The random winner of this weeks free kids toy is Ella (Bowman). We will send you your free Melissa and Doug Make Your Own Monster kit.
We hope you enjoy your free toy. (please email us your mailing address so we can send you your free toy.)
Weekly Design Winner
The winning design for this week is Emily the Chair Monster by The Youngest (Kylee). We really like the idea of having a piece of furniture turn into a monster puppet. We remember Pee Wee Herman’s talking couch named the Big Comfy Couch. It would be such a funny surprise to watch visitors to your house mistakenly sit on a couch that talks and chomps.
This design is now entered to be in the running as a possible toy for our monthly toy design to be made into a real toy at the Playful Factory. Read more about the details of our design process and see how you can get more involved here.
Great work everybody and thanks for participating. Come back tomorrow for the new project launch! This week is going to be a fun challenge and might get some more dads involved!
This little project is to show you how to make a puppet out of a little plush toy. One of my favorite methods of making a puppet is to take an existing toy and convert it into a puppet. This is simply done by following the general step-by-step instructions below.
DIFFICULTY: 23% TIME: 02h 03m 21s MONEY: $$$$$
1. Find monster toy that you like, but do not like it too much because we are going to mess it up before we put it back together
2. Rip/cut at the seam in a hidden spot. Usually the bottom or back work best. Try to position the opening so your hand can fit in and be placed at a good angle.
3. Un-stuff the fiberfill. (Do not throw away yet. You may want to use to re-stuff some areas later.)
4. Turn the toy inside out.
5. This step is unique to each toy, depending on how it was manufactured. In this example, we opened up the arms by ripping the seam where the arms were attached and re-stiching them back on around the border of the arm. This will leave an opening for a little finger to go in and wiggle to animate the monsters arm.
We also added a green tongue to our monster’s mouth by following this same method.
6. Play with the new monster puppet!
Do-It-Yourself Bonus:
Kent Rogowski gives us another quick way to customize a plush toy by simply turning it inside out. Instantly we can make a regular plush toy into a cool monster-looking toy. eHow.com shows you how here.
by Melissa and Doug
This free toy giveaway is great! It creates hundreds of crazy creatures with its interchangeable parts! Carrying case is filled with weird and wacky eyes, ears, antennae and more for quirky creativity! Suction cup hands are included for window display. Plus it’s a hand puppet too!
Dimensions: 8″ Diameter x 12″H Packaged
Recommended Ages: 3+ years
Free Toy Giveaway Details
To enter this giveaway, you must participate in this weeks design process.
It’s easy, just add research images, safety tips, sketches, or prototypes as a comment to one of the posts this week and you will be entered to win this free toy giveaway. To increase you odds of winning; participate more than once in the design process, subscribe to get email updates, or like us on our new facebook page.
Read more details about our giveaways here. Playful Factory will draw a winner randomly Monday, September 13th. This giveaway includes free shipping within the US. Good luck!
This will be fun! Let’s see all the ideas that you have for a puppet monster… get creative with what type of puppet it is as well. Here are some of the ones we thought of as inspiration:
Dont-Eat-Me Monster
Details: The monster sits on your head like a hat… which makes it look like the monster is eating your head. You control the arms using rods.
Gotcha Monster
Details: The monster attaches around your neck and goes with you where ever you go. When you squeeze his feet his mouth opens and closes as well as his hair goes straight and curly.
Bobble-Head Monster
Details: The monster sits on your head and you grab the feet and wobble it back and forth. The eyes, arms, and wiggle as you bobble.
Walk-and-Talk Monster
Details: The monster attaches to one of your hands and both of your feet. Your hand helps it talk and your feet help him walk. Maybe a stick could be attached to one of the hands and you could make its hands move too.
Monster on a Stick
Details: The monster is attacking and eating the stick you hold. You can act like he is trying to attack you, but you are fending him off with the stick. The monster’s feet, arms, and hair flop around as you you move the stick.
We want to see your monster puppet toy ideas… post them as a comment below. To attach an image it must be .jpg and smaller than 1000pixels x 1000pixels. If you need help, just send us the picture and we can put it up. info [@] playfulfactory [dot] com
Puppets have been around for a looooong time, dating back to ancient Asian cultures. They continue to be a big part of many cultures as story tellers and toys.
Here are some of the many different type of toys to help give you some ideas… (list found on PuppetsinMelbourne.au)
Animatronics (robotic puppets)
Kota the Triceratops by Playskool found on KidsTechReview.com
Blacklight puppets Caricature puppets (puppets made to look like real/famous people or yourselves/friends/family) Costume puppets (puppets you wear)
< Finger puppets
Found puppets (also known as object manipulation or object theatre) Glove puppets (aka hand puppets) Light curtain staging (puppets seen, puppeteers ‘invisible’ ) Marionettes (string puppets) Mouth puppets (puppets that talk) Muppet-types (a version of mouth puppets)
Parade puppets (puppets used in parades or outdoors) People puppets
Rod puppets
Shadow puppets
another cool shadow puppet video
Shoulder puppets Sock puppets Table-top puppetry (a version of rod puppets) Toy theatre White light theatre (puppeteers visible) Ventriloquist puppets
Water puppetry
We probably missed some… share with us the ones that you find!
Monster Puppets are going to be monster fun! We will take a look at different types of puppets and also see all the many kinds of monsters we can make.
Here are some of my favorite monster puppets. Some of them even date back to my childhood.
^ Todd by Monster Factory found on MonsterFactory.com (There is no hyperlink because some the content is not appropriate for kids. It is not horrible… just being safe.)
Hucklebee the Hairy Hunchback made by Playful Factory
Hucklebee is a felt toy with wooden rings that dangle... he can be used as a mobile or teether toy...
Comment on any post in the current toy design project to become eligible to win this free toy giveaway. Submit a toy design idea of your own to receive an extra chance to win.
One at a time, the Playful Factory takes a toy designed by one of our Little Factory Workers and makes it into a professionally manufactured toy. These toys are available in our Etsy Store to purchase.
Get involved in the design process and your toy could be the next toy we make! Check out our current design project here.
NEXT TOY TO BE MANUFACTURED: DESIGN:The ride-on toy you build yourself... a simple wagon/riding toy base, through a child’s imagination, design and creation of the cardboard sides, becomes a car, truck boat, plane, spaceship or anything movable. TOY NAME: Magic Wagon DESIGNED BY: Mamma Smith
RECENT TOYS in PRODUCTION:
TOY NAME: CHAMP the chomping dinosaur DESIGNED BY: Fire Boy
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