Does anyone contract to make a puppet?

[polstein]

I have a 11 month old at home that loves Sesame Street, and I was showing him youtube videos when I hit a Martian one - which he looooooves.

I have a bunch of store bought puppets (Gund) - but wanted to get a Martian.

Of course, they aren't made - so my next step was to see if someone would be willing to be contracted to make one.

I thought about making it myself, but I don't really have the time (or experience).

Anyone interested in making a replica?

Phil

 

[ravagefrackle]

Building Unlicensed Replicas are Frowned on by most of the reputable Puppet Designers and Builders On this Forum, Even if it is for home use, we do not own the rights to the design , and honestly , an 11 Month old is not going to know the difference between the TV version, and something you throw together at home,

aside from that , I think you would be surprised at home much a Custom built Puppet costs ,They are pricey, and considering the materials used in their construction, are not meant to be played with by Toddlers, and infants.

 

[polstein]

Well, I should clarify - I don't need a 100% identical thing, but more the style. All the puppets at local stores are of the hand-in-head versions.

This one (as near as I can tell) is run off of 2 rods.

Ideally, closer to original would be nice - but something with the eyes on the top and a control to do a similar mouth is what I'm looking for.

 

[Frogpuppeteer]

if its a yip yip martian i think you can easily make on out of a towel

 

[staceyrebecca]

You might want to shy away from a rod puppet with an 11-month-old. I get a lot of people requesting dangerous things for little kids..its just not worth the risk as a builder. as a parent you know your child, but there's always that one instance that you're not watching that makes you feel like a bad parent.

Developmentally puppets aren't really useful to a child until about the age of 3 or 4 anyway. Until then the child interacts with puppets more as a stuffed animal.

We have a tiny yip-yip doll that I got for my 4-year-old when he was a toddler. It has been living in a hammock of toys in his room. about a week ago he said "When I was a baby I didn't like the elmo-squid because it scared me. I want to give it away. Its still scary"

Yes. elmo-squid. It took me awhile to figure out what he meant, but now the elmo-squid lives in my workspace...to the shagrin of the boy-child. He wanted me to get it out of the house entirely. *sigh* what's this generation come to?

 

[polstein]

Elmo-Squid, that's kind of funny - but certainly true when you think about it.

I had an idea last night that I was about to post anyway, that would also take care of the stick-near-the baby problem:

The idea: Martian FINGER Puppet!

Had it last night while pretending my hand was a puppet. Now I have several finger puppets, and in general I don't like them cause there's nothing to control - no moving mouth or arms.

Then I thought about how well a Martian would be suited for it. The general shape of a Martian could easily fit over a finger. The squid part can easily be as long as you want, leaving the mouth.

---

So here's the big part: Hold your hand in the classic "L" (or Loser) position with the Thumb and Index finger at a 90 degree angle.

Imaging you have a Martian finger puppet on your index finger, with the mouth hanging open toward your thumb.

Now Imagine a string going from the mouth of a Martian Finger Puppet into the upper lip (on your index finger) and down and INSIDE the puppet going down your finger about 1/2 way and them toward your thumb (attaching via a loop or even a small plain thumb cover).

The idea is to use the upper lip as a pulley for the string. So when your thumb is a 90 degrees, the string is tight, and the mouth of the Puppet is closed.

When you bring in your thumb to your index finger, the thread moves up your thumb, allowing the mouth of the alien to go down into an open position.

Moving your thumb open/closed/open fast is pretty easy, so it's a question of making it so that the string doesn't get caught on anything.

The string (black colored) hopefully would be masked by the inside of the aliens mouth.

The umm.. inside of the bottom lip could be made of some small rolled up tube thing to give the lip some weight to pull down - AND to help give the lip some shape.

About the only thing I can't figure out is how to do the "Martian hides behind own lip" - but no design is perfect, I guess. Best I can figure out be to somehow use two fingers to control lip movement or something.

Thinking about it some more, it might be possible to use another finger with a small rod attached to it to control an arm (for the Earth Book), but I certainly wouldn't try that in version one. Ideally would be an attachable prop.

---

I'll have to do some searching, but I really like the idea of a small CONTROLLABLE finger puppet. I'll have to think about a glove puppet at well, but the idea of being able to stuff the toy into a pocket and carry it around has me grinning (heck, the baby use is optional now) - I'm laughing at the thought of breaking it out in the next boring meeting I have to go to.

Is this type of design old news for puppets? While I like the idea of coming up with something new, I'd also like it if this has been done before with some excellent things I could buy/read about.

Anyway, off to do some searches.

Oh - almost forgot - unlike full sized puppets, this might be something I could try to do on my own - and cheaply. Well, maybe

Phil

 

[staceyrebecca]

You could reinforce the inside of the mouth with wire, attach the string to the wire, run it through the top of the mouth, through a loop in the top of the head and then back down to where the thumb control would be.

I'm going to do the unsuitable for kids under 3 thing again... I make finger puppets and I get a lot of requests for custom finger puppets that are toddler-safe and there just isn't such a thing. You'd have to make the puppet large enough that it can't fit through a toilet paper tube. Once you get it that big, its a bit difficult to call it a finger puppet. If it can fit, then it's a choking hazard for the under 3 set and will lead to their certain death if they even look at it from across the room. true story. (not really)

You still have the copyright issue but that's a decision only you can make. I suppose the toddler-safe bit is a decision only you can make as well, but that's more of a safety issue.

making some random monster that can swallow it's face...that's another thing.

 

[JesHallin]

Think...

there's a website which sells replicas in different sices of the sesame street puppet's...they can not afford martians but i don't think it would be so hard to build your own...just some crossed velour...

check this out:
http://www.puppetrevelation.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=215

maybe you can find another character that you child likes!

//jEs