Ten designers compete in various challenges, having to build everything from whimsical beasts to mechanical characters and, in the series premiere, creatures that live in an undersea world that has remained untouched by humans.

The creature designers are given the chance to reimagine the fictional species Skeksis from "The Dark Crystal." Later, their characters appear in a screen test for the original 1982 film.

Unconventional materials from a junkyard are used to create scrap-fantasy creatures that are trapped inside a hanging cage.