thatYodaGuy.com
Nick’s recalls
Darth_Icarus: asked “was there any project you did for SW that just couldn't be completed that you would like to go back & complete now??”
Nick replies: I have written periodically about NOGARD, a creature I was developing for the swamps of Degobah that was sacrificed due to work pressures. It started as a test for one of out trainees David Barclay. As I was the senior tech left in the workshop when filming started, it was part of my job to keep the trainees busy between jobs. So one day when he wasn’t otherwise occupied, I gave Dave the rough outline of a swamp creature I envisaged and a bag of clay and he started modeling. The shoulders were heavy set and predatory, The feet were webbed for swimming. It was reminiscent of a reptile... yet distinctly different. And I always imagined it with glowing eyes. I was working on the radio controlled Yoda at the time and Dave modeled up the figure on a nearby bench as I added comments and instructions.
the ill fated Nogard
9/21/09
He did a good job and if his career had not taken him in another direction I am sure I would have incorporated him as part of my team on KRULL and other movies that followed.
We joked that the creature was part Nute, part frOG and part lizARD and so we called it NOGARD. In our work crazed mindset we were later amazed to realize that Nogard was “dragon” backwards.
Unfortunately, a set of hilarious circumstances sealed the fate of Nogard and he was never completed. I have often considered rebuilding him for history’s sake and including him at the Yoda Guy Movie Exhibit. The original, now badly deteriorated is on display there.
I recommend you read the story “the Nogard's sacrifice, and the guy we nailed to the floor!”. It is the funniest recollection I have involving George Lucas and the insane things we got up to on ESB.
