Rawr Rawr Rawr....

Connor does the cutest new thing, he sticks his hands inside of his mittens or socks and uses them as a "sock puppet" and says "rawr rawr rawr" I can actually hear him in his crib in the morning doing it with the socks he just took off his feet. It's beyond hillarious and man is he cute. I've been trying to figure out where on earth he would get such an idea and then it dawned on me. Our Folkmanis puppets!

I've been a big fan of Folkmanis ever since I saw a display of their puppets at a FAO store many years ago. Puppets have always been high on my "favorite toy" list as its really a great way to really put your imagination through its paces but up till discovering Folkmanis I always felt the selection of puppets were sort of blah. Sure you can find dogs, cats, ducks, even cows but thats nothing that exciting. Folkmanis however makes a puppet for almost anything you can think up and all those things you expect as well!

Personally I am a huge fantasy nut and almost all of my fantasies growing up involves unicorns, dragons, and exceptionally hansom knights that were at my beckon call. Hmm.. I still wish I knew where my exceptionally hansom knight was.. heh.. but that's another story. Recently when browsing the selection of puppets over at Folkmanis I found myself drooling over not one.. but twelve different dragon puppets!! All different all remarkably detailed it was really difficult to settle on a favorite. Think about the armies of dragons I could have swooping in on the helpless Barbie townsfolk.. ok again that's my childhood fantasy but I never had a dragon quite like these to play with.

We ended up going with the Folkmanis Green Wyvern puppet and I couldn't be more thrilled. He is gorgeously detailed and quite large at about 17 inches long and 18 inches high. He is substantial enough that he really looks to be just a regular plush dragon until you look underneath and see the opening. His mouth moves, has a space for you to move his tongue, and even his wings from inside. I've yet to figure out how to do all of them at the same time but I did master moving his tongue and mouth at the same time. Needless to say that "rawr rawr rawr" can be blamed on me chasing Connor around the house with the dragon. heh. Maybe I should have come up with something more original to say other than "rawr".

Personally I would love to own every single puppet in their catalog but one puppet really caught my eye. Along with dragons I have a thing for gargoyles and even have a beautiful two foot tall dog gargoyle by my front door. However I can't say that up till now I have ever seen a plush gargoyle much less a puppet gargoyle. It was love at first sight when I saw the Folkmanis Gargoyle puppet. From his clawed feet, spikey ears, and those wings makes him one of the most unusual plush puppets I have ever seen. Though I'm not so sure Connor yet knows what a Gargoyle is he certainly gets alot of use around here. Not to mention he is the first thing people talk about when they come into my living room if he has been left out. Everyone has to pick him up and check him out as no one has seen anything like him.

If you think Gargoyles and Dragons are cool you haven't seen anything yet. The Folkmanis catalog is full of everything you can think of snails, clams, dogs, cats, princes, turtles, monkeys, almost anything you'd love to see in a puppet they have most likely made. Each puppet is lovingly recreated into something that you will love to play with.

Visit Folkmanis to see the full selection and you can use the store locator to find a store near you or purchase them from the Folkmanis online store.