Where can I buy life-size puppets?

March 18, 2004 9:19 AM

Puppets - The Crank Yankers and/or Avenue Q kind not the Muppets kind. Does anyone know where I can get puppets like that? Not looking for toys, but rather "life size" puppets used in the show(s).
posted by turbanhead to Shopping (2 answers total)

You're in luck! Rick Lyon (who plays Trekkie Monster, Nicky, and one of the Bad Idea Bears in "Avenue Q") is also the guy who designed and built the puppets used in the show, and has built puppets for "Crank Yankers", various Nickelodeon shows, "Guiding Light" (?!), and other stuff... he does custom puppets. His workshop is in northern New Jersey. Be warned that I think his work would be very expensive, since they're well-crafted, labor-intensive to make (many, many hours), and specially-fit to the puppeteer's hand to reduce fatigue (or, at least, I remember reading that the "Avenue Q" puppets were).

Or you could go with cheaper "stock puppets" and customize them yourself, but Lyon doesn't like that idea.

Muppets, by the way, have never been commercially available.
posted by Asparagirl at 10:07 AM on March 18, 2004

Drat. Forgot to close my italics tag. Sorry!
posted by Asparagirl at 10:07 AM on March 18, 2004