When Pacific Rim was shooting in Toronto back in 2012-2013, we were contracted to make some custom control consoles. There were two hero consoles, connected by a central unit, plus 10 background units. It was an epic collaboration between the film’s design team and ours.

Since there were multiple units, we made a mold and cast them in fiberglass. Then added all the control elements, like buttons and screens, and a ton dressing, which was a combination of made and purchased parts.

We geeked out on a lot of things in this project and one of the coolest things we made were the cartridges that plugged into the console. We made two — one with a monster tissue sample and one with a circuit board. We programmed the cartridges to do a scrolling number display when it was inserted into the console and triggered by a sensor.