Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (1995)

Due to the location filming in New Zealand, the special effects of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys was split between two teams; Greg Nicotero & Howard Berger's KNB EFX Group, and Richard Taylor's Weta Workshop, the latter being local to the area.

Complicating things further was the use of CGI to realize other monsters, with some of them having practical puppet heads (the only aspects included here, rather than the CGI) to be made by KNB or Weta for the closeup shots; the Hydra in 'Hercules and the Amazom Women' was realized in this fashion. The Hydra went through several iterations in the concept art (Shannon Shea and John Bisson being some of the artists), with the artists looking to crocodiles and crayfish for inspiration rather than just snakes.

Shannon Shea's concept art for the Hydra

John Bisson's concept art for the Hydra

The final head puppet was seven and a half feet long in total, and sculpted out of WED clay; an eight-foot long tail was also constructed for some shots.

'Hercules and the Lost Kingdom' had a large serpent creature devouring Hercules and his companion whole; this was achieved with the serpent being realized as a large puppet, which was also needed for the shots of it swimming underwater; the head was mechanized, allowing the mouth to open and the eyes to swivel.

Inside the serpent is a smaller, worm-like creature that is only seen in movement; also a puppet, the creature has sharp teeth and a pallid white texture.

'Hercules and the Circle of Fire' had Hercules face off against Antaeus, a large giant made entirely from stones and roots; realized as a performer in an elaborate suit, with a mechanism allowing the 'face' to emote.

'Hercules in the Underworld' featured the triple-headed devil dog Cerberus; designed by Shannon Shea and John Bisson, a maquette was sculpted by Shea, which was used as reference for the full-size puppet. The puppet was constructed by Heidi Snyder and mechanized by Jeff 'Eddie' Edwards, and only built down to the midsection. Berger operated the left and right heads from inside the puppet, whilst other puppeteers controlled the centre head, which was designed to have full expressions and head movement.

Shannon Shea's concept art for the Cerberus

'Hercules in the Maze of the Minotaur' had its titular monster realized as a prosthetic mask worn by the performer; the mask had mechanisms allowing the minotaur's mouth to open and lips to emote. Duplicate masks were made for the episode 'The Sword of Veracity'

The Stymphalian Bird in 'The Road to Calydon' was also realized as a digital effect barring the head for close-up shots; as of now there are no behind the scenes images of the puppet.

The titular monster in 'Ares' was realized as a performer in a large bodysuit, sculpted to resemble a giant whose body was entirely made from dessicated bodies joined together into one singular body.

'The Mother of All Monsters' introduced the Gorgon-like Echidna, realized as a performer in heavy makeup and a sculpted bodysuit, as well as other tentacles presumably operated by puppeteers offscreen; the bodysuit only went down to under the waist, with distance shots requiring the snake-like body being realized with CGI.

Echidna's son, the squid-like Obie in 'Monster Child in the Promised Land' was realized as a puppet that was sculpted and operated by the Weta crew, while KNB handled realizing Echidna's; an example of the joint effects work the series needed.

KNB handled the makeup for the orc-like 'mesomorphs' in 'Let the Games Begin', which sadly are not seen very well thanks to the performers running in all their shots.

Similar makeups were made by KNB for the episode 'Promises', with the ape-like 'primords' also mostly being seen in fast movement, preventing a good look at the prosthetics.

Meanwhile Weta was credited for the special makeup effects in 'Protean Challenge', which mostly went to realizing a face and torso prosthtic for the shapeshifting deity Proteus, with subtle inhuman touches with the chest and face structure.

'The Lady and the Dragon' had yet another CGI creature that required a puppet head for interacting with the actors; in this case it was for the dragon Braxus, whose puppet head was barely seen in the episode.

The Golden Hind in 'Encounter' and a fair few other episodes, was realized as a prop deer body (similar to the centaur horse body props utilized in other episodes - but with no other makeup effects, so not covered for redundancy) with facial prosthetics applied to actresses Sam Jenkins and Kara Zediker.

Greg Nicotero wearing the centaur horse body prop

The Ghidra in 'Medea Culpa', a two-headed fire-breathing monster, was fully realized as a practical and fully operated puppet (in a similar manner to the Cerberus puppet earlier in the series) with added flamethrowers installed for the pyrotechnics!

'Beanstalks and Bad Eggs' had a trio of harpy babies - Fee, Fi & Fo Fum - realized as small puppets whose designs were clearly homages to Chris Walas' iconic puppets for Gremlins; each puppet is slightly different in design as well, with different skin colourations.

'Redemption' had its protagonists finally face off the demon god Dahak, whose physical manifestation was realized as a particularly impressive monster suit, fitted with extra limbs and a fully operated head that could open and close its mouth.