Character: Kermit the Frog
Hand Type: Rod
Builder credits: Terry Angus Puppets
Height: 26”
Notes: Of all the Muppet characters in existence, Kermit is the one I relate to the most; just an ordinary guy trying to keep all the insanity happening around him to a manageable level.
I made a Kermit when I was 19 years old and did a lot of local puppetry appearances around South Dakota in a quest to show my stuff to the Muppets for possible future employment.
Unfortunately, the job offer from the Muppets that I was hoping for arrived in the odd form of a Cease and Desist letter (that’s a story for another day). But I never lost my love for The Muppets. I still have my first Kermit.
Back in 2016, I got a line on a professional puppet builder who was making screen-accurate 1:1 Muppet replicas on commission. I wasted no time in commencing the commission of a Kermit for my collection. And the door to my Second Wave Muppet obsession crashed open!
When this was taken I had just finished making this Kermit.
I enjoyed entertaining the kids who were in the movie theater to see “The Muppet Movie.”
I appeared on the United Cerebral Palsy telethon with the morning radio duo Warren and Harley, and was interviewed by local legend Dave Dedrick.
This is how my bedroom looked when I was 19, filled with fur and fabric. I had just started working on my Kermit, and you can see the beginnings of my Bert and Fozzie replicas, and the fur for Cookie Monster.
A very clever builder on the east coast built this faithful rendition of the O.G. Kermit – as created by Jim Henson in the 50’s out of his mother’s spring coat. When I saw it on eBay I just had to have it in the collection.
For Monsterpalooza 2024 I bought a second Kermit replica made by a Florida builder called Myles Mupplicas, and turned him into a cosplay character named Frogenstein. Come to find out, a Kermit/Frankenstein mash-up called the Kermonster was first featured in an obscure Muppet video game for Playstation in 2000.
I called my version Frogenstein, and he was very well received at Monsterpalooza by Muppet and monster fans alike!
The headpiece was attached with Velcro to Kermit’s head, and was fabricated by Drew Massey and myself. I made the bolts out of foam cord, silver lame, flat metallic buttons and magnets. They were held onto the puppet’s neck with magnets. The costume was created by Alex In Wonderland, and I built the boots out of L200, microsuede and Velclro. The scars and fingernails were made from the reverse side of male Velcro, which bit into the fleece of Kermit’s legs and wrists nicely.
