Berkeley-based Tippett Studios, the animation and effects house founded by Phil Tippett that contributed to films such as Star Wars, RoboCop and Starship Troopers, closed on August 28 after sustained financial trouble and sold decades of props, models and artwork in a two-day auction. With Phil Tippett retiring and many items heading into private hands, there was a real risk those materials would become inaccessible to researchers and fans.
An anonymous auction-goer who calls themself "TippettFan" purchased a folder of CD-ROMs from the sale, created ISO images of 90 key, non-duplicated discs, and uploaded the lot to the Internet Archive. The collection runs to gigabytes of data: a few clips are playable online (including CGI test footage and a 2008 interview with Tippett), but most items are preserved as .ISO disc images containing behind-the-scenes stills and slides - file names point to RoboCop and Starship Troopers material, slides related to the original Star Wars work, and even publicity stills from Catwoman. The transfer preserves high-resolution material that may otherwise have vanished, offering a substantial primary-source trove for historians, animators and aficionados; it was promoted on BlueSky by Brandon Sheffield.
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