From Pauly (Creator of PUPPETSNSTUFF PUPPETS)
Wow! All this talk about 'lil 'ol me? I'm flattered. Firstly, thank you for all the positive things you've said, everyone. I wanted to clear up, or at least explain my way of thinking, when building these puppets, so there's no assuming. I started building and selling puppets on eBay about 3, maybe 4 years ago, and it's primarily how I feed my family. When I first started building and selling on eBay, sales were not good. The main reason is that folks who buy on eBay simply want to save bucks, and that's fine. EBAY is a great place for that. But at the time, I was building puppets with plastic eyes, high cost antron fleece covering the ENTIRE body, expensive lining in the puppets' entry, wires in the fingers, basically all the things that usually go into a professional "Muppet" type of puppet. But these materials are very costly as most of you other puppet builders know. No one on eBay seemed to have the funds for the prices that I had to start these puppets off at. Most of my clients are ministries without much to spend to begin with. So I had to come up with a way to save some material costs, yet still deliver a "Pro TV Looking" type puppet to my customers. In order to do that, I started using the styro foam ball eyes, and I kept the clothes attached to the characters, so I didn't have to cover the ENTIRE body with fleece. I found "Alpine" fleece (which I've written about on an earlier post) as a great substitute (and better, in my opinion) for the expensive, and hard to find antron fleece. Basically, what I offer is the chance for the average person who can't afford a $3,500 puppet (I swear, that's actually what we spent for each puppet from my old TV show "Jelly Bean Jungle") to own one almost as nice, but for less than $60-$70. It's worked out great so far, as my eBay feedback will show. Are there better made puppets out there? Absolutely! But they're usually quite costly. Although there ARE folks like PUPPET PLANET who also do nice work, who seem to be affordable as well. So I personally feel I'm doing a pretty nice service for some good people. Also, after each sale, I Email every single customer, educating them on the proper ways to preserve puppets built like this. Bottom line is, if you treat the puppets well, they'll last as long as you want them to.
Ok, nuff said. Thanks for listening. ....Pauly
http://stores.ebay.com/PUPPETSNSTUFF-PUPPETS
PS: Hey, GFARKWORT, I'm going to take your advice and use that stuff to paint over the styro foam for more protection. I never thought of that. Thanks.