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Background Information[]
Grampus is a fictional submarine created by David Mitton and Robert D. Cardona.
He first appeared in Pirate, the second episode of TUGS, and continued to appear throughout the series.
He is based off the USS Grampus, a real naval submarine.
Behind The Scenes[]
Grampus' model was scratch built with fiberglass and plastic. He was designed and built by Paul Knight. Grampus used a specially-constructed parallelogram trolley chassis clamped to his underside, which had the ability to move up and down to simulate submerging and resurfacing. Grampus' model had a hole for a hand pump that made him squirt water when he would resurface.
Seven different types of mouths were sculpted for Grampus. Unlike the rest of the characters, his mouths were done with a wooden base pattern, and then each face would be created with vacuform plastic on this pattern. Grampus was originally going to have eyelids, but they went unused likely due to them being made from stickers and would not have stayed on underwater.
After production on TUGS ended, Grampus' model was kept in storage at Shepperton Studios. Since 2013, only six of his mouth casts are now owned by the TUGS: The Exhibition, an organisation which showcases the models. It is currently unknown if his model and the happy open-mouth cast still exists.
However, Paul Knight has recently been working on a replica model of Grampus, as revealed in the documentary; TUGS: A Bigg Retrospective. Knight intends to paint Grampus in the colors of the Star Tugs, representing his joining the fleet in "Regatta."
Voice Actors[]
TUGS[]
- Lee Cornes
- Sakurako Kishiro (Japan)
- Pauli Virta (Finland)
Salty's Lighthouse[]