"Pidgey Became His Mirror Move" ft. Officer Granite | TRAINER'S EYE #187

Welcome to As The Pokeball Turns where every trainer has a story. I'm David Hernandez. And I'm joined by Officer Granite. Creator of Real Life Pokemon Officer Granite, welcome to As The Pokeball Turns! How you doing? I'm happy to be here! I'm excited to have you too. And one question that I kinda wanted to start this conversation is, what is it like to be an Arceus where you can actually create real life Pokemon and bring them to life? Like, that's gotta be something that's so cool that we can only dream of? The hardest part is dealing with fan requests. really? Oh yeah! What kind of requests have you gotten from fans? If you don't mind disclosing? well, there's… there's the obvious ones that are like the super favorite ones, but in reality are like six feet tall or giant. And physically just can't do it. I know Wailord is a joke one that a lot of people tell me. But I've s- I've seen people asking for stuff like Arcanine or Mewtwo. But those are just too big. Those would be expensive to make I would think stuff like Groudon would be another one. Snorlax definitely I'm sure is a popular one, favorite too Th- there's a reason most of what I've done so far are first stage evolutions. They tend to be smaller. For those who don't know, you actually turn into, like, I'll say, robots of Pokemon. That's probably the best way I can kinda describe it. I mean, you also do some, of course, aesthetics. You put feathers and stuff like that. But I kinda wanna know, like, how did you kinda get into that? Because it's so cool, it looks so realistic. And they move basically almost on their own. Like, where did that start before we even dive into anything Pokemon related? So, I've always loved animatronics. My favorite movie growing up as a kid was Jurassic Park. And I remember going to a Scholastic Book Fair and getting a behind-the-scenes book of how they made it. And I saw that the dinosaurs were robots. And that was the coolest thing to me. So, over the years, I just learned more and more about it. And never really went for any actual training or… planning on how to do it. One Halloween, I wanted to do a trunk or treat display. As the character of Officer Granite came about before the robots were even a thing. I was just making videos on the internet and using animated game sprites edited in. But I wanted to have some dog kennels in the back of my truck. The idea was to make some animatronics that use the same motors as like the reindeer animatronics Christmas decorations. They just have simple, repetitive movements like breathing. They never made it out of the test stage, but I did have stuff built. They just didn't look good because the mechanics were there, but the appearance was just terrible. Then I got a 3D printer. And eventually was just piddling around and I used to be real big into remote control airplanes. I loved them. They didn't love me. I had a box of assorted electronics and batteries and stuff from all the ones that have crashed. But I decided that I was gonna try to revisit the idea. And after a couple little test runs, I was just using a basic Ender 3D printer. The way the build plate was, it was so small that the only thing that I could print in almost one piece happened to be a Pidgey. So Pidgey ended up being my first test run. And it was a success and everything snowballed after that You know, you talk about how you're self-taught. You're kind of just learning as you go. I'm assuming you're probably watching videos on YouTube. You're also probably reading stuff online, articles-wise. What was the most difficult learning curve that you encountered trying to teach yourself to build your own animatronics? The 3D modeling. I'm not great at it. I can't use Blender to save my life. I'm the kind of person where if I click with a software, I use it until it's unavailable. I'm the same way with Photoshop. I use Paint.net just 'cause that's what I learned when I was 13. I use Tinkercad and Windows 3D Builder to modify files that I find. I can't build a model from the ground up. I either purchase or get free files and then modify them to accept the animatronics inside of it. And to work with what I know will work. So just that learning curve of this servo has this much play in it, and so if you put in there, Pidgey's head's just gonna snap up way further than it should. Just, just learning the physical limitations of everything You know, I resonate with you about using files until they're obsolete. Like for me, my graphic designs, I use a Photoshop that I found from the dollar store, 2015-2016. I can't bend anything for crap. That's why I never do any bend materials. But I can do everything else that I need. So I can definitely respect you that you run it to the ground is basically what we call it down here It's the reason that up until last month, for three years, I've run an increasing amount of Ender-3s in my farm because I know the printer, I know how to fix the printer, and I was scared to move to a different platform. I got a new printer a month ago and it's made life so much easier Now you talked about how you eventually transitioned to doing Pokemon, of course, which Pidgey was your one. What brought along that idea? Because originally you said you were inspired by dinosaurs, then to jump to Pokemon, it's two different franchises in a way? Well… the Jurassic Park was just the jumping-off point for the subject of animatronics. It's like, this creature does not exist, here's how they made it exist. And so I left college in like… 2012. I was given at the time HeartGold. That got me back into it. And Pokemon GO came out in 2016. So it was fresh in my head. And then once COVID hit and everyone started using stuff like TikTok and Instagram Reels a lot more. People were making different content and I thought it would be funny to get in on that. like I said, I created the character for the videos, but then decided I wanted to do a trunk-or-treat with Pokemon animatronics. And the first attempt didn't work. I sat on the thought for about half a year, and then second attempt was Pidgey Now you mentioned how HeartGold was the Pokemon game that brought you back into the franchise. what was it about that game out of all the other ones that kinda hooked you back in that made you wanna come back to Pokemon? So I'm one of those people that as a kid was real hard into Gen 1 and 2. And kinda sorta played Gen 3, but at that time it was one of those things where the trends were shifting and people were falling out of Pokemon into other stuff. And I just kinda fell out of it. And, you know, college you're thinking, man, being an adult sucks. Let's go back to what makes us happy as a kid. It's like, oh, I liked-- I had Silver version, my brother had Gold. It's like they've got an updated version for the DS. I got it for Christmas and found that a bunch of my friends were the same way. And it just relit the fire What do you remember about playing HeartGold when you returned to it? Like, how did it compare to what you remember from the original Gold and Silver games? Well, I had to relearn everything, but it brought the same joy the second time because I'd forgotten enough of it for it to still be a good play What was your starter? So I've always gone Water Starters. So for Blue it was Squirtle. For Silver it was Totodile. Just because Totodile, you could look it in the eyes and just see that there's no thoughts happening. You know, the anime was going at the same time, and I just liked Totodile the best I know I remember with the anime, I always remembered Totodile. It was always dancing when it came out of the Pokeball. He was like,"Totodile, Totodile." Yep. You said earlier you played Pokemon Gold and Silver with your brother at the time. Did y'all like battle each other, trade? Like what was that dynamic like for y'all two growing up? Well, that's the funniest part is like we didn't have the link cable or anything, so we were like,"Hey, check out what I got. Check out what I got." But we had no way to physically link the machines together. Really? Wow! See… our cousins were way bigger into the gaming and stuff, and so we were kinda off on the peripheral. It's like we were not as hard into it as they were, but we knew just enough to be entertained with it. And we didn't have all the extra stuff that came with it So for y'all, y'all would just compare like… what y'all raised, what y'all caught? Yeah, basically. And it's one of those things where our parents were kind of strict with us. So we didn't really get to… aside from being in school, we didn't really interact with a bunch of other kids. So it's pretty much an isolated environment. Wow. That must that must have been fun though to play with your brother growing up though Oh, yeah. Gold was his first, Yellow was mine. But we both had Game Boys at the same time, and so we bo- I, I got Silver the same time he got Gold. He's three years younger than me, so we just jumped off from there Well, I gotta ask you, if you were to do a playthrough of that game, what six Pokemon would you choose? Definitely Totodile in that line. I liked Sudowoodo 'cause he's just a meme. and I, I, I didn't have loyalty to anything. Like, if I liked it at that moment, it's in my party. I didn't subscribe to type advantages like I probably should've. I picked Pokemon more for the vibe at that point in time Do you still pick Pokemon like that today? Sometimes, like if I think it's gonna be funny, I'll, I'll do it. I haven't played a lot of the newer games. I just got a Switch a couple months ago when my brother upgraded to the Switch 2, he gave me his old one. So I've got a lot of catching up to do In what ways do you still stick with Pokemon even though, you know, you don't keep up with the, games nowadays? I hang out at a bunch of the local card stores. Just the game stores. The people I meet in the cosplay community, they all like Pokemon as well, and just conversation happens. social media is, it can be the worst of things, but it can be the best of things, too, as far as keeping in the loop Now, have you mentioned any of your favorite Pokemon at all, or do you have a favorite? So for the longest time, my favorite was just straight up Squirtle. That was my guy. I've been married to my wife, it'll be 10 years next year. And one of the first things she got me was a black T-shirt with a Squirtle on it, and that thing is falling apart at this point. I have just worn it so much. But since everything has blown up for me and the animatronics have taken off. I can safely say that Pidgey is my favorite at this point, just because of everything that has come off of Pidgey to benefit me So just because of the way things have gone with Pidgey, you know, it's first Pokemon you built All the doors that Pidgey has opened for me That's awesome. I like that. But you still have Squirtle's probably a close second, I imagine? Oh yeah, Squirtle's second. Like, that's the only reason I haven't made one yet is I want to do it perfect. And I don't wanna settle for something that I'm not happy with. And Squirtle would be a hard one to pull off the way I would want it to. Right! You has some pride in, well, more pride I guess compared to other Pokemon, let's put it that way. Yeah. I've got more emotionally tied up in Squirtle than I do some other stuff. Now I know that you said your goal for 2026, from what I remember, was you wanna do all the starter birds. How's that going for you at the time of this recording? Are you on the way there, or you kinda have to readjust things little bit? So… we had to do some stuff with our filament source. So that's kind of in a issue right now. But I've successfully built Hoothoot. The summer's real busy with conventions and stuff like that, so once we get clear of that in the fall, we'll see where we end up by the end of the year. thankfully, the next couple down the line look pretty s-simple. Right now I've got Pidgey, Spearow, and Hoothoot What has it been like for you to go to these different convention as Officer Granite, and what has been the vibe? Oh, it's, it, it's been so fun. I have kids coming up to me to see the Pokemon and… I have 34, 35-year-olds turning into kids for 30 seconds at time come up and see the Pokemon. And it makes all the hard work and time and trouble that each one of these has built into it worth it. And I mean, it must be kinda humbling for you to dive into a little bit, and was just your own interest. And now people to kinda resonate even, and come up and feel like you're almost famous in a way. Yeah, something like that I know that's probably not the best words for it, but that's the ones that came to mind. Known. I am known. You're known! There, you're a well-known Pokemon trainer. Yeah, and I can legitimately… that's the funniest part, is I have and will continue to tell people I've been a Pokemon trainer for three years, because I legitimately am. I'm, I'm raising these things. Hopefully they don't evolve. Well, some of them do. As I'm staring at my Pidgeotto in a chair across from me. I was wondering, so, where did Officer Granite, the idea of being an officer come from before doing this? The funniest part of all this is, like I said before, the character came before the robots. I remember being at my house with the flu one day, just on medicine, just mid-fever. And I had been playing an emulator of FireRed. So I'm laying on the couch in a delirium, watching a show on Animal Planet called Lone Star Law. It's a show about game wardens. And my brain just is like,"You know, Officer Jennys exist. Oh! And Pokemon licenses exist. Trainer licenses. Who exists to check those and enforce like limits and stuff?" And so that's where the character came from. It's like using bits and pieces of the lore to wedge a character into existence That's awesome, 'cause I thought it would actually be based on, 'cause there's a Pokemon Ranger trainer archetype. I thought maybe that had some influence, No, I ha- I learned about that completely after the fact. That's wild. I'm sure people probably assume that when they come up and talk to you. Yeah. They either assume that or that I'm a hiker.'cause you look like a hiker whenever you have getup Yeah What is next for Officer Granite? Like What's one Pokemon that you hope to build someday? I have a back pocket full of ideas. some use stuff that I've designed for other builds that just ramp it up. Like, I built an Ekans that can roll on the floor. I would like to revisit the idea, now that I've got a bigger 3D printer, to build a juvenile Onix that works the same way, but uses the motors out of a Power Wheels car Are you gonna keep that to scale or are you gonna kind of bring it down a little S- see, when I first started, I tried to keep everything accurate to the Pokedex, and that ruled out a lot of stuff that I wanted to make. But then I found out that Pokemon GO had extra small and extra large sizing. so that was my green light to be able to fudge stuff to make it easier to transport or show. So it won't be huge, but it won't be small. I've already made two Charmanders. I've got an idea for a Charmander that can throw an ember. Whoa, that's awesome! there's a lot that I wanna do. It all just comes down to logistics and funding Now, you mentioned you play Pokemon GO, So how often are you playing that game? you play regularly, kinda casually? I'll play it for three or four days and forget it exists for a couple weeks. I go to like parks and stuff around the city I remember the first time when Pidgey was done, I did a dry run at my city's botanical gardens walking around with him on a glove. Because the botanical gardens where I'm at, full of Pokéstops. And I went on Community Day just because I wanted to see how other people reacted if I did a good job or not. Half the people recognized what it was for what it was, but because the city's zoo is across the street from the botanical gardens, several people thought I was just walking around with an owl. Like I had the tan shirt and the green pants on at the same time, so they thought I was a keeper from across the street just walking around with an owl That's m- that must be kind of a compliment for you though that… it was. It really was!'Cause your, what you do is so realistic that people mistake it for something don't-- It wasn't until they get up about two to three feet away from it that they start realizing something's not jiving. That something's a bit off. Just a little bit. But I mean, that's how realistic, that's how much detail you put into your stuff, which is good. It's amazing. Yeah Well, Officer Granite, thank you. That's gonna be an episode. before you go, if people wanna connect with you, if they wanna kinda see where you're going, by all means, please plug away. I am at Officer Granite on everything, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook. We're trying to do a drive for Facebook for the rest of the year just to get my numbers to be on the same level as the other social media. But I'm the same name on everything. I'll be out in Grapevine, Texas in August for a card show at the Great Wolf Lodge. After that, I'll be at Dragon Con in Atlanta, Georgia, Labor Day weekend. So after that, we'll get back into the workshop and try to figure some stuff out. Well, thank you for listening to As the Pokeball Turns. Where every trainer has a story. And if this episode resonated with you, share the episode with a fellow trainer and follow the podcast for more voices, more journeys, and more memories. I'm David Hernandez, and remember, your next Pokemon adventure begins here!