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| DEBUT | 1982 |
| DESIGN | Brian Froud conceptual designer |
| Fred Nihda design & fabrication supervisor | |
The Garthim are large clawed warriors of amazing strength. The Garthim carried out the commands of SkekUng the Garthim-Master. The creatures were created by SkekTek the scientist and lived in caverns beneath the Castle of the Crystal. The Garthim were dispatched to ravage Thra and returned with captive Gelflings or Podlings for the Skeksis to enslave and drain their essence.
Physically, they resemble a cross between a beetle and a crab and do not appear to be "alive" in the purest sense of the word: at the end of The Dark Crystal, they simply fall apart like suits of armor, revealing nothing within. In The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, it is learned that each Garthim is made from Gruenak and Arathim corpses combined into a single body and controlled through an unknown device by SkekTek and later by SkekUng, the Garthim Master. The creatures' name is a portmanteau of the two species: Gruenak and Arathim.
The Garthim fabrication unit consisted of Peter Bennion, Bob Keen, Ron Nash, Bill Dennis, Guy Grebot, Helen Pettit, Peter Gillow, and Dominic Farrugia.
Since 2015, a Garthim puppet is on display at the Center for Puppetry Arts as part of their permanent Worlds of Puppetry exhibit.