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MKULTRA is the San Francisco design and fabrication house of makers Mel Ho and Kayte Sabicer, known for high-quality animatronic props that blend handmade craft, vivid color and playful electronics. Their work includes a taco drive-through robot built for a short film, and they also contribute to Adam Savage’s Tested workshop.
Who is behind MKULTRA?
MKULTRA is the shared maker alias of Mel Ho and Kayte Sabicer. The pair are based in San Francisco, California, and contribute to Adam Savage’s Tested workshop. They met in Savage’s shop in 2017 and connected over unusual creatures, art films and animatronics.
Ho is a multidisciplinary artist drawn to robotics and animatronics. Sabicer’s background includes miniature model making, fabrication, painting and visual effects. Their different skills meet in projects that combine mechanical movement with carefully built and finished characters.
Make: profiled the pair after their appearance at Maker Faire Bay Area on Mare Island, where they took part in a panel about their Bethesda Starfield Frontier Ship Build. Jennifer Blakeslee’s Make: profile was published July 17, 2024, and updated August 22, 2025.
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What does MKULTRA make?
Ho and Sabicer describe MKULTRA as “a design and fabrication house that specializes in creating high-quality animatronic props for the film and entertainment industry.” Their signature look favors retro, handmade aesthetics, bold colors and fun electronic features. Creature-related and psychedelic designs are particular interests.
Animatronic props are built to suggest life through movement, often pairing a fabricated body or character with mechanical elements and electronic control. MKULTRA’s described approach puts those functional systems alongside visible craft and expressive design rather than treating the electronics as the whole project.
How did the taco drive-through robot work?
For the short film Neon Vowels, Ho and Sabicer made an animatronic taco drive-through robot. Its reported features show how a prop can combine movement, remote operation, lighting and an interactive task:
- A telescoping stand and rotating base provided changes in height and orientation.
- A body cavity opened to deliver food.
- The head could pan and tilt by remote control, while a telescoping mechanism moved an eye.
- Multiple lighting features added visual effects.
- A robotic arm contributed another moving element.
The available account lists these mechanisms but does not specify motors, controllers, software, materials, build time or the exact control setup. It is therefore a useful example of the prop’s functions, not a complete construction plan.
What skills and tools go into creature props?
The profile points to a multidisciplinary workflow rather than a single required toolset. Ho’s robotics and animatronics experience supports the movement and control side; Sabicer’s miniature modeling, fabrication, painting and visual-effects experience supports the physical form and finish. For the taco robot, the documented elements include telescoping structures, a rotating base, remote control, lighting and a robotic arm.
MKULTRA’s stated interest in learning metalworking to make stronger structural bases also illustrates a practical distinction: a visually finished creature and a reliable support structure solve different problems. The profile does not identify a standard shop inventory or prescribe particular tools, so specific equipment should be chosen for a project’s scale, load, movement and finish rather than inferred from this example.
What were MKULTRA’s next ideas?
At the time of the profile, Ho and Sabicer said they wanted to develop modular hanging pod creatures. They also planned to keep iterating on papier-mâché masks after receiving a warm response while wearing them at Maker Faire. Their interest in better structural bases led them to want to learn metalworking.
These were projects and goals they described in the 2024 profile as updated in 2025; they should not be read as confirmation that each has since been completed.
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What can new prop makers take from their approach?
Ho and Sabicer’s advice is to begin before everything feels settled and to allow unusual ideas and bold colors into the work: “Be as weird as you want to be with everything you do. Use the bold colors and the unusual subject matters. And stop waiting until you feel fully prepared to start your project. Start it now! You’ll be far happier with the imperfect finished result than a pile full of research and nothing to show for it.”
For an animatronic project, that can mean starting with one clear behavior—such as a head turn, blinking eye or opening panel—and building a simple proof of concept before committing to a full character. This is a practical interpretation of their advice, not a build specification from the profile: keep the first mechanism achievable, then add complexity as the design and structure allow.
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