Dino who Pooed

A Dinosaur That Sings, Dances, Eats Props and Expands on Cue. Built in Ten Weeks.

Commission: Mark Thompson Productions | The Dinosaur That Pooped a Rock Band

The Brief

Mark Thompson Productions commissioned Creature Encounters to design and build Dino for their touring musical The Dinosaur That Pooped a Rock Band — written and directed by Miranda Larson, based on the original IP by Tom Fletcher and Dougie Poynter.

The challenge was substantial. The suit needed to sing, dance and move with the energy of a full musical production. It needed to eat props — storing them internally and retrieving them on cue. It needed a stomach capable of visibly expanding and contracting. And it needed to do all of this without creasing, without losing the brand's aesthetic, and with a realistic skin texture that would hold up to close inspection from theatre audiences of all ages.

Oh, and it needed to be ready in ten weeks.

The Build

The central engineering challenge was the expanding belly — a mechanism that had to be seamless in performance, invisible to an audience, and robust enough to run eight shows a week on tour. Achieving this without the suit creasing under the mechanical stress required significant development work on the internal structure and the skin fabrication simultaneously.

The prop-eating function demanded equally careful engineering — a concealed internal storage system that could receive props cleanly during performance and hold them securely without affecting the suit's silhouette or the performer's movement.

Throughout the build, the creative team's brand aesthetic was the fixed point. Every mechanical decision was made in service of the character's appearance, not in spite of it. The final Dino was delivered on time, on budget, and exactly to brief.

The Specifications

The finished suit featured a multi-directional head, opening and closing mouth, blinking eyes, moving arms, the ability to eat and store props, and a fully functional expanding and contracting belly — all contained within a realistic skin texture that reads beautifully both on stage and at close quarters.

The Result

The initial tour of The Dinosaur That Pooped a Rock Band sold over 100,000 tickets.

A Note on Process

This was a challenging commission delivered under significant time pressure, with friction between the creative team and our workshop that prompted a valuable reflection on how we manage the creative leaps inherent in bespoke puppet-building projects. We came out of it with sharper processes for de-risking the development phase — for our clients as much as for ourselves.

We include this not in spite of the project's success, but because of it. Commissioners who have worked on complex character builds know that the path to an extraordinary result is rarely straightforward. We believe in being honest about our process, and we believe that the conversations those challenges produce make us better collaborators.

Thinking About Something Similar?

If you are a producer, director or creative director planning a bespoke puppet character for theatre, touring production, film or television, we would love to talk.

We work across the full spectrum of puppet and creature build — from full animatronic performer-supported rigs to mask prosthetics, hand puppets, marionettes and large-scale walkabout characters. Build time is always flexible and negotiable, dependent on available budget and project complexity.

To arrange an informal, no-obligation Discovery Call with Jamie and Michael, please use the Enquire button below.

Creature Encounters are designers, makers and performers of extraordinary puppet experiences, based in Birmingham. We have delivered bespoke puppet characters for theatre, television, live events and theme parks across the UK and internationally, for clients including Mark Thompson Productions, Away Resorts, Greater Anglia Trains, Blackgang Chine, Robin Hill Country Park, Big Brum Theatre in Education, Lakeside Arts Nottingham, and the Remal International Festival in Kuwait.