Have any feedback on my puppet?

[DrThundrestix]

Hello, Muppet Central!
This is my first official post, so be gentle. ...also please forgive if I've posted in the incorrect place, or have made other noob-ish mistakes.

I've been beginning to think seriously about building and selling puppets, and I was wondering how well my past work holds up and get an idea of the general reaction to it.
I personally wouldn't want to try to sell something that I wouldn't consider buying myself. (however, my perspective may be skewed a bit. Since I can make puppets, I wouldn't think to buy one unless it was absolutely breathtaking. ...in which case, it would probably be too expensive anyway.) So, due to this I think I can get overly critical of my own work.

Here is a puppet I made recently:

More photos can be seen here and here.

This one is a bit older, but still a nice example.

(Appropriately wielding a foam sword.)

What do you think?
I've read the "how to price your puppets" thread, and have taken that information into consideration. I'm more curious about what sort of response my work gets. What say you to my craftsmanship?

How much do you feel that these puppets (or ones like them) would be worth? (btw, I'm not preparing to sell these, I'm only using them as examples) What sort of price range do you all feel would be fair for a character built like these ones?

I've gotten along alright without using antron fleece, but would using something else be a deal-breaker for some?

I know most of these are really subjective questions, but I'm curious to hear some insight from some puppet-savvy people.

Thanks!
I hope that I haven't made any weird blunders with my first post... and I apologize for being unusually verbose... I'll try to get better at that.
I hope to begin posting more soon.

 

[Frogpuppeteer]

awesome link i actually saw him on Deviant Art...im the guy with TMNT puppets

 

[Puppetainer]

Well Doc I like your work but I'm afraid I'm not likely to be much help as I'm kind of going through the same process right now. I've been building for a while and am getting ready to try and enter the world of online puppet sales. As a longtime businessman I know that the "correct" price is whatever the market will bear, but it's hard to know what that is without actually getting out there and trying to sell some of my own work to see.

So I guess I'm going to do my best to come up with a price that will cover the time and materials required to build the puppet and see if people will pay that. And of course another old sales adage to live by is "Start high...you can always go down". Also people often associate price with quality so you don't want to make your puppets too cheap because people may judge them as a poor product based on that.

I find myself wondering where best to sell them too. Many use ebay but while they provide great exposure people there are generally looking for a "bargain". So I've been exploring using Etsy, creating my own website or a combination of the two.

I don't know if any of that helps but I wish you the best of luck in your efforts. Be sure to share links and info when you do get something out there for sale over at the Puppetry/Sales board so we can all check it out!

 

[BenjaminJ]

First of all these look incredible!
As far as th prices it all depends on what youre selling.For example if you were to sell the first one pictured I would suggest around $375 ...or more.first of all it has a big mouth wich is one of the things alot of people look for in a puppet because it can be seen easier.Also it is a human arm puppet wich happens to be my favorite type to perform with because youre not as limitted to what you can do.For the second one I would say around $180 because you did a woderfull job of making it look like the actual character and other key things I notice such as fingers that you can pose and unique mouth style.Also try to list the characteristics of youre puppet construction such as mouth grips and stuff like that.
Good luck!
hope this helps