The plan was that there would be 3 versions of the Pilot in THE THING (2011). Here are two: the mummified Pilot, and the Thing having replicated itself as one of the alien crew members. In the story originally, the Thing needed to become one of these aliens in order to fly the ship buried under the ice. (Note the bio-mechanical connections implanted in the creature's back.)
ADI designed the character, built a limited animatronic puppet, and performed it on set.
The third Pilot was going to be a digital version of this creature, but due to a story change, it was never executed. The mummified Pilot was covered over with a digital energy effect, and we designed a new character, the Sanders-Thing, which was realized digitally.
Courtesy of ADI.