In good company

It's always a delight to see customers so happy to be in the company of their new Kenny Croes Dummy Store figure. The little guy has been named "Nathan Little". The tall guy on the right is Franklin. He mentioned that he works with kids of various and blended ethnicity and he wanted a figure that might represent a kid of mixed heritage. So Nathan's skin color was darkened slightly to reflect that. I love the fact that ventriloquism is used to teach youngsters.

Professor Goofentickle

The latest conversion figure to emerge from the Kenny Croes Dummy Store is named Professor Goofentickle. He's likely a source of endless misinformation. His academic credentials are quite dubious. The professor has a PHD in silly subjects, so expect scholarly gibberish during his looney lectures. He was built for fun, so I hope he joins a funny faculty soon.

Upstarts

Like me and so many other ventriloquists I know, the passion for the art form began at an early age. The two young fellows pictured are displaying their recent partner acquisitions from the Kenny Croes Dummy Store. I hope this is the beginning of a long and successful run of entertaining family, friends and appreciative audiences.

Three's a crowd, five's a jailbreak

Obviously I haven't paid enough attention to my blog the last few months. And I still might not. But here's an update in case anyone is still interested.

I purchased three Charlie McCarthy heads on Ebay and finished the two conversion figures you see above. I also got an order for my Norbert character, so I shipped him to his new home last week.

In between all this I restored an old Jerry Mahoney doll. It was originally upgraded by Kevin Detweiler. I really admired the workmanship on his conversion.  I even learned a new tip after cracking open the head and seeing his mechanics. I repainted the little fellow, replaced his soft eyebrows with sculpted hard eyebrows and gave him a red curly fleece wig.

What about the fifth project? I repaired cracks in the head of an old Lovik figure (not pictured). So yes, I've been busy and I remain so with six more projects on the work bench.

And then there's this little fella

I just put this cherub-faced youngster on my website, kennycroes.com. He's looking for a home, too. Know anyone who could use a good laugh? I bet this little guy could help.

I'm old, I'm cranky and I like it!

This elderly gentleman may "brighten up" someone's Christmas this year, though it won't be because he's filled with goodwill toward men. He's a curmudgeon and he's hoping to find someone who will listen ad nauseum to his many complaints this holiday season. He'll be for sale on my website's "In-Stock" page. He's 42" tall, has moving mouth, raising eyebrows and self-centering side-to-side eyes. 

A grinch in time for Christmas

I guess he's mad about seeing all the holiday decorations, ads, commercials and pop-ups so early in the year. Or maybe he's upset because I've only painted him with a primer coat so far. Or was it the election? Whatever it is, I don't see him changing his attitude any time soon.

Change of plans

This is the same "Alfie"...just dressed up for Halloween. Actually what happened was a client bought him from my "In-Stock" page on my website, but she had admired my "Norbert" nerd figure before he was sold. So she asked if I could re-costume Alfie to be a nerdy little fellow. I parted his hair in the middle, changed his clothes and added the bow tie and oversized nerd glasses. Now he's off to his new home in Nebraska.

Happy Halloween

What's it all about, Alfie?

I've been working mostly on conversion figures lately. Which is okay since I enjoy making them, too. This one I've dubbed "Alfie" and he's for sale on my in-stock page on my website (kennycroes.com). Check out his red lace-up shoes!

I've started to build a 40-inch Mr. Winkle. Hopefully I'll finish in time for him to end up under someone's Christmas tree. 

It must be close to Halloween

Seems every year I get a few requests for scary figures. Folks ask for figures with scars, blood, sharp teeth, bloodshot eyes, and take-offs on well-known freaky characters. Among this year's orders is a converted Goldberger Charlie McCarthy to masquerade as Billy in "Dead Silence".

However, no matter how much I darken the eyes, narrow the eyebrows and tweak the widow's peak hairline, Charlie still looks kinda cute.

The collector

Several of my customers own multiple figures of my making, but none have as many as Wayne. I built many of the figures in the photo, but Wayne also built several more from head castings, some from my designs sold by Braylu Creations.

Wayne is decorating his store for Halloween. He displays all of his figures (including many made by other well-respected figure makers). They will share space with scary dolls Chucky and Tiffany. As Wayne said, "After all, it IS Halloween!".

DIY

It's always fun to see figures built from my head designs. The castings are sold by Braylu Creations for do-it-yourselfers. These figures were constructed by Michael and Toby Fisher. Looks good, folks!

Change in complexion

Occasionally I  get an inquiry about a figure I've never built before. Such is the case today when I've been asked to send a photo of an Afro Uncle Earl. Every Uncle Earl I've built so far has been a Caucasian figure. So to reply to the inquiry, I used some Photoshop tricks to revise a photo of a previous Uncle Earl figure to show an Afro skin color with dark brown eyes. We'll see if his new look generates an order.