Successful Muppet recreations

[BorkBork]

it's not only one material. I figure, fleece foam and glue..hair...this is probably a question for the pro's...over to them...


/Anders

 

[rtgentry]

Homemade Muppets

I have started a Kermit, Rowlf, and Bert, here are the pics

www.gentrypuppets.freeservers.com

 

[punkNpuppets]

this isnt exactly a muppet recreation (not puppets), but i've made plush toys of herry monster and placido flamingo.

i'm also working on a sesame street model. the clay figures i have so far are Herbert Birdsfoot, Prairie Dawn, Mr. Hooper, and an unpainted Gladys The Cow. on the model, i have Hooper's Store and the fix it shop so far.

 

[Buck-Beaver]

Originally posted by AlmostFamous
what materials would I need to construct a miss piggy?

Miss Piggy's head is cast in a mold using foam latex (or "hot foam"). I have heard they use a foam injection process to make her head but I am not sure about this.

Once her head is cast in foam latex it is flocked so that she has a fuzzy, fleecey look like all the other Muppets. They go through alot of Piggy heads on a Muppet shoot because the flocking wears off her very quickly, especially around the edges.

FYI for those of you who don't know, flocking is a process where a special adhesive is applied to the surface and then it is covered in a sort of fine coloured lint.

Some people get confused because they have heard that Piggy's head was sculpted from a block of foam. My understanding is that the original puppet (from the "Sex and Violence" pilot?) was made this way but subsequent puppets were made from foam latex because the Muppet workshop realized they could be duplicated much easier (this is also the case for Statler, Waldorf and the Swedish Chef I believe).

 

[Buck-Beaver]

On the subject of foam latex, here's a link to a new article that Rose Sage over at The Puppetry Homepage just posted a few days ago that serves as a very good introduction to foam latex.

The article is by Tom McLaughlin who has worked for Henson and various other companies for the past twenty years (he's actually made Piggy, Babe, the Dark Crystal Characters and worked on Jabba The Hutt too I think). He's working on a book which I think will become the foam latex equivlent to "The Foam Book".

The article can be found here.

 

[BorkBork]

this is great info, buck, thankx! It seems logical now that you mention it, piggy could be complicated to do with ordinary foam.

I have heard about this flocking before.It could be interesting to learn more about it, but that would have to be a much later step in my learning-process

/Anders

 

[Fozzie Bear]

HIYA!

The only character of JHC that I recreated in my own form was a slight-like Swedish Chef. It's at www.midsouthcartoonists.com under the photo gallery in "Creations/critters" or sometihng like that. It's kind of neat, not very much exact, but enough for me to reuse as an old man character when I need to.

FOZ

 

[MUPPETMONKEY]

I'm not really making any recreations of Muppets, but it would be great if I could get some constructive comments of my original creations, since many of you have a good critic eye for art.
I have a puppet show in a local TV station and I'll put up a webpage soon, but in the meantime I'm looking for some free image host server that I could use to show some of the characters. One of them is Monkey Jay, (that monkey under my nick on your left).
Anyone know about some free image host server?

 

[monkeymuppet]

MUPPETMONKEY

nice name, MUPPETMONKEY Nifty avatar too!

 

[MUPPETMONKEY]

I found one!

Thank you, Monkeymuppet, salutations from Muppetmonkey who also goes monkey for Muppets, Monkeymuppet.....

Somehow I feel like a chimp.

Anyway, I found a free image host server...so....never mind.

Here are two of my original puppets:

Monkey Jay:

http://image1ex.villagephotos.com/pubimage.asp?id_=1163096

Pinky Yam:

http://image1ex.villagephotos.com/pubimage.asp?id_=1163103