Ventriloquist Central Blog

I have been asked many times about plastic wood and was it really a good substance to use for the making of ventriloquist figures. The answer is that the old plastic wood had a formula and additives that in fact made it as hard as a rock and got harder the older it got and did not crumble.

The method for casting this material has been done in a few different ways but the McElroy brothers method seems to have been the best.

The plastic wood was pressed into the mold and then a layer of lead shot was put on top of the plastic wood and then it was submerged in water and left to cure. This method really produced a great casting.

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I have been an avid collector of the Effanbee Charlie McCarthy dolls and have a wide selection of them. They came in a white box with a label on one end.

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If you haven’t heard by now…..the GREAT MASTER FIGURE BUILDER…. Ray Guyll passed away yesterday.

When I started collecting ventriloquist figures in earnest I was offered a Theodore Mack figure by Ray Guyll. We put a deal together for the figure but as well as that we also became close friends. I mean the kind of friends that are true and where friendship never fades. Although we saw each other face to face only a few times. He to me was one of my closest and best friends.

Ray and I would chat almost every day and when I told him about my wanting to do a web site he said he had an idea for a web site called Dummy Central. After we went back and forth the name Ventriloquist Central won out.

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One of the things that folks hate are making all the holes in the ventriloquist figure’s head when attaching them either with staples or small carpet tacks.

Frank Marshall used carpet tact almost exclusively but if you remove the wig and then re install you end up with the unsightly extra holes.

Another method of attaching the wig is with the use of hot glue. I find this works very well but be prepared to do a bit of paint touch up when you remove same.

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This very unusual ventriloquist figure came in to the Ventriloquist Central Collection and I am happy to offer him to you.

This was a character that was originally created by Rene but Dan Payes did up a casting and put him together. He has those fantastic large eyes which move side to side and he has slot jaw.

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