Coptorilla!
What's a 'Coptorilla?' A propeller-powered gorilla piloted by a gun-toting toddler that inspired a vintage G.I. Joe-style illustration.
Coptorilla: A Retro Toy Revamp
Brad Rader kitbashes toys, combining vintage and modern parts scavenged from thrift stores into completely new figures. His Battle Babies series pairs armed toddlers with animal mounts, all treated with straight-faced military seriousness. Coptorilla — a propeller-powered gorilla piloted by a gun-toting baby — was too ridiculous not to draw.
I painted it like a piece of 1980s G.I. Joe package art, right down to the worn card and torn-off blister damage. It gave me a chance to work in a style I don’t use very often — fully rendered, painted, and intentionally dated instead of the cleaner vector work I usually make. The more seriously I treated it, the better the joke worked.
Client
Weirdo Toys
Battle Babies
Designer and Illustrator
Justin Gammon
Custom Toy Artist
Brad Rader
Coptorilla Sketch and Painting Comparison
From Custom Toy to Retro Icon
The Evolution of Coptorilla
The sketch came first, pushing the pose and perspective into the kind of exaggerated action you’d see on 1980s G.I. Joe packaging. From there I painted it digitally with hard rim light, deep contrast, a burning sky, and enough detail to make Coptorilla feel less like a goofy toy and more like the unstoppable war machine a kid imagines him to be. I finished it with torn blister-card damage and worn edges, so the whole thing feels like a relic from a toy aisle that never existed.
Crafting One–of–a–Kind Treasures!
From Trash to Toys
Coptorilla comes from artist Brad Rader’s Battle Babies series, a collection of kitbashed toys built by combining parts from vintage and modern figures. The series pairs armed toddlers with animal mounts and treats the whole thing with the seriousness of a military toy line. Coptorilla might be the perfect example: a baby-piloted gorilla with a propeller strapped to his back, somehow equal parts ridiculous and completely badass.
Coptorilla Toy
Kitbash Artist: Brad Rader