Tuesday, August 30, 2011

The Dummy Shoppe - Puppets by JET

At the Vent Haven international ventriloquist convention in July it was my great pleasure to have my dealer's table right next to The Dummy Shoppe - Puppets by JET table.

The following comments are not any type of paid testimonial. These are opinions I formed after spending 4 days working alongside JET and getting a really good idea of how they conduct their business.



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I got to spend a lot of time looking at the wonderful assortment of great characters and to chat with the owners.


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The Dummy Shoppe - Puppets by JET is sort of the "new kid on the block" when it comes to professional (and I do mean professional) soft sculpted puppets. But they are fast becoming a force in the world of puppet makers.

Many of the professional vents at the convention spent a lot of time at the Dummy Shoppe table trying out the selection.

Each made-by-hand puppet is custom and no two are alike. If a performer purchases a puppet, the pattern for that puppet (if purchased directly from The Dummy Shoppe) gets filed away so if a duplicate puppet is required by the original purchaser, one can be made. But identical copies of the puppet are not made and offered to any new purchasers. For the modest price paid (for a professional puppet), that is a really great benefit.

While JET does offer an ever changing inventory of puppets which have already been made and are available from their website:

http://www.thedummyshoppe.com/

they also love to work one-on-one with clients to create unique customized characters.

Part of The Dummy Shoppe's mission statement reads:

"We want each of our friends to have unique puppets that set them apart from all other vents, so that when they perform, the audience knows ahead of time that they are in for a special entertaining treat. We want every puppet we create to be constructed in such a way that their quality alone sets them apart from all other puppets in the market."

And again, I can attest to the quality of these puppets.

In my opinion (and I've been a ventriloquist and around puppets for over 40 years), JET's puppets are in the same league as the amazing soft sculpted puppet makers Verna Finley and Mary Ann Taylor. (and I love Verna and MAT puppets).

I handled many of the puppets while at the convention and immediately noticed the high quality craftsmanship in each one. The faces have a lot of detail and the puppets are very roomy and comfortable to operate. Many of you know I'm a pretty big guy at 6' 9" and my hand fit easily in all of the puppets I tried out.

I have always been a traditional "hard figure" user, but I really was interested in a couple of these really nice characters.

So, I ended up just having to purchase this fantastic "Professor" puppet. Doesn't that face make you laugh just looking at it?


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I have an idea in mind for the personality of this puppet that was easy to come up with just based on it's look. That rarely happens so effortlessly.

Please visit The Dummy Shoppe website - even if you're not in the market right now for a new puppet. You'll have a LOT of fun just looking at all of the photos on the website.

If you are looking for a truly professional, unique character soft puppet, consider The Dummy Shoppe. They not only make great puppets at great prices, but they are ethical, honest and deliver when they say they will.

http://www.thedummyshoppe.com/

I highly recommend The Dummy Shoppe - Puppets by JET.

2 comments:

Tom Crowl said...

I agree Lee! I own two of their creations and LOVE them. Steve and JET are great to work with. I highly recommend them.

Justin E. Helm said...

How do they compare with Jeff Dunham's Peanut?