When Insomniac Games (now named Activision Publishing Inc.) created and released the game Spyro the Dragon for Play Station in 1998, they never realized how big of an impact on the gaming world it would have. Since then, multiple remasters of the game have been made, a whole line of live action toys have been developed, and it has been adapted into an animated television show called Skylanders. Perhaps one of the biggest surprises came form one of the game’s biggest fans, world famous rap and entertainment star Snoop Dogg. In 2018 Activision announced that it would be releasing the final remaster in the Spyro franchise called Spyro Reignited Trilogy.

Shortly before the official release of the game Snoop took to Twitter saying, “Yooo my lil neffew @SpyroTheDragon lookin straight !! Bring me that new Spyro Reignited Trilogy!” along with Activision’s 15 second promotional video featuring a life sized, fire breathing replica of Spyro. Recognizing an amazing marketing opportunity, Activision responded, “Hang tight @SnoopDogg I’m coming. NYC to LA.” The tweet also had an image of a map of North America with a dotted line marking a travel plan across the country. Activision put together a plan to have Spyro travel across the country to bring Snoop his own personal copy of the new game. But Spyro is a mischievous, fire breathing, high flying dragon. A cross country road trip would simply not fit his character. Instead, they had a Spyro drone make the journey.

Drones the can carry a package are not a new concept, but Activision didn’t want any old drone, they wanted a Spyro drone. To get this done they turned to Thinergy, a company that specializes in taking a concept for film, TV, and games and turning it into reality. They have created specialty costumes and set pieces for shows like Stranger Things, movies like A Wrinkle In Time, and now a real life flying Spyro the Dragon. Not only can the large Spyro drone carry Snoop his video game, but it can also talk and breath fire.

Thinergy explained how they set about making this specialized drone. “Fly, breath fire, talk, blow smoke, and look just like Spyro…this isn’t the first time we have done something that we have never done before. The flying Spyro drone we created flew with the aide of a carefully designed body that enclosed around a quadcopter encased inside. We 3D printed the body from modified files directly from the video game to make sure Spyro was as spot on to the game as possible. These pieces then went to body shop, and paint. The head and face of the dragon contain special fireproof material to prevent any damage when Spyro actually shoots flames from his animatronic mouth. The Spyro drone also carries a first-person view camera, has integrated sounds from the game and even blows smoke.” The next step was to figure out a way to transport the Spyro drone so that it could go on it’s cross country tour.

The drone itself would not be able to fly across the country. Most drones only have a battery that has enough power to fly for 20-40 minutes. That is the battery life for a standard bodied drone, not one encased in a 3D printed, fire breathing dragon, the size of a large dog. The Spyro drone would only be able to fly for a few minutes at a time so it needed to be constructed in a way that allowed for easy disassembly and reassembly. All of the parts of the drone snap together in a matter of minutes, and can then be taken apart and loaded into padded crates for transportation. The crates were then driven across the country while making some promotional pit stops.

For these pit stops the Spyro drone would be put together and flown to highlight some of it’s tricks. Some of these promotional stops including grabbing some yummy pancakes and even running into his nemesis, Toasty. Toasty is the jack-o-lantern headed scarecrow that Spyro has to defeat in the first level of the game. Thinergy made a 3D replica of Toasty, positioned him in a field on a pile of hay, and let Spyro have his way with him. Spyro flies over the field and approaches Toasty. When the drone is within a few feet of the adult sized replica of Toasty, flames erupt from Spyro’s mouth. The drone flies away as the scarecrow goes up in flames.

Spyro’s journey, which began with picking up a copy of the new game outside of Stone Hill Castle in New York, ended in a parking lot in Los Angeles. Snoop Dogg speaks to a camera as he walks out of a recording studio saying, “C’mon, roll with me. You about to witness something you never thought you’d witness before.” As he walks out into the sunshine he points up to the sky and exclaims, “Look there he is right there. Spyro! What up baby? Spit that fire one time.” The camera pans up to the Spyro drone hovering in the air above the nearly empty parking lot as it shoots out a blast of flames. The hand off of the game into Snoop’s hand is implied but not shown, as this would not be something that could actually happen because of safety concerns. The video ends with Snoop placing a giant gold chain around Spyro’s neck before he goes inside to play his new video game.

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