Folkmanis Puppets: Little Hedgehog

Well, I finally got my first Folkmanis puppet to review, and appropriately enough, it’s the Little Hedgehog — and let me tell you, he’s a real charmer.

The construction is up to Folkmanis’ usual standard. The body is covered in longish plush, white tipped in brown. He looks brown until you pet him, and then you get a very rich brown-white, nice and shiny. The belly and face are covered in a much shorter, finer cream-colored plush, equally enticing to the touch. The body is essentially a furry bag, about eight inches from top of the head to the bottom, that fits comfortably over the hand — well, almost comfortably, but then, I’ve got fairly large hands: for a child’s hand, it’s just about perfect, with plenty of room to maneuver. Likewise, my fingers are a little large to fit comfortably into the arms and the areas that move the mouth, but a child will have no trouble. The seams are all tightly sewn, and one can see inside the main body that the makers have left plenty of extra fabric on the seam — there’s little danger of the body unraveling. And one detail that struck me, and only points up the quality of the creation: the snout is shaded brown, which gradually softens to a darker cream around the eyes. The devil’s in the details, as they say.

The beady black eyes, along with the pointed nose, give the puppet, when at rest, an expression somewhere between worried and amazed. He seems most given to expressions of exasperation or surprise — the arms just naturally seem to want to go up to the sides of the head. One can almost hear a cry of “Oh, my goodness!”

He also comes with a tag that has some fascinating information about real hedgehogs — did you know they’ve been known to live up to sixteen years? And if you look carefully inside the bottom of the body, you’ll see a sticker that says “Press magnet to forehead.” No, not your forehead — the hedgehog’s: and there he is, all curled up for a nice nap.

This little cutie is going to take a prominent place among my rescued plushies — maybe next to the donkey in the rabbit suit.

Robert

Robert M. Tilendis lives a deceptively quiet life. He has made money as a dishwasher, errand boy, legal librarian, arts administrator, shipping expert, free-lance writer and editor, and probably a few other things he’s tried very hard to forget about. He has also been a student of history, art, theater, psychology, ceramics, and dance. Through it all, he has been an artist and poet, just to provide a little stability in his life. Along about January of every year, he wonders why he still lives someplace as mundane as Chicago; it must be that he likes it there. You may e-mail him, but include a reference to Green Man Review so you don’t get deleted with the spam.

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