Um, are these legal, licensed versions? I kinda doubt it.

Rogue Slayer | November 16, 11:25 CET

Just thinking that myself. I'm hearing hands rubbing together in the Fox legal department even as we speak! ;)

The Watcher | November 16, 11:34 CET

Legal or not, I'm still not pleased with the appearance and I wouldn't buy one. Give me a break, how difficult is it to reproduce puppet Angel. Think it's time to e-mail Matt again at Diamond Select to check the status of that "new and improved" puppet Angel and the updated picture. Link is here.

Madhatter | November 16, 11:51 CET

I wonder what the problem is? They already made one for the show, why not just make duplicates? Its obviously not that simple but I don't get it.
I wonder if there's no mention of Angel or Spike on the site for legal reasons? The 'blondie bear' and 'broodie boy' names are cute, but sound more like names of beanie bears.
The Angel one's not too bad, but yeah, I wouldn't buy one unless it was a spitting image of the one on Smile Time, especially for that amount of money.

buffbuff | November 16, 12:14 CET

I think the Angel one is a great improvement on the other one. This one really looks like him. I'm not as impressed with the Spike one, but then, we never saw Spike as a "wee little puppet man." I get the sense they're all handmade, which explains the cost.

I agree, buffbuff, that it shouldn't be that hard to make ones that looked like the one(s) in the show. And they should be made of felt, not plush, to be "authentic."

Gaudior | November 16, 12:21 CET

I think a good job has been done on these. Blondie bear doesn't quite have the cheekbones but otherwise, I think he is pretty good.
If I only had the cash......

Lioness | November 16, 12:44 CET

For all those who are wondering why it seems so hard to make Angel puppets that look "just like the original" for mass sale need to remember that the original was designed/built by Matt Brooks of the Jim Henson Company. That means that many, many, many hours were spent on each of the Puppet Angels used in production. And since the Jim Henson Company only makes puppets for use in actual production, that means they won't just "make more" for commercial sale. Which means it falls to a collectible company to try and reproduce the look of a Henson puppet. And that is a hard thing to do.

miss_tress | November 16, 13:26 CET

You really don't need to make a fully working puppet to get a 'Puppet Angel' likeness correct. Just somebody with a good eye who's studied the photo ref' from the show correctly. I really don't know what the problem is really. I can understand these ones not being so wonderful as they are made by an amateur, not a professional. But how Diamond select gets it wrong, lord only knows!

And again for the record here's the Spike and Angel hand puppet versions that I made for myself, and which I gave copies of to both DB and JM at the london Halloween event a few weeks ago.

http://tinypic.com/dxtuh

sueworld2003 | November 16, 14:06 CET

Wow sueworld they are wonderful way better than The 'blondie bear' and 'broodie boy

Linda | November 16, 14:44 CET

sueworld, yours are the best.

Zamm | November 16, 15:24 CET

Thanks for the kind words guys about my 'Spangel puppets', but the question still stands, that if I can make a reasonable looking copy, why can't the toy companies?

[ edited by sueworld2003 on 2004-11-16 22:47 ]

sueworld2003 | November 16, 15:41 CET

I think this ANGEL pupet is much better then that other one. I think the other one is total CRUD. It doesn't even look like the puppet from the episode. So why would you wast your money on it. The puppet from the episode had a HENSON feel to it.

At least these puppets seem to capture that. I would rather have an unlicensed version that looks good, then buy the piece of crud version out there now.

DarenG | November 16, 15:48 CET

Sueworld, they're great! All I could think of when I saw your Angel was the Buffybot saying "Angel's lame. His hair sticks straight up..."

zz9 | November 16, 16:37 CET

Sueworld, they are amazing! They look fantastic! What did the guys say when you gave them to them?

buffbuff | November 16, 23:40 CET

Thanks buffbuff!

Well James had been given the Spike version before at the London event in May, but for reasons that I won't bore you with, he wanted another one aswell. He loved the thing, and got quite 'hyper' over it, saying he thought his puppet was prettier then Davids. Putting it on and waving it's little arms about whilst chanting ''I'm so cool, I'm so cool!'' ! James is always a sweetie.

David was more subdued. In fact I orginally hadn't wanted to give him his, as I didn't think it would 'appeal' to him as much as James and his 'inner geek', and he'd think I was raving mad! But I thought what the hey. He can only think I'm bonkers once! So I handed him his with the words, ''I hope that you don't think I'm a mental case but, I made this for you, as there are so many rubbish versions of the thing out there. I thought you may like to give it to your child.'' I think it took a bit of time for it to register what it was, but when he did he said 'Oh thank you so much'', and that was that.

[ edited by sueworld2003 on 2004-11-17 11:58 ]

sueworld2003 | November 17, 04:56 CET

I like that Angel puppet, but no way am I paying $250.

fortunateizzi | November 20, 16:03 CET