💥 Incoming! Our alien Grunt Plush Has Landed
There’s a particular joy in sculpting mischief from felt—and nothing says mischief quite like a Halo-inspired Unggoy.
Why an Unggoy inspired plush? Well, we wanted to make one for a long time but we were always with a lack of time due to processing orders.
We grew up playing that classic space shooter, and the alien Grunts were always a favourite—equal parts hilarious and iconic. We wanted to make a plush that paid tribute to them: silly, expressive, and bursting with character. So it was wonderful when we were contacted by one of our wonderful customers who commissioned us to make one for them (thank you!
🔧 Like all good things in this workshop, it started with a spark of excitement… and quickly ran into lots of fiddly details.
We knew going into this that we were going to run into some issues. This was the first ‘tech styled‘ armour we had worked on. This would include: small features, intricate panel lines, and—perhaps the biggest question—which weapon to choose?
📐One of the big design puzzles was how to blend the Grunt’s organic body with its blocky, angular armour. We were concerned about the flat nature of doing an all in one sew pattern. We gave it a go and like we feared, it looked flat.
After some sketching, prototyping, and 3D planning, we had an idea: treat the armour as a sleeve that pulls over the soft base body. This layering added dimension and gave it that chunky, angular energy we associate with these little guys.
We mapped out panel lines in Blender, printed snapshots,
and tested variations until things clicked. Once happy, we brought the design into Inkscape and overlaid the panel art directly onto the fabric body templates.
Of course, we still made a few tweaks—some versions just didn’t quite feel right once sewn together. It took some back-and-forth (and a few muttered grunty noises), but we got there.
The head was refreshingly simple: two circles sewn together, eyes added, and dolly stitch used to gently wrinkle the face into that classic “this wasn’t in the job description” expression.
Then came the breathing mask. We wanted something simple but captured the essence of their methane breathing mask.
So which weapon did we go for? The needler, of course. We chose the needler because—let’s be honest—it’s fun. Heat-seeking crystalline needles? Hours were joyfully lost blowing up enemies ducking behind cover.
But getting those translucent pink spikes right was really important to us.
Once we’d designed it in Blender, we printed it using clear, water-washable resin, and carefully tinted it with ink to preserve that vibrant pinky-red glow.
We’re really happy with how it turned out. The bold colour scheme pops without overwhelming, and there’s a balance between soft charm and sci-fi grit that we think fans of the genre will appreciate.
🧵 What’s Next?
We’ve got Greenskins in our sights—but as always, we’d love to hear from you! Got a favourite character or creature you’d love to see plushified? Let us know! We also take custom orders (within reason), so if you’re looking for something truly one-of-a-kind, feel free to get in touch via our blog or Etsy store.
Thanks again for walking this plush-making journey with us. Whether you’re a Spartan, a Grunt sympathiser, or just here for the colours, we hope this little alien brings a bit of galactic joy to your shelf.
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