Full-body costume puppets

[Treelo]

The SS Live heads are not made with minicell - they have an ABS plastic base. Minicell is used quite frequently, but fiberglass is also popular as it has a longer life and doesn't retain as much odor.

What costumes did C&C build for you?

 

[fishbone]

sooo,like the body should be made of foam or just stuffing like that big blue puppetfrom the muppets?

 

[ScrapsFlippy]

In college I made a full-body, hot pink and tan gorilla. I built the whole thing out of 3/4 inch sheet foam, using (actually, lucking into after some trial and error) the "wedge method" that Buck Beaver details in his wonderful puppet building tutorial on his website. I built gorilla feet using a pair of old sneakers as the base and some sculpted box foam. I used spray paint to give the whole suit a base "skin tone" (I don't remember what I used, but the paint didn't degrade the foam) and attached strips of tan and hot pink dyed burlap strips for "fur." (This was for a stage show, and was made with whatever was laying about, as we had no budget.) A talented artist in the theatre program named CJ sculpted the head out of sheet foam and a hard hat. Originally, we wanted the jaw to be practical (and it could have been easy - with a "Sweetums" like apparatus) but we ran out of time and materials.

There is a photo of this creation on my alma mater's web site, I see if I can find it and post a link to it.

--Scraps

 

[DPuppets]

For Vee Corp! I dont think another costume shop in the country can compete. The build all the sesame street live characters and bear in the big blue house for Walt disney world. They use amazing lightwieght minicell foam. Heads only wiegh about a pound... as opposed to 20!

Kye,
I think you are right...from knowing people who are in those costumes and talking to them..and also seeing there work first hand. I really believe they have taken building and designing to an all new level for sure.

 

[ScrapsFlippy]

Does WDW have Bear in the Big Blue house "fuzzies" (The walk-about mascot-style full body costumes?)

The BITBBH puppets we use in the live show at Disney's California Adventure are the real deal - Henson Creature Shop built, including bear himself. Since our show is modeled on the WDW show, I can only assume that their muppet puppets are the real deal as well.

A company called Animax makes all the other puppets for our show (www.animaxdesigns.com .) They make full-body jobs as well. Their puppets are very well put together and look great. I find their eye mechanisms and practical mouths a bit stiff, but this isn't a problem once broken in. Their rod puppets are the bomb.

--Scraps

 

[ScrapsFlippy]

Another thought - in the book Jim Henson: The Works, there's a great picture of Richard Hunt standing around as puppet builders build the under structure of a full body puppet on him. If you take a look at it (I think it's in the Muppet Show chapter) it will give you a good idea how the pros go about building one of these jobs.

--Scraps

 

[Buck-Beaver]

sooo,like the body should be made of foam or just stuffing like that big blue puppetfrom the muppets?

There's some good mascot costume building info at Nick's Fursuit Pages. Have you checked out that site?

 

[Treelo]

Kye,
I think you are right...from knowing people who are in those costumes and talking to them..and also seeing there work first hand. I really believe they have taken building and designing to an all new level for sure.

The Henson Workshop deserves much of the credit for the Sesame Street Live costumes designs. Henson built ALL of the SSL costumes until the early 90's when they began turning the work over to VEE. The costumes that are currently built by VEE are all based on the Muppet Workshop designs, with a few slight modifications and changes.

 

[Buck-Beaver]

I believe Henson has approval on all of the "outsourced" puppet/costume building work on all their projects, both in-house and licensed.

 

[Treelo]

Henson no longer has anything to do with the SSL costumes. VEE now works with Sesame Workshop's art department for character consultation. SW now calls all the shots.