Stripe

"Gizmo caca!"

- Stripe/Mohawk whenever he sees Gizmo

Stripe is the name given to the main antagonist of the 1984 film Gremlins. He was given his name "Stripe" because of the white quiff of hair on his head which runs down to the end of his neck.

Stripe was the lead gremlin in the original film Gremlins and, again, the primary antagonist in Gremlins 2: The New Batch as a gremlin called Mohawk who is supposed to be a reincarnation of Stripe according to director Joe Dante. Stripe was voiced by Frank Welker, who is more known for his role in the Scooby-Doo series, in both films. Although Frank was not credited as voicing Stripe in the first film, but was credited as voicing Mohawk in Gremlins 2: The New Batch.

Appearance
When Stripe was born as a Mogwai, his fur seemed slightly brighter than the other Mogwai and he had a white quiff of fur on the top of his head, hence he was given the nickname "Stripe". He often seemed to have a sinister look on his face even as a Mogwai.

When he was fed after midnight and turned into a gremlin, he gained a more fearsome appearance just like all of the other gremlins. He still had a white fur quiff on his head and had red eyes with black pupils. His skin still seemed to be brighter than the other gremlins. His skin was more of a green color than dark greenish-brown. He had a yellow underbelly, chin, and front of his ears. And like all of the other gremlins had long arms and legs with three fingers and toes. He has several spikes that start from above his eyes and run down to the side of his face. He had broad multi-scaled shoulders. He had a three-spiked chin and large goblin-like ears. He has a snout-like nose like all of the other gremlins. Stripe several other stripes on the back of his neck, arms, and legs like all of the other gremlins who had stripe patterns. But, did not have white fur.

When Stripe was reborn as the Mogwai Mohawk, he bore a strong resemblance to his gremlin self. He had sharp teeth, bloodshot eyes, batlike ears and had black and white fur, with a white beard. When Mohawk became a gremlin, his mohawk turned into a spiked fin and his appearance was more exotic-looking. Unlike normal gremlins from the Gremlins series, Mohawk's skin seemed scalier and more colorful. Mohawk almost seemed to have something on the bottom of his chin that resembled a rooster's beard. His face was also more slimy in appearance and was more reflective than the skin of a normal gremlin. Mohawk was mostly light green in color. However, he had a white colored underbelly, as well as underneath his chin and the front part of his ears. He also had black scales and black stripes on his ears. His eyes seem at first red in appearance. However, if you take a closer look at his upcoming NECA action figure, you will notice that his eyes are dark orange with black pupils. His voice also sounded more animalistic.

Personality
Stripe was very cruel and vile to Gizmo and did not seem to have much care for the other gremlins (who he only seemed to see as his minions) either. He seemed to be more serious in situations unlike the other gremlins. Stripe was very hostile to Gizmo the Mogwai. His dislike for Gizmo may have been because he did not want the other Mogwai to refer to Gizmo as their leader because they were born from him. Stripe has the overall mind of a gangster when it comes to his choices of weaponry such as handguns and machine guns. His dislike for Gizmo was so popular that there was even a video game known as Stripe vs. Gizmo made for Nintendo Game Boy Advanced.

Stripe seemed to act more focused than the other gremlins while he was playing poker in Dorry's Tavern and only seems to laugh when another individual is hurt (mainly Gizmo). Stripe mainly uses the Mogwai/gremlin language. However, he can read English as seen in the scene from Gremlins when he reads the sign at Mrs.Deagle's home and says her name four times. Stripe seemed more villainous and intelligent than the other gremlins who were simply pranksters than villains.

Gremlins
Stripe first made an appearance in the film Gremlins and was born has a Mogwai after one of Billy Peltzer's friends accidentally dropped a glass of water from a vase on Gizmo the Mogwai. Stripe also appeared to be the first Mogwai that was born from Gizmo as it would seem that that particular Mogwai had a white stripe on his head. After the Mogwai where finished unfolding, Billy's friend tries to pet Stripe. However, Stripe reacts and tries to bite Billy's friend. Stripe soon after started to exhibit signs of hostility to Gizmo by vomiting on Gizmo while he was playing the video game Donkey Kong on some kind of mechanical toy, seemingly annoyed by the sound of Gizmo's Christmas horn. Stripe later hatched a plot to trick Billy into feeding him and the Mogwai after midnight by unplugging Billy's clock about fifteen minutes before midnight. Somehow, Stripe knew what would happen to the Mogwai if they where fed after midnight. Sure enough, Billy feeds the Mogwai, all except for Gizmo who refused to eat Billy's chicken and also must have known what would happen if he had eaten after midnight.

Gizmo later wakes up in the morning to find that the Mogwai had formed cocoons muttering "uh-oh". Stripe later hatches from his cocoon as a gremlin and is first seen in his gremlin form when he peaks out of a chest to watch another gremlin attack Billy's mom; Lynn Peltzer. After Billy returns home to find his mother being attacked by the gremlin, Billy chops off it's head. Seconds later, Stripe appears from hiding behind a curtain and blows his nose on the curtain right before forcefully breaking a window and escaping into the town of Kingston Falls. Billy and Gizmo later track him down to the Kingston Falls YMCA where he somehow sets off the YMCA's alarm and then lunges at Billy and scratches Billy on the chest. He then jumps into the YMCA's pool and starts to create more gremlins since the rest of the first batch had been killed by Billy and his mother.

Stripe later appears out of the shadows and utters the word "caca" to let his army know that it is safe. He then soon after comes out from hiding in some bushes and orders his some of his gremlins to dress up as Christmas carolers and attack Mrs.Deagle's home. Stripe then later appears with the rest of the gremlins at Dorry's Tavern where he shoots another of his fellow gremlins for cheating at a game of poker. He then leaves the tavern with the other gremlins to the Kingston Falls movie theater where he seems to think that he is wasting his time judging by the displeased expression on his face when he is seen in the theater. Another gremlin who appears to be his girlfriend tells him to go get Milk Duds from the snack bar. Stripe checks the snack bar only to find that there is no more food left and then spots a nearby convenience store and utters the term "yum-yum". He then appears with his arms full of candy and then sees the explosion from the movie theater that Billy and his girlfriend Kate had set off. When Billy spots him in the window of the convenience store, he drops all of his candy and escapes.

He is then seen riding a skateboard in an a temp to escape from Billy. Billy tries to track him down and sees him on several of the store's TV screens. He then tries to shoot Billy with some crossbow arrows in an a temp to kill Billy. However, when his plan fails, he starts to use a chainsaw to attack Billy. Stripe nearly wins until Kate activates the stores lights, causing Stripe to temporally lose his vision and loses control of his chainsaw which drags him to the store's garden section. When he spots the water fountain in the garden section, he utters "water" and then seconds after spots a handgun in a display case and says "gun".

When Billy walks into the garden section of the store, Stripe is seen standing on the water fountain with his handgun and prepares to shoot him. Stripe then puts his finger in the water (in the hopes of creating more gremlins) which causes bubbles of new gremlins to form on his back. Gizmo later appears in a toy car which crashes. Stripe then spots Gizmo and prepares to shoot Gizmo while saying "Gizmo caca!". However, Gizmo opens up a window shade and lets bright light into the room, causing Stripe to start decaying. Seconds after decaying, he falls into the lower section of the water fountain. When Billy gets closer to the fountain to be sure that he is dead, his skeleton lunges at Billy. However his skeleton then starts to turn into a bubbling liquid. Stripe's bubbling ooze is left in the store as Billy, his father; Rand Peltzer, and Kate depart.

Gremlins 2: The New Batch
In the sequel to Gremlins; Gremlins 2: The New Batch, Stripe is (according to director Joe Dante) reborn as a Mogwai named "Mohawk" because of his Mohawk on his head which resembles his original white quiff of fur.

Mohawk was first born as a Mogwai after Gizmo got wet from a leaking drinking fountain water faucet in Clamp Center. When he was spawned from Gizmo, he landed in a nearby trashcan and was the last of the Mogwai to unfold himself. He began to wander around after crawling out of the trashcan until he stopped Gizmo and ripped off a band that was on Gizmo's hand while saying his classic phrase "Gizmo caca". He and the other Mogwai, George and Lenny, then locked Gizmo in an air vent and were later seen on an elevator with Mohawk underneath George and Lenny. Mohawk and the other Mogwai then went to an ice cream shop in Clamp Center where he was seen sitting next to a woman and speaking in the Mogwai/gremlin language to her; seemingly flirting with her, and later bursting from a pile of ice cream toppings including M&M's, strawberries, and a banana. Since he and the other Mogwai ate at the ice cream shop after midnight, he was seen in his gremlin cocoon with George and Lenny later.

After spending time in his cocoon, used his lion fish-like Mohawk fin to carve his way out of his cocoon. His arm later appeared tapping Gizmo on the should. He once again said "Gizmo caca" and began to violently beat up Gizmo. Both of Mohawk's arms later appeared zapping Gizmo with electric wires shortly before bursted from a computer system in Clamp Center while Billy and one of Forster's technicians were making fun of the rule not to feed Mogwai after midnight. Mohawk attacked one of Forster's technicians and punched him in the face. He soon jumped on top of the computer system and made a growl-like sound. Billy then took and large flashlight which caused Mohawk to retreat from the room and made a pig-like squealing noise while escaping. He was later seen throughout the film torturing Gizmo by making continuous copies of him with a photocopier, ripping his fur off with Velcros (which were on sale according to the sign that was next to them, and finally with a toy train and tying him to the track; hoping to ram him. Mohawk later appeared in the Splice O' Life laboratory in Clamp Center where he tried to shoot Billy with a Uzi machine gun while hundreds of other gremlins were running a muck. His attempt to kill Billy failed. However, he escaped with a beaker full of blue liquid with a spider labeled on it. This was obviously spider serum.

Mohawk then later drank the spider serum in a hallway which resulted in the lower half of his body becoming spider-like. He then used the lower part of his body to spin a web in a corridor of the building which he trapped several victims in. The character Marla Bloodstone later was caught in his web. Billy's girlfriend Kate arrived to help her. However, Mohawk appeared before she had time and started heading towards them. However, before he could kill Marla and Kate, Gizmo showed up with an arrow which he lit on fire and fired at Mohawk killed him once and for all and destroying his web.



Gremlins: Stripe vs. Gizmo
In the Intendo Game Boy Advanced video game Gremlins: Stripe vs. Gizmo, in Gizmo's story of the game, Stripe comes up with a plan to ruin Christmas for everyone in Kingston Falls by stealing Christmas presents. In his story of the game, he comes up with a scheme to finally destroy Gizmo and the rest of the Mogwai species. Stripe will say "yatter yatter" when Gizmo collects all of the presents that he has stolen.

Merchandise
Stripe's popularity has inspired more than several forms of collectible merchandise. Most of Stripe merchandise consists of NECA action figures. Although his character is popular with some young children, most of his collectibles are intended for mature adults and or children of thirteen years of age. Some of his merchandise does include toys and plush dolls that are more appropriate for children of younger age, as well as hats. Most of Stripe collectibles (as well as other Gremlins merchandise) can commonly be found in stores such as Newbury Comics. There some figures of Stripe that can only be found in Japan. Other merchandise of Stripe includes:
 * Cult Classics Gremlin Stripe NECA figure.
 * NECA Mogwai Stripe figure.
 * Stripe chullo hat.
 * Stripe bobble head.
 * Stripe the Gremlin costume (although it more resembles Mohawk).
 * Stripe plush doll.
 * Stripe and Gizmo Bearbrick set.
 * Japanese Stripe gremlin action figure.
 * Gremlins Stripe Craft Label statue.
 * Gremlins Stripe Plush Flat Brim with Faux Fur Adjustable Baseball Cap Hat.
 * Rubber Stripe key chain.
 * Stripe coffee mug.
 * Stripe Kubrick.

Behind the scenes
In the film Gremlins, Stripe was one of the many gremlin puppets created and operated by Chris Walas. Stripe was originally going to be killed by Billy Peltzer. However, Stephen Spielberg believed that Gizmo was the film's true hero and that Gizmo should be responsible for Stripe's death. Stripe was voiced by the voice actor Frank Welker who is also more known for his role in Scooby-Doo. Frank Welker was also the one suggested that Howie Mandel (the voice of Gizmo) star in Gremlins. Stripe was one of the only "super-gremlin" puppets used in the film (according to the audio commentary from cast and crew featured on the Gremlins DVD). Super-gremlin puppets have more movement and articulation than the ordinary gremlin puppets used in background scenes.

In the scene where Stripe jumps into the pool in the Kingston Falls YMCA, it took sixty one shoots of him falling into the pool to get to perfect it. Shortly after, it was pointed out that the makers forgot Stripe's stripe (white quiff of fur) on his head in that particular scene and it had to be shot one last time.

Stripe was also the only gremlin who did not stay in the Kingston Falls movie theater to watch Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Instead, he went to a near by convenience store to find candy. He might have decided not to stay for the film himself because he seems to have a displeased look on his face for the short time he is in the theater. He was voiced by Frank Welker who's name is mentioned in the end credits of Gremlins. However, is not specifically referred to as voicing Stripe.

In the making of Gremlins 2: The New Batch, Mohawk was a puppet. However, in the scene where he comes out of hiding in his spider web and sees Kate and Marla, he was actually a miniature puppet set to appear as if it was full size. A puppet stuffed with Styrofoam was most likely used for scenes when he was shown to scale with other gremlins and characters. Some scenes starring Mohawk were actually a mechanical puppet which had had the latex skin of Mohawk placed over it.