Today at church I was using one of the puppets.  Well I looked at the tag and it said Puppet Productions on it, how ironic that we had one from there.

Jose R.

My understanding of Puppet Productions is that they are moving to a new facility.  That the new one was still not finished.  They weren't working on the new Blinkerz yet because of the move, blah, blah, blah....  Those puppets were to have been out Jan. 20th.  Not sure if they went under or not.  Let's be a little cautious to have them dead and buried until we know it for sure.  The following is the only email communication we have received on the Blikerz we ordered. Have not heard anything since then.
Good luck and hang in there fellow puppeteers.   Ray



Subject: Blinkerz Puppet Update
Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2009 17:46:42 -0600

Dear Valued Blinkerz Customer,
I am sending you this e-mail because you stepped out and pre-ordered a Blinkerz puppet - the only blinking puppet available in the non-custom puppet market today - and have not yet received your purchase.
I know how excited and anxious you must be about receiving your new Blinkerz puppets and I'm sure the delay in shipping must be disappointing, but let me assure you; your order will be shipped just as soon as it can be managed.
When we first estimated our shipping date, it was based upon the smooth flow of materials to our manufacturing facility in Texas and the normal operations of our plant. Unfortunately, materials have not arrived in a timely manner and our move to a new facility has been interrupted by delay after delay which, in turn, has very much reduced the efficiency of our manufacturing process.
We are still waiting on the arrival of things we need in order to make your Blinkerz puppets and now we are in the middle of a move which we had planned to occur many weeks ago and which will cause us further delays. We now estimate the move will take approximately two to three more weeks to complete. We can only hope the materials we need to put together your new blinking friends will have arrived by then. The result is that I must ask for your continued patience in waiting for your new Blinkerz.
One more thing. Because there are literally hundreds of you who wanted to be among the first to add the excitement of a blinking puppet to your ministries, once we actually begin putting them together, it's going to take a little while to get all the orders completed. We'll begin shipping them as soon as we have some to ship, but it will take a little while to get to everybody. Please be patient. The oldest orders will go out first and we'll work as fast as we can, but remember, quality takes time. We want to be sure you are completely happy with your new Blinkerz.
Sincerely,
Bill Hawes
President
Puppet Productions

Well that seems to help with an explanation as to the no contact to there customers and a phone line out of service......it would be nice if they had someone at the computer reassuring people that they are delayed in shipping due to a move or whatever.  It was someone else that said that they had went out of business.

Does anyone live near this company to see what is happening?

Daryl H

Well its official. Puppet productions posted on there site that they are out of business. I'm sad we really enjoyed there puppets

Yes, Its true. Check for yourself: http://www.puppetproductions.com/

 :'(

We also placed an order with Puppet Productions in early March of 09 (nearly $300 worth).  We started calling a couple of weeks later to check on the order and were not able to get through.  Having been told when we placed the order that they would be moving shortly to a new building, we assumed that the interruption in phone service was just something to do with the move.  When we tried calling a week or two ago and couldn't get through, I became quite concerned. 

Then I saw the "out of business" on the front page of their website!  We immediately called the credit card company to have the charge disputed and hopefully credited back to us.

I then called a few people that I thought might be able to provide some insight, and I was told that it was a VERY sudden closure of the company (probably happened in mid to late March) -- mainly because of financial issues (way too much overhead).  There were no immediate plans of reopening, although there was talk of someone trying to reopen under a different company name. 

It is so unfortunate that a company that had such a good reputation for over 30 years would end this way -- and leave so many of their customers in the lurch! 

So if you have an order placed with them, and it was charged to a credit card, try disputing the charge.  If you paid by check, you can contact your bank and see what they can do...otherwise, you may have to hire a lawyer to track someone down to get your money back.

So dissappointing, because I really wanted what I ordered and I don't know of anyone else who makes them!!!  (it was the strolling stage)

There is a facebook discussion about this:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=78235418456#/group.php?gid=78235418456

They took orders until a few days before the "out of business" sign showed up on the website (which was last week).

Mike Hawes did some take offs on PP, but his dad sued him for copyright violations.  He apparently had trouble too, as his company name is very close to mine and I was getting some really ugly calls and emails from people who had placed orders and not received the merchandise.

Surprisingly, Silly Puppets has the same basic puppets on their website, but they have 5 finger instead of 4 and are made in China.

I do blacklight puppets too, and can make about anything you want. www.puppetshoppe.com