Wow! Stuff’s Dr. Jim Wyatt and Teddy Edwards on the Dolores Deluxe Puppetronic – and what’s next for the category

Wow! Stuff’s Chief Innovation Officer, Jim Wyatt, and Head of Design Teddy Edwards, talk us through development of their latest Puppetronic creation.

Guys, it’s great to connect. We’re approaching the launch of your impressive Dolores Deluxe Puppetronic, inspired by the dino seen in Jurassic World Rebirth. What are some of the key differences between this and your previous Jurassic launches?
Dr. Jim Wyatt, Chief Innovation Officer, Wow! Stuff: We have been very successful with lots of different puppet mechanisms, right back to our Harry Potter Hedwig, and this is another new one! With Dolores, instead of holding it in your hands, it’s designed to be sitting up on your shoulder. If you’ve seen Jurassic World Rebirth, then you’ll know this is a small dinosaur that interacts with the characters in the movie and – in particular – becomes ‘attached’ to Isabella.

This, like many puppets in movies, is wire controlled. There’s a hidden wire cable that runs down the back of the user’s back and to a handset that they can conceal by their side. They can then control the motions and the sounds of the puppet surreptitiously – so that it looks like it’s alive.

Fantastic!
Jim: Because it’s a puppet and not a motor-controlled animatronic, you can have all of these lifelike movements because you’re controlling it… You get these little micro movements that you just wouldn’t get with a motorised system.

But yes, the idea is that it’s a little something that sits up on your shoulder. It’s an interactive toy, but unlike many interactive toys or feature plush where it’s you interacting with the toy, in this case it’s you and the toy interacting with other people.

Teddy Edwards, Head of Design, Wow! Stuff: And from where we’ve been with Jurassic before, we’ve moved away from totally disguising it as a puppet. Previously, you had this glove that was permanently attached to Blue and to the T-Rex. We’ve moved away from hiding it in that way with Dolores to keep it in universe. You don’t have to use it on your shoulder. You could put it on a table, or wherever you want to put it.

Dr. Jim Wyatt, Wow! Stuff, Teddy Edwards

And I suppose another big difference between this and your previous launches is that Dolores has more of a nurturing relationship with characters in the film – as opposed to trying to eat them! How did you build that aspect into the product?
Teddy: I think the sounds play a huge role in how we create that nurturing piece. We have a lot of touch sensors as well, which allow you to interact in a softer manner.

Jim: With all the Puppetronics, it’s about understanding what the character is. Is it adorable? Is it scary? Is it mischievous? If you can capture that in the puppet, it becomes an extension of the character, but you’re in control of it. That’s where we’ve been so incredibly lucky with the filmmakers and studios like Universal and Disney. They’ve given us good access.

One of the last things that we did before the pandemic was to visit the puppets at Universal Studios. Our Real FX Baby Blue was born out of that day. And if we hadn’t had that experience with the engineers that make Blue and the puppeteers that work with Blue, we wouldn’t have had such a good product.

Dr. Jim Wyatt, Wow! Stuff, Teddy Edwards

And why is that?
Jim: We wouldn’t have grasped how the dinosaur trainers in the park use that puppet when it comes to interacting with customers in the park. It was the same with our Disney Stitch Puppetronic. We had great access to Chris Sanders, who created and voiced Stitch. We worked together to get under the skin of Stitch. It’s the same with Dolores – we had constant access to the development of that character. She went through quite a few changes, but we were able to pivot on that as we went.

And then we get these banks of sounds that we then go through – happy sounds or munching sounds or drinking sounds… We go through that bank of sounds and try to find combinations that will suggest she’s hungry or needy or uncomfortable. Then you try to match that up to a series of motions that the user can produce to trigger those sounds.

Fantastic. And what is the key to fruitful collaborations between yourselves and a brand owner?
Teddy: You’re on the same team – they want the best product as well. I’ve worked on that side of the fence and people assume it’s just about red tape, delays and making things difficult! But everyone’s on the same team. You want the best product and the licensor knows the brand best, right? So getting them on board and having their input is so valuable.

Jim: And their pickiness is incredibly useful – especially if it comes early in the process. It can make such a difference to us being able to get a character looking exactly right. And it’s important for us that it does look real – that’s one of the three tenants of it… They look real, feel real and sound real. So yes, that tough love from a brand owner is sometimes exactly what we need, and when we get it early on in the process, it makes a huge difference.

Absolutely. Now, what was the biggest technical challenge with Dolores?
Teddy: Well, the difficult thing is that it sits on your shoulder! So, we needed to make sure it stays on your shoulder. You can imagine the conversations – if a plastic toy falls off and hits the deck from shoulder height, it could be a goner! So we made sure it was stable thanks to some magnets under a shoulder strap. It fits to the shoulder and is placed under clothing.

Jim: Yes, and it holds on in a few different ways. There’s the magnet under the clothes, but the cable that runs around the back contributes quite a lot. It’s a combination of things. And sometimes you worry about something in isolation, but when other factors come into play, solutions are found.

Dr. Jim Wyatt, Wow! Stuff, Teddy Edwards

Do these projects inform each other? Were there learnings from the T-Rex that went into Stitch, and lessons from Stitch that informed Dolores?
Teddy: Sometimes an element will work really well – like a realistic head turn – and we’ll think about how we might incorporate that in the next project. Or now that we’ve done a shoulder creature, what other shoulder creatures are out there that could be a Puppetronic?

How much further can you go when it comes to innovating with Puppetronics?
Jim: I don’t see us being caught in any ruts anytime soon! There’s so much out there that we can utilise. It’s all about storytelling and character creation, and while there’s some fantastic interactive toys out there, there are things we would love to do but the technology isn’t there yet. Likewise, there’s things we’ve done in the past that we look at today and think: ‘Knowing what we know now, maybe we can revisit that…’

Teddy: And it’s often more than just ‘What technology can we put in it?’ Sometimes, it’s looking at: ‘What character do we want to do?’ And then, importantly: ‘What is the wow? Take our Toothless Puppetronic for example with the ‘fire breathing’ smoke that comes out of his nose. It’s about finding what’s unique with the character, and where the wow lies.

Dr. Jim Wyatt, Wow! Stuff, Teddy Edwards

 

Before we wrap up, what’s next for Wow! Stuff’s Puppetronics? And don’t say anything that’ll get you in trouble!
Jim: I’m trying to remember what not to say!

Teddy: One thing I’ll tease is that we’re exploring different price points…

Jim: Yes, we want to make this an accessible line of products and broaden out the Puppetronics brand. You’ll see some exciting things at LA Previews.

Nicely teased! Guys, a huge thanks for taking time out to chat. And good luck with the launch of Dolores!

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