Mutation Head

[leprecroc]

Hi, I've been building full bodied muppet-like costumes for quite some time now. Recently I've been offered to make costumes a bit inspired on the Muppet's Mutations. Problem is, that these are to be fitted on members of a rockband. So the costume has to be flexibel enough for someone to play a musical instrument, as well as allowing them to see and breathe a good as possible. The flexibility, arms/hands, bodies and feet I already got covered. But my problem is with the head. Does anyone have an idea on how the puppeteers that were the original Muppet Mutations actually saw out this head? Thanks for reading.

 

[muppetperson]

I have a Miss piggy walkaround head, and the only place to see is out of the mouth, which means you cant see when the mouth is closed.with Thog, he was different,as his mouth level is higher than the performer's, so he looked out of mesh area on his chest, covered in fur, which sometimes you can make out.Big Bird is different again in that the performer watches a monitor inside the costume.I would say the mutations looked out the mouth.

 

[staceyrebecca]

I was a character at Disneyworld in college...oh...a while ago.... I dont know about the mutations, but a few things that disney's costumers did was to take advantage of things like Winnie The Pooh's nose. They made it out of a super (opposite of dense--its late) foam that was dyed black. I could see out of it pretty easily. they used the same foam in his mouth. Now that I think about it, I wonder if it was thin reticulated foam.

All of the character's eyes are made with super dark plexiglass. So with Chip & Dale I'd actually be looking out of their eyes. Same with Pinocchio or the Dwarves (did you gather yet that i'm short?)

The thing about any of those costumes (that I was in) is that vision is super super limited. Especially in the old Pooh costumes (they've since redesigned him to acutally give the performer thumbs...would have been helpful when signing stuff). the heads were so large and bulky, I was lucky I didn't squish small children.

If you can go with the mouth and the dark plexiglass eyes, then that'd be "ideal" but let your client know that they should start to learn how to play with their eyes closed

 

[Herman]

Through my experience as a Mascot, the characters that i've performed in usually saw through some dark chicken wire, or a thin layer of what appeared to be scott foam inside the character's mouth. while looking at the mutations, it seems that the heads are much smaller than a normal mascot head. perhaps vision through the pupils of the eyes.

 

[minor muppetz]

I would expect t hat the performers just looked out of th characters mouths, which were always opened. That is also how a performer saw out of Sweetums.

Oh, and the performer inside Thog used a monitor as well as some light fur fabric.