If you have any additional questions feel free to call 1-800-854-2151 for immediate answers. Check out our messageboard to visit a community of fellow puppeteers who are willing to give tips and answer questions about all aspects of puppetry here.

Frequently Asked Questions
Here we address those questions that we in 'customer service dept.' hear the most:

1. Do you give discounts to churches?

2. Do you make all of your own puppets?

3. How soon can I get my puppets?

3b. Why does it vary so much?

4. I want to make my own puppets, where do you get your fabric?

5. Are you a "Christian" company?

6. Is this the linguistics center?

7. Are Short Orders pre-recorded on cassette or CD?

8. I want to make my own puppets, do you sell patterns?

9. Do your tapes come with scripts?

10. Do your puppets come with rods and wristbands?

11. We are just starting out and don’t know what we should do. What should we do?

12. Do you bill churches?

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Frequently Given Answers!

no, yes, soon, because, at the store, depends on what you mean, for the last time "no!", no, no, yes, yes, buy some puppets, no.

But seriously...

1. Do you give discounts to churches or certain ministries?

Yes and no. Basically ALL of our clientele are churches. A great deal of our customers are also some sort of public-service organization like Police or Fire departments. We are often asked if we can give discounts because "so and so" is going overseas or is a missionary or is part of a small church. However 98% of our customers are involved with either doing active gospel messages or teaching wholesome values or doing child education on some level. We would be taking unfair liberties to try to determine who’s ministry or organization deserves a discount and who's doesn’t. To that end, we have continually kept ALL our prices as low as possible in order that all our clients ministries’ can get equally low prices.

2. Do you make all of your own puppets?

Yes. In fact, we are proud to say ALL puppets, ALL Programming, ALL scripts, ALL literature, and ALL stages are manufactured here at Puppet Productions, under one roof. With the exception of our clowning supplies and one or two accessories we make everything in our catalog from start to finish in our workshop, duplication center, recording studio and print shop.

3. How soon can I get my puppets?

Glad you asked. There are a lot of variables.
We ask that you always allow up to 4 weeks for delivery. We are currently shipping under 2 weeks. It can, and likely will, be shipped even sooner!

We ship ‘UPS ground’, unless otherwise asked. Keep that, and your distance from Dallas, Texas in mind.

You can always put out a rush order for an extra $10.00 if the item you order is in stock*. This does not mean it becomes an air shipment, it is simply an in-house charge for skipping in line to be sent out sooner than existing orders.

*Rush order are not possible on Puppetumes or Sale Items.

You can, however call and talk to a friendly customer service rep and have any shipment sent out 2nd day or next day or whatever speed you want from UPS. Prices vary on that, so you would have to talk it through with a customer service rep.

Always allow 8 weeks for Puppetumes.

3b. Why does it vary so much?

Some characters are obviously more popular than others, and so sometimes we get more orders than what is immediately in stock. So, sometimes we follow in the tradition of Jack-In-The-Box and the fine tasting Sourdough Jack. "We don’t make it until you order it." Other times it is in stock, and it is only a matter of processing your order and it will go out in a few days. Still other times its like going out to breakfast with a few buddies and everyone orders pancakes except one guy, who decides to get steak and eggs. Everyone has to wait just because his meal takes so long to make. In other words, if you order a number of puppets and one puppet needs to be made, it could take the full 4 weeks. (It can, and likely will, be less)
If you are extra nice we can split orders and get certain items out quicker if needed. Denny’s will do this too if you are extra nice to the waitress.

Bottom line: If you have a show on the 30th, calling on the 23rd to place an order for the programming and puppets is a really rotten idea. Sometimes time isn’t on your side, we understand, but expecting results without paying a significant amount in rushing and shipping charges is rarely possible. Time and time again we see people pay twice the amount of programming because they waited until the last minute to purchase their CD and scripts. Do your team a favor and make time not only to order the puppets early enough, but time to rehearse with them too!

4. I want to make my own puppets, where do you get your fabric?

We are glad you want to make your own puppets, and wish you the best. However, being that it is our livelihood to make puppets, information on the construction and ingredients to our copyrighted product is not available to the public. A good start for you would be to head on down to a fabric store and do some shopping around. This goes for blacklight fabric too. We can assure you that any fabric store would love to help you find comparable fabric for whatever use you need it for.

5. Are you a Christian company?

Yes. We are proud to say that our company is mainly comprised of people who belong to the Christian faith. As a Christian company we provide mostly programming geared towards Christian education and outreach. We also fellowship together in conversation and workplace interaction. As a company who abides by the laws of our nation, we do not require that employees are Christian. It also means that, against the wishes of some of our customers, we do not allow free copying and distribution of our ministry products, despite the argument: "because ministry should be ‘free.’" We do not give away proprietary information about the construction of our products or give discounts to certain ministries arbitrarily.

See our "About Us" section for more details.

6. Is this the linguistics center?

No. You need to dial 708, not 709.

7. Are Short Orders pre-recorded on cassette or CD?

Nope. Short orders are compilation of text only scripts written and submitted by customers. See 'em HERE.

8. I want to make my own puppets, do you sell patterns?

Nope. But many places do. Do a search on the internet to find companies and individuals who make some nice patterns. As a side note, it is interesting that some people have told us that by the time they purchased the patterns, fabric and foam, and spent all the time to make the puppet, they could have used that money and time to just buy a professional one. So unless you have time to spend on the trial and error of amateur puppet building, you may find that your best bet is buying some great looking ones from us instead. Its your call, have fun!

9. Do your CDs come with scripts?

Just about every one of them do. Its nice to have pre-recorded scripts to lip sync to, its even better to have something to read from to memorize with. It will always be noted if a given program does not come with a script. Usually CD’s that are "music-only" won’t.

10. Do your puppets come with arm-rods and wristbands?

Every one of them. Well, not really. Crayonets have no arms, so that would be silly. Human arm puppets don’t have rod arms...so that would be silly too, but they do come with the appropriate color glove. Oh! yeah, and animals with paws, like dogs and lions, or no arms, like donkeys and lambs, don’t have ‘em either because that would be extra silly.

11. We are just starting out and don’t know what we should do. What should we do?

Ask yourselves what you want to do first. Solo shows? Team shows? Churches? Schools?

Outline your goals, who you want to reach, entertain, or recruit.

Going solo? Get a puppet with legs and some solo tapes, or dialog tapes.

Starting a team? Get a starter pack that will give you the flexibility you need.

Going to churches? Find programming that relates, get exposed via Sunday school, or mission conferences or have a team do a sketch Sunday morning. Get funding with a simple adopt a puppet program or other basic fund-raisers. Get the Complete Puppeteer, and a training video!

Start rehearsing a lot.

Absolutely make sure you attend a training workshop, because it is the best learning experience you will probably ever get, in order to get started in a puppet ministry or otherwise.

12. Do you bill churches?

Nope. Sorry. All orders are pre-paid. You can call with a major credit card, or send in a check or money order. Most folks nowadays order with a church credit card, or order with their own card, after getting approval from the church, then submit the receipt to the church for reimbursement.

If you have any additional questions feel free to call 1-800-854-2151 for immediate answers. Check out our messageboard to visit a community of fellow puppeteers who are willing to give tips and answer questions about all aspects of puppetry here.