This is a limited edition—only 25 puppets are available, so it’s first come first serve.

How do you purchase one?

Simply fill out a Contact Form on the Thistledown Puppets site and you’ll receive a PayPal invoice (You must pay in full to reserve your puppet). All orders placed before November 18th in the Continental US will receive free shipping, so get your order in early. For those outside the US, international shipping rates will apply. When ordering, please include, your name, e-mail address, and shipping address.

All orders must be received before November 30, 2011. The puppet will arrive at your door in time for Christmas.

So what are you waiting for? Get your order in for your Christmas Critter today! Here’s looking forward to Merry and Joy-filled Christmas season!

DUMSTRUCK

At the annual Vent Haven Convention in Ft. Mitchell, Kentucky, the ventriloquism capital of the world, director Mark Goffman discovers extraordinary characters straight out of a Christopher Guest mockumentary, but in this humorous and heartfelt documentary, the “characters” are real.

“Dumbstruck” follows five professional ventriloquists at all levels of ability and fame over the course of the most unusual year in ventriloquism history: Dylan, a shy 13-year-old whose dream of being a professional conflicts with his dad’s preference for football; Kim, a former Miss Ohio beauty queen, who yearns to ‘make it’ on the cruise ship circuit; Dan, a successful cruise ship performer who struggles to maintain a family life, although he is on the seas much of the year; Terry, who, after a 22 year struggle to “make it” in Corsicana, Texas, finds himself on NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” with a chance to win $1 million; and Wilma — all six-foot-five of her — who brings her dummies to Walmart and ‘entertains’ in senior homes.

Along the way, Terry Fator emerges from obscurity to sign a 100 million dollar Las Vegas deal to become the most successful ventriloquist in history. With its heart firmly planted on its polyester sleeve, Dumbstruck takes the American dream sideways and never loses its way.

Executive Producer for the series “White Collar” and previously a writer on series including “The West Wing,” DUMBSTRUCK marks Goffman’s feature film directorial debut. The film is produced by Lindsay Goffman, executive produced by Elon Musk (Executive Producer, THANK YOU FOR SMOKING) with David O. Sacks (Producer, THANK YOU FOR SMOKING) as a consulting producer. Daniel Licht (“Dexter”) created the original score, with original music from Oscar nominated singer/songwriter Bird York.

Check out the Trailer! CLICK HERE!

‘Wanderly Wagon’ began in 1967, and all of the Lambert children worked on the show, which ran until 1982. The puppet characters in ‘Wanderly Wagon’ — Judge the dog, Mr Crow, Foxy Loxy, and the untrustworthy Ssneaky Ssnake are remembered with great fondness by generations.

A native of Sligo, Mr Lambert had a huge passion for puppetry and managed to turn that passion into a lifelong career.

He founded the Lambert Puppet Theatre in Monkstown, Co Dublin, in 1972, and was the force behind the International Puppet Festival of Ireland.

“From his work on RTE with ‘Wanderly Wagon’, to his ongoing commitment to puppet theatre, he inspired a generation of puppet theatre makers, and delighted and entertained generations of Irish children and their parents,” said the council’s head of theatre, David Parnell.

The theatre is home to the country’s largest collection of puppets and hosts family productions throughout the weekend. It holds up to 250 people.

Mr Lambert’s funeral Mass will take place on Friday at 10am at St Patrick’s church in Monkstown. He will be sadly missed.

Eugene Lambert is survived by his wife Mai (they would have celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary this summer), eight children, 15 grandchildren and five great-great children.

Here is a short compilation of shots from the pilot episode of the forthcoming BBC3 tv series “We Are Mongrels”. The puppets have been created by Talk to the Hand (UK).

I also was able to find a blinking eye test for one of the main characters seen in the above picture.

“We Are Mongrels” is to be screened in the UK in early 2010. The show has been described as a feral version of  Top Cat, with humour drawing heavily from Family Guy and modern, fast paced docu-dramas – ‘more animation with puppets than a traditional sitcom’. Eight, thirty minutes episodes have been commissioned to be written by Jon Brown, with Daniel Peak. The series is directed by Adam Miller and produced by Stephen McCrumb for BBC3.

Sesame Workshop VP Sherrie Westin introduces Bill O’Reilly to Spill O’Reilly. In my opinion the puppetry isn’t that well performed; the eyeline and lip sync were off.  The puppet doesn’t look that well built either; it’s clothes aren’t that well tailored, and are half hanging off the puppet. I know the character is a grouch so the trashy look might have been done on purpose, but there is just something about the character that screams that it was thrown together at the last minute. His “pop up” entrance is pretty corn ball too.  In all fairness to the puppeteer though, he probably didn’t have a monitor so I forgive him a bit for the eyeline problem. 

As I watched this I was stunned to find that Bill O’Reilly actually has a sense of humour…or is too dumb to realize he was being made fun of. LOL Nonetheless, a good watch.

Even though the pattern is in the Monster Series of patterns don’t let that hinder your imagination…remember that Project Puppet Patterns allow you the flexibility to alter the design; allowing you to create all kinds of amazing puppet characters! Get yours now!

Matt Ficner from Creepy Puppet Project has created another horrific short video. This time shine up that disco ball and get out those platform shoes because we are going to be disco dancing with zombies! Matt discusses the production of this amazing video…

“I started making the music track. A total of 86 layers of music, sound FX and voice tracks were used. (yes, those are all my voices). Drawing inspiration from Monty Pythons Light side of life song, I wanted something somewhat upbeat macabre perhaps, but still upbeat. After all, who knows more about life than zombies who somehow still cling to it!

You can check out Matt’s site at www.creepypuppetproject.com

The video has included the option for it to be watched in 1080p (HD). I personally have never seen the Muppets in High Definition before, which made the experience even more satisfying. You can really see the true craftsmanship up close, in great detail. I appreciate the flawless work of the puppet builders.

Even more impressive… the video was released November 23rd in the morning and already has close to a million views. Some have commented that the timing of the video release was very strategic; since the 14th Annual Webby Awards has just started a call for entries. Last year Beaker’s “Ode to Joy” won “People’s Voice Winner” .