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.
Finis Robinson also cast in plastic wood and he just used an extremely thick casting giving it its strength and extreme weight. His figures weight more than any other figure I know of.
Many others used plastic wood like Bill Boley, Bob Isaacson and Johnny Main. Their figures were also very nice but again the McElroy’s castings I think came out the best of all.
Dan
www.ventriloquistcentral.com
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Ventriloquist Central is the brainchild of Dan Willinger and Steve Hurst. Dan is a ventriloquism enthusiast and ventriloquist figure collector. He has been collecting for over 25 years. He created the Ventriloquist Central Collection. It now has over 100 ventriloquist figures and over 50 of them are Frank Marshall figures. Steve is a ventriloquist as well as builder of ventriloquist figures. He also has a background in sales, marketing, building websites and computers. Because they both love the art of ventriloquism, the website Ventriloquist Central was born. For more information about the website, go to: http://www.ventriloquistcentral.com
Copyright 2014 by Dan Willinger and Steve Hurst
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