Meet the Life-Size Owlbear Cub and His Druid Papa Who Conquered PAX

Have you ever wanted an owlbear cub of your very own? Well some people don’t let pesky things like reality stop them and are out here living the dream! Meet Hench and Scrap, and their adorable life size owlbear cub who really moves (with just a little bit of help).

Hench and Scrap, a.k.a. Henchwench and Scrap Shop Parts, are a pair of Australians who took their love of cosplay and prop making and managed to go professional with it. The two met at a convention while doing Overwatch cosplay, where their shared obsession with creating mind-blowingly accurate video game cosplay and prop items led them to immediate hit it off. It’s not clear if they fell in love or set up shop together first, but at some point they did both of those things, and now they work together building incredibly cool cosplay items out of their very own private studio and workshop.

It already sounds like every geek’s fantasy come to life, but wait, there’s even more! Because they’ve gone on to work directly with companies like Blizzard, Bethesda Game Studios, and Wizards of the Coast, they’ve secured the budget to make even bigger and cooler things while getting paid for the privilege. You can choose jealousy or you can choose starting on a new five-year plan is what I’m getting at here.

Their most recent completed project—at least that they’ve shared on TikTok, and which has so thoroughly enriched so many of our lives as a result—is the life-size baby owlbear puppet. It’s a life-size baby owlbear from Baldur’s Gate 3 to be precise, and he’s so cute we’ve all lost our collective minds.

The little guy, roughly the size of a human child and probably about as heavy (or maybe not, since most of the materials he’s made of seem pretty lightweight), has already been to his first convention, PAX, where, people predictably lost their minds over his cuteness. For some reason, his makers weren’t expecting the extent of everybody’s delight, but then, no one’s more critical of their own art than the artists themselves.

Although Hench and Scrap don’t have any plans to make more of him, and there’s no official pattern or instructions you can get from them to create your own (people have already asked), the two have been kind enough to document most of the process on their Twitter feed. So, if you’re really dedicated and have the skills, you’ll probably be able to figure out making your own deadly baby.

As for what’s coming next from their workshop, a video posted to TikTok a little while ago revealed Scrap’s “slow burn” project: a full cosplay of The Emperor from Baldur’s Gate 3! Originally intended for the con that debuted their adorable owlbear baby, it was too large a project to complete in time, at least without running the risk of a bunch of things going wrong with no time to correct them. “Personal projects are supposed to be fun, not crunchy” indeed, so maybe we’ll get to see Scrap’s in full silicone face mask by the time the next con rolls around.

Alright, mindflayers are creepy, so here’s another video of the owlbear baby for some palate-cleansing cuteness. (Someone make me one.)

(featured image: Larian Studios)