Full-body costume puppets

[doctort13]

I have never built a walk-around suit, but I would love to be H.R. Pufnstuf, or a Banana Split for a day. I hear that it's a great way to sweat off a few extra pounds!

A pro-puppeteer friend of mine, Kevin Frisch, has built walk-around suits. He told me that it's a pain in the a$$.

 

[pierat]

life size puppet

http://logos.goodnews.net/~time/

Actually I'm in the process of making one now that will be HUGE! plus I've been able to use other peoples costumes in puppetry.

Suggestion you can also make the mouth out of black sheer material which offers wider vision than looking the eyes though both are creatable.

Closing the mouth can be done two ways either by using one hand and attatching one of your arms that is stuffed to an invisible string and working it with the puppet arm that you have your other hand in. Or having a seperate puppeteer work the mouth by remote control (which is easier than it sounds). You can find the parts in your local Radio Control Car shop.

A simple way to do this is purchase large outfits for a few dallors from your local thrift store and simply build hands, feet (or buy large shoes/boots), and head.

The head can be created from virtually any puppet pattern with minor changes for vision and neck attatchment. Just try using an opaque projector to oversize the pattern.

You can also purchase giant puppets from www.puppetproductions.com, www.onewaystreet.com, or have them created by any of the custom puppet manufacturers.

Personally I think it's more fun and alot cheaper to build them yourself.

Fake fur monsters are fun too but if your building a giant one a good tip would be vaacum the fur before you start working with it and it will save you alot of the mess and keep you from tasting alot of fuzz which sticks to everything in the room!

 

[Kye]

I used to work for a company that designed and created costume character mascots... It has a lot of info on the web site. www.charactercompany.com (the company is no longer building costumes though) If you have a couple grand lying around , the company thats builds BEAR for disney and all the SS live characters is www.vee.com THEY WILL NOT BUILD YOU A BEAR!! OR A BIG BIRD.... but they will build you a custom creation for about $6,500

 

[Treelo]

www.costumesandcreatures.com

Very, very basic non-animated walkarounds usually go for more than $6500.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

I've built the body-suit part for my cartoon character and am ordering the head and feet from the marylen.com folks for around $500; they can direct you to someone who can put the mechanics in the head they make for you (But I'm not getting mouthwork done at this tim to Muley).

FOZ

 

[Kye]

Treelo,

Vee Corp , who owns Costumes and Creatures has built quite a few nice costumes for me for 6,000.(yes,Big Bird is 40,000, and you cannot purchase anyway) But they will custom bulid from artwork. Price will go up if its huge or incredibly ornate
International Mascot will build them for around 3,500 and they are very decent! All the costumes on my (old)website www.charactercompany.com were built by Vee or IMC(international Mascot)

 

[Buck-Beaver]

I'm curious Kye, what's your opinion of the quality of their work? I've heard mixed things from different sources...

 

[Treelo]

It certainly depends on how work-intensive the costume is, but most of the recent projects have been going for $7500+

 

[Kye]

Originally posted by Buck-Beaver
I'm curious Kye, what's your opinion of the quality of their work? I've heard mixed things from different sources...

For Vee Corp! I dont think another costume shop in the country can compete. The build all the sesame street live characters and bear in the big blue house for Walt disney world. They use amazing lightwieght minicell foam. Heads only wiegh about a pound... as opposed to 20!
IMC has mixed reviews... they have gotten a lot better. Foam carving is not as good as vee, and materials a little cheaper... but it costs half the price. i wont work in a scollin costume, but i have worked for isney too long. scollin forgets things like airholes!!! not good

 

[Kye]

Originally posted by Treelo
It certainly depends on how work-intensive the costume is, but most of the recent projects have been going for $7500+

You may be right. If you are including things like bike pump puppetry and Ornate stuff. I have build things with them as low as 5,000 within a year. If you are really interested i can put you in touch with my salesperson