STUDY:
DRAGON FOR
PUOLENKUUN PELIT
Puolenkuun Pelit has been part of Finland's gaming and pop culture scene since 1997, with several stores across the country. At the end of 2025, they opened their expansive new flagship store on Keskuskatu, one of Helsinki's most prominent shopping streets, right in the center of the city.
The flagship combines a huge selection of games and pop culture with the Halfmoon Game Cafe, which is quickly becoming a hub for Helsinki's nerd culture.
With such a prominent new location, Puolenkuun Pelit wanted the interior to have its own character and a memorable centerpiece. Maker & Shaper Props was commissioned to create a life-size version of the dragon from the Puolenkuun Pelit logo. The build gave their familiar dragon a physical presence inside the new flagship store.
Visible from the store, the dragon draws visitors towards the Halfmoon Game Cafe with glowing eyes and a smoke-breathing effect. The dragon was meant to be large, massive and impossible to miss, but not frightening, so that even the smallest visitors can feel comfortable around the creature. We sculpted the dragon to match the brand style, gave it a friendly expression and based its colour palette on Puolenkuun Pelit's brand colours.
The dragon was designed specifically for its location as a permanent installation. The narrow passageway meant that we had to use as little floor space as possible without sacrificing the creature’s size and impact. We designed and sculpted the dragon in 3D to fit precisely around an existing pillar and used the pillar itself as part of the prop’s perceived mass. The body was then 3D printed in sections and assembled around the pillar. It curves around the structure like a shell, so the prop is actually much thinner and lighter than it first appears. We continued the illusion with a rock formation beneath the creature that blends into the surrounding wall.
Safety and durability were a priority from the start. We reinforced the sculpture with metal rods, fiberglassed them into the structure and anchored them deep into the concrete. Installations in unusual spaces often require custom solutions, and we design both the sculpture and its mounting system for the exact location.
The dragon was installed in time for the flagship opening in December 2025. Since then, it has become a popular photo spot and one of the most recognizable features of the Halfmoon Game Cafe.
Client: Puolenkuun Pelit
Location: Keskuskatu 3 A, Helsinki, Finland
Completed: December 2025
Production time: 4 months
Dimensions: 240 cm x 120 cm x 93 cm
Scope: 3D design & sculpting, fabrication, 3D printing, scenic finishing, practical effects & installation
Materials: PLA, fiberglass, steel
CASE STUDY:
STRANGER THINGS ROOM FOR SUOMEN MESSUT
The Brief
Suomen Messut asked Maker & Shaper Props to create a Stranger Things themed experience for Arctic Lights Comic Con 2026 at Messukeskus, Helsinki. The event brought together international guests and fans of film, comics, gaming and other areas of pop culture. With Stranger Things approaching its final season and the series strongly represented at the event, visitors would get a chance to step inside one of its most recognizable settings.
The set was a recreation of the Byers family's living room, complete with the iconic alphabet wall, Christmas lights and couch. Rather than building a set that visitors could only look at, the room was designed as a photo opportunity where people could become part of the scene themselves.
Building the room
A large part of the project was not fabrication at all, but finding the right things. We sourced 1980s furniture, lamps, wallpaper, decorations and household objects from Finland and around Europe to recreate the mismatched, lived-in look of the living room.
One of the key pieces was the yellow wall telephone seen throughout the first season. We sourced an original ITT rotary wall phone Model 554 from the United States, in the same colour as the phone used in the show. The telephone plays a memorable role in some of the early episodes, so we wanted visitors to be able to interact with it rather than simply see it on the wall. Its original long cord allowed people to pick up the receiver and recreate scenes from the show in their own photos.
The same idea carried through the rest of the room. Props and set dressing were all interactive: visitors could sit on the couch, pick up magazines, search through the objects on the shelves and use the room as an actual space while taking photos.
We wanted the room to stay as close to the original set as possible, so we spent a lot of time studying reference images from the series. It was interesting to spot the smaller details hidden in the set. One of our favourite discoveries was the two televisions. In the original set, the old broken TV has simply been left in place, with its replacement sitting on top. It's a small but deliberate detail that says a lot about the slightly chaotic, lived-in home. Once we noticed it, we knew we had to recreate it. We sourced two period televisions and hauled both extremely heavy sets into the room. Individually, details like this are easy to overlook, but together they are what make the space feel real.
Something is coming through the wall
Our existing collection of creatures and props gives us the opportunity to incorporate earlier builds into new projects. For the Stranger Things room, we repurposed a life-size Demogorgon originally created for an earlier installation.
The Demogorgon was digitally sculpted by us and produced as a large-scale 3D print. After assembly, it was finished and painted by hand, with hundreds of individually defined teeth in its large, open flower-like head.
For this installation, we expanded the tear in the wall and surrounded the Demogorgon with layers of slime-like textures that spread from the opening and wrapped around its body, all fabricated and painted by hand. Lighting from inside the wall added depth to the opening and suggested a breach into "the Upside Down". The finished wall also became another photo opportunity, where visitors could pose directly in front of the creature.
D.A.R.T. becomes a Demodog
We also gave our robotic quadruped D.A.R.T. a temporary career change. For the event, we transformed the robot into a Demodog inspired by the original Stranger Things creatures, using a custom creature skin and head. The full body of the creature was 3D modelled to fit precisely over the robot and then 3D printed for mould making. We used the moulds to cast a flexible, rubber-like skin that moves with the robot.
Unlike a static prop, D.A.R.T. could move through the room and around the exhibition hall, giving visitors an encounter with a creature from the show in physical space. The robot is manually controlled and can perform a number of basic tricks and movements. Visitors were delighted by it, although some were understandably unsettled by a toothy creature moving around on its own.
D.A.R.T. usually works in promotion. He is part of our rental collection and has appeared at events and exhibitions as a robotic dog promoter for brands, where his ability to draw attention comes naturally. The same robotic platform can also be fitted with custom skins and transformed into completely different characters.
The Experience
The room was built for people to use, explore and photograph themselves in the setting. A Polaroid portrait was included, so visitors could leave with a physical photograph from the experience. The instant photos suited the 1980s setting, but more importantly, they gave people something tangible to take home with them.
That physical experience is an important part of what we do at Maker & Shaper. So much of what we see and experience today happens digitally through a screen, while a physical environment gives people the chance to step inside a world and interact with it. The positive and enthusiastic response to the Stranger Things room showed us how much people enjoy that opportunity.
We believe physical objects and environments have become more interesting, not less, in an increasingly digital world. A prop can be touched, a set can be entered and an object can be taken home, collected and kept. These things give a temporary experience a physical presence beyond the moment itself. For us, that opens up exciting possibilities for events, exhibitions, commercial spaces and collectible objects.
