Pool Noodle Puppetry 

The eternal child within me was just happy to watch a man make a puppet (I LOVE PUPPETS!) The mom side of me kept worrying about all the fumes he must’ve been making with this project. Hope that workshop is well-ventilated.

Dig it… I am worried you think about well fed monsters…

There is NO STOPING the genius in this man. My God, how incredible was that creation? Amazing

When you added the eye globes it looked Ike the alien from the land of the lost..childhood flashback😅

This couldn't have come up at a better time. I have been kicking around the idea of making a puppet. Great work as always.

Thanks to this channel, I never look at pool noodles and spray foam as JUST summertime water toys and insulation!

I love the monster! I am a grandma of 7, and I found your video about pool noodles a couple weeks back when trying to figure out how to make a pool noodle coral reef, for my grandma camp this summer. Pintrest had some good ideas but no one I found has figured out that you can heat fuse the noodles, until now! My coral reef was a success thanks to you! P.S. I used to have a puppet ministry at our church and I made many wide mouth puppets, but none were intentionally that scary 😊.

I made a foam Head/Mask but Instead of using the styrofoam head wich you then have to melt it, I used a party balloon and tape, you just have to let it burst when the foam is dry and the head is hallow 🙂

hi from uk,I'm 64 and love this idea,so clever and cool..given me something to think about..

Allen. I swear to God, I am the female version of you-I can't explain it. Creating shit off the top of the head, on the fly and in real time... I also hoard everything most people would throw away, because I look at it thinking I could use it in a macabre way. Getting ready to launch my creepy dolls and faux foods online store soon & wanted to give a big THANK YOU for giving me inspiration from your videos and advice during your live tutorials! Also, letting me know I am not alone with the love of creepy shit & can let that freak flag FLY! Been watching you for many years and will be for another 100. It would be an honor to meet you someday. 😍 Much love from Mesa, AZ 🌵 ❤️

That’s amazing!!! Looks so real in the dark!!!

I think he is cool! I like the idea of using paint sticks for joints, I never would have thought of that! Thanks!😊

Allen, for the acetone foam melting trick, test Gorilla multipurpose foam for the spray foam overlay on a small project some time. As I'm on on the path to discovery, I've tinkered with different spray foams, I dipped dried bits of each foam in a small container of acetone to see how they would react. Some got really spongy, some less spongy, & Styrofoam disappeared and made the acetone viscous. The Gorilla brand was as hard as a rock. I then used Loctite and Gorilla foams in a silicone mold, and both retained their size and took the detail equally. I haven't tried hand sculpting with the Gorilla brand yet, so it may not react differently than Loctite You would be a better judge of that. Also, color may be of consideration, as Gorilla dries to a dark purple (at least to my eyes) color. Thank you for the content you share, the subtle humor, the pearls of wisdom, and most especially for being yourself. Now off to the garage, I've got stuff to make!

"I don't *know* what to do. I *decide* what to do." Words to live by. You never fail to impress!

Coolest pool noodle project I’ve seen!

What a beautiful puppet! I already loved this style of puppet, but i never considered it could be this effective in a haunt, its genius! Incredible work as always ❤❤❤

I get the feeling he's probably a really good cook.

That was flat out superb. Like watch and watch and watch again. Brilliant build. I am inspired.

Well done!

I love the way you Think" ☠️💀☠️

"Who is this Masked Man" "What Magic does he weave so well?"

I am 10000% stealing that hinge idea for my next puppet I have to build for stage.

Someone else has a pot belly and can be very scary!

Allen, old friend, watching you do stuff is positively mesmerizing. Though the closest I will ever come to the haunt industry is as a patron, and I will never have occasion to "go thou and do likewise," when it comes to making the stuff you demonstrate, I'm still fascinated by how it gets done. Plus, you always make me smile.

That was incredibly cool.

So, RU-vid has directed to me to the actual Puppet Master? Nice!

The look on Alex's face!!!

Very cool puppet in a dark setting. The puppeteer disappears behind it!

Very interesting to watch..

Little Ramen dude is AWESOME

Wicked 🖤

Would love to see you make more cool puppets on your channel! I like to sculp a small monster face to mold then cast in latex, then i make the back of the head and rest of the body out of foam cushions. And when it's all hot glued together I cover the foam in cotton batting sheets dipped in latex. You can even sculpt details by piling on the cotton batting in different designs. You should give it a try!

I have been following you since 2012-2013 ish and your talent/creativity always inspires me. This is just mind blowing. Love your work.

This is mind boggling! Thank you -- I am so inspired!

🔥🔥🔥🔥 build Brother, a TRUE MASTER 👊🏼😎🫡

First of all, I really had no idea how well you know anatomy! I am delighted! And then MORE so delighted with your strong sense of morality!

Fantastic build mate...your attention to detail is what makes these things come alive... Its all easy materials , just extremely well thought out and executed of course...love your channel

Brilliant as always !

I love the look of the monster! It looks like Lizzie from Tales from the darkside

Awesome job! The puppet you are referring to is called "Bunraku". This kind of puppet was used for the villain Sutekh from "Puppet Master 4: The Final Chapter".

Awesome! The pot belly is perfect, I never thought about it that way.

No other place on youtube can i learn how to completely make an alien bunraku style puppet. Too rad!!

everything you do here is so cool, you turned pool noodles into a freaky monster i love it! thank you for making these videos

this is the first time i came across of what i did 20 years ago. i used dollar store pool noodles. i found plastic coat hangers heated and bent to desired shape worked good for a substructure when needed. i made swords, armor, monsters, dinosaurs, skeletons, zombies. sigh.. cant do it anymore since i lost my thumbs and most of my fingers. thank you so much for sharing..

Damn! I'm amazed at what you create carving and slicing pool noodles. You're a creative genius.

This is incredible! I'm definitely gonna be trying my hand at building one! Great Job!!!

You should see the amount of pool noodles they have stored in their shop!! So creative!!

Never again shall I look at a pool noodle the same as before- Thanks!

Remarkable! Love to see the thought and different techniques. Thank you!

I am completely fascinated by this video. 😯 Amazing work!

This is awesome. Thank you so much for sharing. Awesome tips. 💯💥

Great crafting, and fun music added too! 😄

You are an honest man. Your work is amazing. Thanks for sharing. Godspeed.

Im Loving this !!! Its so simplistic but so complex

Never seen you before but boy oh boy,you sir are amazing. Pool noodles just wont look the same.lol. Loved the beastie.

He looks so good!

AWESOME VIDEO, who knew pool noodles could be used this way and the easy melt/attach is awesome, looks very useful for other projects, thank you for the video!

Allen Hopps is a wizard, y'all! No one will ever convince me otherwise!!

Coke zero yes

I love this!

He looks really happy doing his job. Good for him.

Fantastic work! Video! Thank you for sharing your craftsmanship! Fun, entertaining video.

awesome as usual. gonna try this! No... Gonna do it!

This Is EPIC!!!!!

Thank you 😎

Definite Sleestak vibes at the 4 minute mark...

nice ,great job!

Awesome!

Great video! Remember safety third!

That is the coolest nestest thing.I have seen yet anywhere on the tube!! I noticed one thing, though.l, You're having trouble with the two arms because one hand is in the head. Maybe you could rig it some way that a shaft to the headcan be turned into a mouthpiece so you can control the head with your mouth and free up the two hands for the arms? Please advise. Thanks for another neato frito bandito viddy, Hauntcho.👌👌

That is amazing! I once made a crocodile mask from rolled up newspaper and tape. The design came entirely based around a few basic principles. I even found a way to integrate a mobile phone in his nose to freak people out while on my bicyle. It was covid and i was bored with no materials. Unfortunately once i had constucted the thing i became bored again and started working with clay. First started with Joker head from Killing Joke. That guy has a weird shaped head. Mostly ended up with an evil hamster but i kind of got it in the end.However i had heard of pool noodle puppetry i had not put 2 and 2 togeather. I could do this? Bit of an outlay for the materials but it looks like fun. Thankyou.

You are still my hero

Nice work dude! Sweet studio too...

Just something about the whole torso reminded me of Grendal from Beowulf.. Fantastic to watch u create, thanku very much ❤

Oh my damn, that turned out great. I'm inspired. I'd love to do the same thing with a swamp monster.

Amazing

Just wow

Awesomeness ❤

That is awesome

Cool beans!

Fun stuff. Thanks! I just subscribed.

Scary genius. 😮

Woah!

So cool 😃

I've made two bunraku style puppets and only used PVC pipe and foam rubber padding. I'm kicking myself realizing I could have used pool noodles😮

Thank you i need to try this

Both PVC and Urethane that is not completely cured react to acetone strangely and differently than polystyrene. Acetone does not break the poly bonds of these two plastics, but it gets micro absorbed into the material. It's kind of like soaking a sponge with water - the acetone doesn't break down the chain molecules but it swells the plastic giving the molecules room to flex. Just like the sponge, the plastic shrinks to it's original size and becomes stiff again when the acetone evaporates (gasses off) out of the material. This would be an effective way to permanently bend PVC pipe without kinking or breaking it if it didn't take so long for PVC to absorb acetone. It can take up to three days for 3/8 inch thick PVC pipe to become completely flexible and about a week for it to harden up again. In my experience, completely cured urethane (48 hours or more) is pretty much impervious to acetone. I'm not a chemist. I'm a retired fiberglass and plastics technician who cut his teeth working in the art department of a theme park many many years ago.

Fun!

Great ❤

So so cool🎉❤

SCARY GOOD

OMG. You should do a BeetleJuice snake head and a sand worm.

Love all of your videos, and keep coming back to this one. Does anyone roughly know how many pool noodles will be needed for a puppet like this? Thank you!

Wow! Awesome! This is the first video of yours for me, glad I found you! So forgive me if you've tried this already, but have you tried using plastic grocery store bags with heat gun for the outer "skin"? I use the brown ones over my pvc skeletons And it makes a mummified skin look, makes great sinew strands too & looks fantastic!!! ( for the areas with writing on them, I cut strips and twist them into a "rope", then heat & stretch & it just becomes a tint of color, usually in red or black, depending on color of print, and looks great too!)Would love to see you give it a try!

So kinda on topic. Have you ever seen the enhanced and stabilized footage of the Paterson and Gimmlin film. Being that your in the field of creating props and costumes, what is your opinion suit or not and if suit how would someone get the skin and muscles to move the way they do in the footage?

Do you have a link for that knife you are using to cut the noodles????

6:34 Can you please tell us the saw you are using to notch the pool noodles? Thanks Allen!

I thought you were making a sleestak at first.

👍🏻👍🏻

i know you have mentioned before, but i cant find that knife information. can you post a link perhaps?