How Much Does A Custom Puppet Cost?

How Much Does A Custom Puppet Cost?

What is a custom puppet? A custom puppet is a one of a kind puppet. It can mean a puppet builder makes for personal use or sale, a puppet of the builder’s choice. It can also mean a puppet specifically commissioned to have a certain look or style or specific features such as blinking eyes.

A custom puppet will cost you anywhere from $500 to 1500. The materials cost a builder $50 to $200 for foam, fleece and costuming. They require 20-100 hours of labor.

A custom puppet is not just foam and fabric. A custom puppet represents hours of intense hand labor.

Who wants a custom puppet? There are hundreds of different commercially made puppets on the market. You can find virtually any puppet you want, be it a red-haired girl, a talking book or a chicken. There are inexpensive, but well-made puppets like “Doug & Melissa” offer, great animal puppets like Folkmanis offer and many other choices. For $100, you can get a good puppet.

But you will not be the only person with that puppet.

Professional ventriloquists and puppeteers often want a custom puppet. They want a one of a kind character to keep their shows unique. One of my favorite puppets when performing ventriloquism is my Axtell Possum puppet, but it is not a custom puppet. Many ventriloquists have and use the same puppet. For most shows, this is not a real problem, after all, folks are not watching that many ventriloquists. But if I was to perform on a nationally televised show, I would not use my possum. I would use one of my unique, one of a kind builds.

Companies sometimes want a special puppet made to represent their business in commercials and advertisements. Sometimes folks want a puppet that looks like them, called a portrait puppet.

Other folks just want a cool puppet. You can find a lot of custom puppets for sale on eBay and Etsy. They often are shocked when seeing the price. I found one on Etsy for $7500. Ten times higher than the average custom puppet. But depending on what you need it for and the builder you hire, prices can vary significantly.

What goes into building a custom puppet?

• Pattern: A puppet requires a pattern. Sometimes, my pattern is just an idea in my mind. But usually, it means having a pattern to make the puppet head, body, arms, hands, feet, hair and more. For special builds, a builder will need to make an original pattern. This means having a drawing, either supplied by the customer or drawn from the customer’s description. The drawing then has to be made into a model, using clay or foam. The model then has to be turned into a pattern and enlarged to actual size.
• Sculpting: For some puppets, features like the nose or eyes may need to be sculpted in clay and then formed with a vacuform machine or the sculpt may be covered with fleece or fabric. Features may also be carved out of EVA foam.
• Materials: Puppets require a variety of materials. Foam for the head and body, fabric to cover the puppet. Felt or other material for inside the mouth. Hair, which can be fur, feathers or fabric. Wood or plastic or other materials for the mouth plate. Fabric to line the inside of the puppet. Plus glue and other adhesives. Don’t forget eyes, nose, and other features. These are usually custom made.
• Dying: If fleece or fur isn’t purchased already dyed, then the material will need to be dyed. Sometimes special colors are needed and this can take some trial and error to achieve.
• Sewing: Fabric needs to be sewn. Even if a pattern is sewed with a machine, there is always lots of hand-sewing to do. Sewing is time-consuming and must be done with precision in order to hide seams and add strength. Ears, noses, and hair can be glued onto a puppet, but most builders will take the extra time to sew them on for added strength. I believe a puppet should be so constructed that it can be lifted by any part, the nose, the ear, a lip, and support itself. Let’s face it, if you are a performer, sooner or later some curious kid (or adult) is going to grab your puppet. A well-built puppet can handle a little abuse.
• Wardrobe: Puppets usually need clothing, unless they are a furry monster or an object like a book or piece of fruit. Many times, baby clothes will do. Other times the clothes need to be designed, patterned and sewn. This can add considerable time and expense, but results in a truly original puppet.
• Accessories: Functional accessories, like rod arms, blinking eyelids or moving eyes can make your puppet more life-like, as they add movement to the character. Other accessories like glasses, jewelry, or props add character and cost to your build.

What kind of puppet do you need? Before we can even consider the cost of a custom puppet, we need to know what we want. Do you want a person puppet, an animal, a talking object like a book or banana? Do you want a look-a-like puppet? Do you want a half body or a full body with legs?

Are you looking for a wooden ventriloquist puppet with moving eyes, wiggling ears, eyebrows that raise, eyelids that blink? You could be looking at spending $5000 or more.

Do you want a sock puppet with plastic googly eyes and a tuft of hair? $20 – $40 will probably do the trick.

In this article, I will focus primarily on the Muppet-style, foam arm and rod puppet. This has become a very popular style with ventriloquists and for television.

Materials to build a custom puppet are expensive. A good quality puppet will use good quality materials.

Antron fleece, the fleece used on Muppets and most top-notch puppets costs $40-65 per yard if purchased pre-dyed. It is half as much to buy white and dye your own, but then you add hours to the process. The average puppet will require about 2 yard of fleece. It only makes sense for the builder to dye his own fleece if he is dying large quantities or looking for a very specific color.

Polyester fleece can be used and will cut the cost considerably. Although the fabric store fleece looks good, often it is harder to hide seams when sewing the fabric. For this reason, most professional builders want Antron fleece.

If you want a live arm puppet, (a puppet where the operator’s arm becomes the puppet’s arm and hand), you will double the amount of material needed.

Reticulated foam is a light weight foam. It will cost about $50 for enough for a full body puppet. Polyfoam is a very inexpensive alternative but will make an excellent puppet.

In addition to the fleece and foam, there will be the cost of hair for the puppet. Hair can be inexpensive fur or can be an expensive wig. Costumes and accessories also add to the cost. If the clothing needs to be made for the puppet, that will push up costs. Sewing a costume takes time. Time is money.

Add to this all the little incidentals like eyes, arm rods, mouth plate materials, plus other building materials and the coat goes up.

The materials to build a custom puppet can range from $30 to several hundred dollars. A good quality soft puppet for ventriloquists will usually have a minimum of $100 in materials.

How long does it take to make one? A custom made puppet can take 40 or more hours to make, depending on the complexity of the build. Even at a modest $20/hour, that puts the value of the labor put into a custom puppet at $800 and up. If a builder is having to design a pattern and create a costume to meet a very specific design for a customer, 40 hours and even three times that is not unusual.

Most of my puppets I build are built from a pattern or just built up from my imagination. Since a specific design or look is not necessary, the time I put into a quality puppet build is about 20-40 hours. I have a few patterns that use painted foam, no fleece or fur covering, and I can make them in 10 hours or less.

Some puppet builders use the same pattern for all their puppets and they can “mass produce” their puppets, making several heads and bodies at once. They will then customize them indivdually when adding fabric, features and clothing. This can really cut building time.

Nutty Puppets has some amazing custom puppets. Each of their puppets is unique and one of a kind. If you check out the photos on their page though, it appears that they are only using one or two patterns. This makes for fast assembly. What makes their puppets unique is the color of fabric, the hair and the costumes and accessories. This allows them to build a puppet quickly and keep prices low.

Prices vary from builder to builder. The price of your custom puppet will also depend on the builder you choose. We all have different experience and different styles. Some will line the inside of the puppet head with fabric. This gives a more durable puppet, but adds to cost.

Others use more expensive materials for mouthplates, or arm rods or eyes. Different building styles also make builds go faster or take more time. Some puppet builders fabricate their own puppet accessories and mechanisms adding time, cost and quality to the build.

Two builders could build the same puppet and their prices could be several hundreds of dollars apart. If you actually saw the materials cost and watched everything that went into the build, you would likely see why the one would be more expensive.

Usually, the more expensive build is worth the extra cost, but depending on your needs, you may be just as happy with the lower cost puppet and still have an outstanding, quality puppet that will last many, many years.

Who owns a custom puppet’s design? If you have a puppet built, the design is still the builder’s property. You may draw the picture. It may be your original idea, but the builder owns the design and you cannot have it reproduced by someone else.

You may know, that when you have professional photographs taken, the photographer actually owns the picture, even if it is your family. You cannot reproduce the picture without compensating the photographer.

It is the same way with a custom puppet. You own the puppet. You can use it for performing and entertaining, but the builder still owns the design. It is his intellectual property.

I recommend you negotiate the ownership of the design with the builder before it is built. If the puppet will be used in shows, commercials or other public and commercial purposes, be sure you actually own the character. You will want to be free to use the puppet without needing to worry about intellectual property laws. You want to own the property.

If the puppet has a big future, I recommend you talk to a lawyer. You don’t want to get your first HBO special and find out you cannot sell T-Shirts with the puppet’s picture.

Where can I buy a custom puppet? Possum Woods Puppets makes and sells custom puppets. Possum Woods is my company and I often have a variety of puppets for sale. See our “Puppets For Sale” page for available puppets.

• Other builders include:
• Barry Gordemer is an outstanding puppet builder. You can see his work and contact him at: http://www.handemonium.com/
• Chappell Puppets make some amazing puppets. They can do look-alike puppets as well as other custom builds. See them at: http://www.chappellpuppets.com/custom-puppet-designs/
• Steve Axtell has made puppets for Terry Fator and other professional ventriloquists. I have several of his puppets I use in my shows. Although I am making my own puppets now, he does have a few characters I would consider buying in the future. He also makes custom puppets and you can get information here: http://www.axtell.com/custom.html
• Luna’s Puppets is a very good builder. They have a form on their site that allows you to design your puppet online, including a wide variety of options. They will build you the puppet you want. See their stuff at https://www.lunaspuppets.com/
• Adam Kreutinger has made custom puppets for theater, films and commercials. He can be contacted at: http://www.adamkreutinger.com/
• Drew Allison and Grey Seal Puppets create amazing puppets for stage and theater. Check them out at: https://www.greysealpuppets.com