My Kermit Puppet build (2017)

[Ecl]

Here are a few pics of the final Kermit build that I’d made last year. I ended up making a total of three because I was experimenting with a few pattern changes and styles. This is the final one, which was inspired by the earlier version Kermits. I also took a few ques (flat looking feet with longer toes, etc.) from the one at the Smithsonian.

Made with antron fleece, actual ping pong eyeballs, felt, and ultrasuede material. Handstitched using the “Henson stitch”. The mouthplate is made out of two pieces of .3mm styrene (for flexibility and range of expression) that was covered in the ultrasuede material, front and backside.

 

[D'Snowth]

Looks great!

Can you enlighten me? What exactly is styrene, and how does it compare to gasket rubber? Is it better, worse, about the same? Does adhesive apply to it well? I know that's one problem I've had in the past with trying to fabricate a gasket rubber mouthplate, is that the fabric would peel loose because the adhesive wouldn't stick (though some say it helps to soak the rubber in alcohol).

 

[LittleJerry92]

The Amazing Colossal Kermit.

Since Fozzie looks short.

 

[Ecl]

Looks great!

Can you enlighten me? What exactly is styrene, and how does it compare to gasket rubber? Is it better, worse, about the same? Does adhesive apply to it well? I know that's one problem I've had in the past with trying to fabricate a gasket rubber mouthplate, is that the fabric would peel loose because the adhesive wouldn't stick (though some say it helps to soak the rubber in alcohol).

I haven’t tried the gasket rubber, but I’m guessing that would be even more flexible. I went with styrene because of its flexibility, but also because it’s has a rigidness as well. I mostly have Kermit on display anyways. The styrene is basically thin plastic material that is able to flex quite a lot without staying bent.

Here’s what I did for my Kermit mouthplate. I used contact cement to glue the parts and it seems to hold well; haven’t had any issues with anything coming part yet!:

Here’s a video of how it looks with movement...excuse the awkward angle; it wasn’t easy to hold the phone with my left hand while trying to move Kermit with my right haha:

The Amazing Colossal Kermit.

Since Fozzie looks short.

Haha yes that ‘Madame Alexander’ Fozzie is really small....but a pretty cool piece!

 

[Froggy Fool]

I haven’t tried the gasket rubber, but I’m guessing that would be even more flexible. I went with styrene because of its flexibility, but also because it’s has a rigidness as well. I mostly have Kermit on display anyways. The styrene is basically thin plastic material that is able to flex quite a lot without staying bent.

I have used gasket rubber on a number of puppets, and yeah it's super flexible, I would imagine gasket rubber is used on the real Kermit.

 

[Bear Man]

He looks awesome - congrats! I think by lining both sides of the styrene with ultra suede you’ll have bright up the thickness and flexibility to something akin to what would be had with gasket rubber. Did you line with red and then place a black cutout on top for his throat? I don’t know how the original was done, but I lined with black first then red on top, so that the black appeared farther back.

Speaking of ultra suede, I used a lime green version for my frog’s collar...I found that the Master Replicas version that used felt got pulled out of shape far too easily.

 

[Ecl]

He looks awesome - congrats! I think by lining both sides of the styrene with ultra suede you’ll have bright up the thickness and flexibility to something akin to what would be had with gasket rubber. Did you line with red and then place a black cutout on top for his throat? I don’t know how the original was done, but I lined with black first then red on top, so that the black appeared farther back.

Speaking of ultra suede, I used a lime green version for my frog’s collar...I found that the Master Replicas version that used felt got pulled out of shape far too easily.

Thanks you! I appreciate the comment. On mine, I just cut out the throat part separately and just stuck it right on top of the red (I used the same material as the pupils). But your idea of it being behind the red part with the shape “die cut” on the red part sounds pretty awesome! Hadn’t thought of that. I imaging the effect would look neat with the added depth.

I’d actually thought about using the ultra suede on the collar as well, but preferred the texture and thickness of the felt. Luckily, the felt I bought (from ‘overtheriverfelt’ on ebay), is much nicer quality than the MR one. I know what you mean, I used to own the MR Kermit, and that collar was a mess! It practically falls apart just from looking at it haha!


Here’s a photo of Uncle and Nephew together! I ended up making a second Robin over the weekend...I think I’m done with the frogs for now. Kind of want to try making Gonzo.

 

[Ecl]

Here’s a pic with a few of my newest builds! The sitting ones are puppets and the standing one is my latest build, a “photo puppet” with wires inside. All of these are from my improved patterns over my earlier versions seen above in this thread. These newer builds utilize gasket rubber mouthplates, and are overall slightly smaller than my earlier builds—scaled to 35mm eyes this time. The puppets have stuffing in the necks for display purposes, and removable shaped foam for the top of the head.

For some reason the set of arm rods look super long in the pic; most likely camera distorting it a bit.