Making a Faun or Minotaur Costume? Weta Legs can help!

Do you have a knack for creating costumes? How about costumes of the creatures seen in movies like Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings or Narnia? If you have costumes to create for Movies, TV series, plays or even conventions and the like, then Weta has created a device that you can use to create great costumes with inverted legs.

Weta is today hugely excited to bring to the world Weta Legs, a digitigrades leg extension for performers, costumers and anyone who’s ever wanted to walk like an animal.

Since they were displayed a year ago on the Internet for the first time, there has been tremendous interest from performers across the world.

Weta Legs are a unique, low profile, professional grade, reverse leg stilt for creature and costume performances in movies, television, theatre, circus, street performances and other creative contexts. Something previously reserved for commercial film and television projects, they are the first of their kind available commercially to the public.

Check out the Product Video on www.wetaNZ.com

“It’s a real thrill to be able to present these stilts to performers across the world,” says Richard Taylor, Weta’s Creative Director and five time Academy Awardâ„¢ winner. “Kim Graham has really nailed this and we’re very proud to be working with her to bring these legs to the market.”

Kim Graham – the inventor of the Weta Legs:

“The greatest challenge was to build something all my friends could wear and build cool costumes over the top of. And this was a tremendous challenge. I wanted to incorporate everything, low profile, ease of use, light weight, comfort and adaptibility. All of these are extremely important to a performer who will be wearing these for long periods of time”.

Weta Legs are sold online at www.wetaNZ.com and shipped world wide.

What is “digitigrades”?
In essence, it means “walks on its toes”. Us humans put our heels flat on the ground, but what we call the foot on an animal such as a dog, is really its toes. It’s “heel” is therefore the next joint off the ground and it points backwards. By using the Weta Legs, you can imitate this way of walking.

Other words for digitigrades leg extensions are “digilegs”, “reverse leg stilts” or “dogleg stilts”.

Who is Kim Graham?
Kim Graham, from Seattle, Washington, has been sculpting since the 80s in a wide variety of media and sizes ranging from 22′ wide fiberglass dragons to fired clay figuratives to architectural ceramic pieces. Primarily self-taught, Kim has in recent years moved away from her special effects/fantasy based mold-making work to focus intensely on one-of-a-kind fine art sculptures.

Kim started the development of the Weta Legs three years ago and has continually refined and developed the design. She has worked for the last year in Wellington with the Weta Workshop technicians.

13 Comments

    • Of course it is–you get a new product with probable high production cost and so far relatively low demand, and it’s going to be expensive! Maybe once the rich people with hobbies start buying up a few, they’ll be able to afford to open the market to the rest of us.

    • Yeah, I just looked all over their website and there’s very little that even shows that they existed. I wonder why they stopped.

  1. Hi Kim,
    i’m James iron from france,
    i just saw your amazing work aout digigrade leps animal extentions on youtube and i just want to ask you if you accept to sell me a pair of it for my special canis lupus beast creation ?
    I’m Prothesic plastician sfx, teacher sfx in a french make up school and performer in France for diffrents events and it will be an extrodinary final accesories for my own Wolf costume.
    So if it’s possible contact me please .
    for information my size is 1.84m tall and 44 shoes (12)
    this is attached a picture of my wolf costume.
    Please give me your price for this extentions
    Thanks in advance Kim.

  2. I’m willing to bet that they realized that with a Global recession, NOW is not exactly the best time to try to ream the pockets of their VERY narrow market with the hefty price tag of $900+.

    I understand about pricing a “Skilled Handcrafted Item” because I sell my Handcrafted works as well. But $900+ is unrealistic, given the materials and the market.
    You can’t even JUMP in these. For $900+ I can buy 3-4 pairs of Jumping stilts that are easier on the knees, and still have money left over to create a very similar look cosmetically with Fur/Hooves/Toes!

    Right now, more people are trying to figure out whether they are going to pay their electric bill this month- or if they’ll be able to have the dentist finish that root canal! (or whatever, it’s just an example) As opposed to buying the most expensive costume accessory they can possibly find. Make a general consumer version, and Weta would see a HUGE market open up!
    Meanwhile, even if they just drop these down to something like $600-$700 and give a choice of optional foot styles for a LITTLE extra. They’d at least get a response!

    I’m just saying!

  3. For everybody looking for these Weta digilegs: they are now being sold by Area51. And yes, they are even more expensive now. I priced a pair for my Dragon costume= just under $2000.00, all their prices are in pounds. so my conversion might be a little off. Just passing the word, they are still in production, just expensive and made by Area51. Good Luck!

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