“I am on a curiosity voyage, and I need my paddles to travel.”

— Dustin Henderson, Stranger Things, Season II.

Monsters, bikes, and ’80s nostalgia. Stranger Things has always been about imagination gone wild. For almost ten years, that imagination has crossed from the screen into workshops and living rooms around the world. From the show’s creature shop to its global fanbase, 3D printing has played its part in building the Upside Down.

As the final season approaches, it’s time to celebrate how the makers, the fans, and the tech behind it all came together (though much of 3D printing’s behind-the-scenes work remains unseen).

Stranger Things, Season V poster. Image courtesy of Netflix.

On set: printing the monsters

When the team behind Stranger Things set out to bring the creatures of the Upside Down to life, 3D printing became one of the tools that helped make it possible. Early on, the Duffer Brothers turned to design studio Aaron Sims Creative for the design of the show’s first monster, the Demogorgon. To capture that authentic ’80s sci-fi feel, the studio used SLA-printed maquettes made with Formlabs printers to prototype the show’s infamous creature, the Demogorgon, letting sculptors and VFX teams inspect every curve and petal before cameras rolled.

As Formlabs later explained in a behind-the-scenes feature, digital tools like 3D printing helped keep traditional Hollywood model-making alive, letting designers sculpt by hand while still meeting modern production schedules. Those resin prototypes guided both the practical effects and the digital VFX teams, bridging old-school craft and new-age fabrication.

Meanwhile, as the show’s monsters evolved (hello, Vecna), the prosthetics team at BGFX Ltd blended 3D printing with traditional effects work. The company’s founder, Barrie Gower, who led the creature and makeup effects for Stranger Things 4, even shared a behind-the-scenes post that read: “Playing with 3D printing (…)”

 

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A post shared by Barrie Gower (@barriegower)

According to Duncan Jarman, an Oscar and BAFTA-nominated prosthetic artist who helped bring Vecna to life, the team used 3D printed body scans and re-poses of actor Jamie Campbell Bower as the base for sculpting the creature’s practical makeup. The 3D prints provided accurate reference forms for layers of silicone and foam appliances that would later be hand-applied on set.

Elsewhere, BGFX’s official Facebook posts reveal a similar method for other Stranger Things 4 characters. For David Harbour’s transformation into Hopper, the team created a full silicone facial appliance for flashback scenes, applying it over a 3D printed facial cast so his face looked the same in every scene.

In the end, the nightmares felt real, and so do the heroes, and 3D printing gave the fabrication teams a level of speed and precision they couldn’t have achieved otherwise.

Fans also built the Upside Down at home

Beyond the set, fans kept the creativity alive, printing their own monsters, props, and portals. Entire Demogorgon busts, racks of “alphabet wall” letters (like Joyce’s living room), nail-bats, dice towers, and Vecna hands, it’s all out there. The maker community has brought Hawkins, and its darker side, with a lot of imagination.

Across 3D model marketplaces like Cults3D, Printables, and Yeggi, hundreds of Stranger Things designs are shared and remixed. There are detailed Demogorgon busts, usually printed in pieces and painted by hand. Alphabet-wall letters from Season 1 light up with LEDs, following step-by-step guides on sites like Instructables. The Hellfire Club dice towers, a Dungeons & Dragons favorite, are among the most popular fan models.

Some makers go much bigger, printing Vecna hands and busts that take days to complete, or Mind Flayer centerpieces and life-size Demogorgon mounts built in sections, much like real movie props.

A year ago, reddit user PBPenguinPie in r/StrangerThings posted: “Took me two days of non-stop work, but so worth it! I had to cover up every single one of the 180 teeth in tape to paint them.”

3D printed Demogorgon. Image courtesy of PeanutButterPenguinPie via Reddit.

Earlier this year, another builder, Mike Rizzo, published on Facebook: “85-hour print Stranger Things Vecna using airbrush and acrylic paint took about 2 weeks to paint using Bambu A1 combo.”

The fandom doesn’t just rewatch; they recreate Hawkins, layer by layer.

Stranger Things has always mixed the familiar with the strange, a little Stephen King, a little ’80s nostalgia. Now, 3D printing adds a new kind of magic, where people make the show their own.

Final roll-call: what to watch for

When the final season drops on November 26 (after a special teaser arriving November 6), Stranger Things closes its circle in Hawkins, with new monsters, old friendships, and one more big showdown. But thanks to 3D printing, the story doesn’t end with the credits. It opens small gates of its own, tiny portals from Hawkins to your workspace.