My guests this week include Ryan Roe and Joe Hennes from ToughPigs.com and Tom Stewart of Puppeteers Unite! Ryan and Joe join me to comment on some very interesting Muppet news, and to review the Round 1 matches in the tournament. Tom stops by with some great information on how to build your own puppets at home!

The MuppetCast is sponsored by Bell, Book & Comic. Life should be more Fun!

In the news, the Disney Company has reached their goal of 1 million volunteers in their “Give a Day, Get a Disney Day” campaign. Unfortunately this means they will no longer be giving out free tickets to the parks to people who volunteer a day of service. However, you can still receive a free ticket on your birthday!

FAO Schwarz, the exclusive location to purchase an official Muppet Whatnot puppet, has now begun selling the Whatnot outifits individually online for $20. Click here for the link to browse the individual outfits.

The Jim Henson Company and Archaia Entertainment may be looking at publishing new Labyrinth and Dark Crystal comic books in the future.

The script for the unmade “The Muppet Man” film may have been picked up by the Henson Company and Disney, and the two companies might collaborate to make this long-rumored Jim Henson biopic.

Moving Picture Books and Sesame Workshop are teaming up to create new digital books!

All of the following puppet information was provided by Tom Stewart. This is an incredible collection of resources for anyone interested in getting into puppet building (or in developing their existing skills):

Playsoup – you can purchase the videos individually or as a set. The link is for the set.
Dave Privett is the “instructor” and has an amazing way of teaching.

Dr. Puppet
Shows how to build a puppet from his pattern. You can purchase chapters individually or all together.

The Henson Stitch is actually the double gathering hand stitch- shhhhh don’t tell anyone! Jay (aka. Dr.Puppet) has a tutorial for it, under “Building the Doctor Puppet”.

Puppeteers Unite Tutorial – Tom’s posting for the “Beginner Puppet Building Video”

Puppet Vision Blog

The Wedge pattern explained by Yetiman from Muppet Central Forum

StiqPuppets on Blogtv – Another great puppet building video series that’s free!

Project Puppet – Puppet Patterns, Materials, Contest, Pics. Incredible site.

Some great puppet builders I admire
Kanja Chen: http://www.chensationalpuppets.com/
Philip Hatter: http://www.thistledownpuppets.com/
Jarrod Boutcher: http://jbpuppets.blogspot.com/
Norman Schneider: http://www.figurenschneider.de/klappmaulfiguren.php
Furry Puppet Studio: http://www.furrypuppet.com/
Terry Angus: http://www.anguspuppets.com/
Swazzle.com: http://www.swazzle.com
David Hellyer: http://www.hellyers.com/hellyers/
Darryl Worbey Studios: http://www.darrylworbeystudios.com

Thanks for listening! Questions/Comments about the Muppets or The MuppetCast can be emailed to me@muppetcast.com, or called in to the voicemail line at 614-364-4270 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              614-364-4270      end_of_the_skype_highlighting. Even better, stop by the Muppet Central Forums and discuss this and many other episodes with Muppet fans worldwide. Follow the show on Twitter and join the Facebook page too!

Have a great week!

-Steve