Lips question

[Frogster]

I was watching the opening of TMS from Season 5, and I've always wondered... how was Lips able to play?

 

[minor muppetz]

I have been wodnering this too. One of the first threads I started was about how Lips could play the trumpet.

Whenever he plays, his fingers move. I always thought that his arms were controlled by wires, but I never see any arm wires on him. I have noticed that he has big sleeves, which could possibly hide the arms of a puppeteer (similar to how the thing hanging from Dr. teeth's wrists hide his performers arms). Also, when his sleeves are more skin-tight, like when he wears a tuxedo, his elbows still normally touch the bottom of the screen. But I have also seen a photo of Steve Whitmire performing Lips, and in that photo0, it looked like he had arm wires (it sort of looked like they are connected to the elbows, which would be a weird way to connect them).

 

[Erine81981]

I would say he could of been controlled by mechanizes conetect to something to controlle his fingers. Like what they would do for like moving eye brows or eyes to move too. Like on rod or something like that maybe. (sorry for the spelling) Hope this helps.

 

[minor muppetz]

I have read a few times on some websites that Lips' hands were built to be permaneantly attached to his trumpet. Is this true? Did this info come from any official sources (like Of Muppets and Men)?

If they were permaneantly attached, then I wonder how the puppet builders were able to have him change clothes. I've seen him in at least five different outfits. Were his arms/ hands removable from the puppet? Was the fact that his hands were permaneantly attached just a minor rumor? Were there multiple versions of the puppet?

Of course, if Lips had his hands permaneantly attached to his trumpet, then I gues they weren't attached for too long. In The Great Muppet Caper, there are a lot of scenes where his hands are clearly not touching a trumpet. This movie was made in 1981, so I doubt that his trumpet was digitally removed (besides, even if it was digitally removed, how was he able to hold onto the handles of his parachute? In that scene, his hands are spread far apart).

 

[Erine81981]

They have several versions of each characters. Some with feet and some without feet. So with Lips they had ones that had no trumpet some without his trumpet. So there are pretty much several versions. Thats how they did it. Hope this helps.

 

[puppetmancan]

when lips plays his hands attached to trumpet, their are triggers on a rod that steve controls the trumpets valves, causeing his fingers to work. i read in a book, had a pic too.