Stop Motion Collections Lost and Found 1

Have you ever wondered where do all the puppets that were created for your favorite stop motion or clay animation films were now? Recently while reading Amazing Figure Modeler and a few obscure web blogs on the net I came across locations of some secret stashes of puppets. Since our site is more influenced by clay animation, lets start there. The most popular clay animation studio of the 1980's was Will Vinton Studios. Will Vinton headed the studio which created some of the more notable characters of the time. The California Raisins and the Dominoes Pizza Noid.

There were several TV specials including: Meet the Raisins, Raisins Sold Out, Claymation Comedy of Horrors and an Easter special. Less notable characters were from Vintons early feature the Adventures of Mark Twain, and the Little Prince. Here is my attempt to document what is behind the doors based on reference that I found through a secret source. He tells us he wants to keep his identity hidden.

- 1 Tea Commercial head sculpt
- 1 Lumber Jack puppet
- Several Bran Flake puppets for Raisin Bran spots
- Several Raisin puppets from the Raisin Bran spots
- Various heads from background puppets
- Possibly the conductor puppet from the Claymation Christmas Special
- A series of Rudy Bagaman replacement heads from Raisins Sold Out
- At least two Bell characters from the Claymaton Christmas Special
- The Walrus from the Claymation Christmas Special
- The Entrance to Heaven set piece for The Adventures of Mark Twain
- An old man puppet writing in a book for The Little Prince
- Drum set pieces and a piano for various Raisin TV spots
- Many AC, Beebop, Stretch and Red puppets from Raisin TV specials
- The Mother Raisin from the TV specials
- Possibly a Micheael Jordan clay puppet
- At least two Dominoes Pizza Noid puppets with matching Pizza Crusher props
- A Sheldon Snail puppet from the Halloween TV Special
- A black "instead of red" Dominoes Noid puppet (source from an old video)
- One Captain Krunch clay puppet from the TV spot
- Nissan Nick" from the famous Ken and Barbie Nissan ad
- Sets and puppets from Martin the Cobbler
- Sets and puppets from Rip Van Winkle

There also appears to be hundreds of other characters in various states. Some seem to have never been animated, some appear to be beyond repair. Some are thrown in boxes with no protection, while others are covered in clear plastic film to keep the dust off.

Special thanks to our secret source who allowed us to use the images he took of the hidden attic space, as well as giving us a little more information on what is there. To see the images click the links below:

- Click for a new image 1   - Click for a new image 2   - Click for a new image 3 - Click for a new image 4   - Click for a new image 5

If your lucky enough to be in the area, this secret stash lies upstairs behind a locked door at the main Laika studio building in Portland Oregon. Since the studio has been going through changes, the fate of this collection isn't certain. It's possible most of the puppets will end up on ebay.com, thrown in the trash, be given to employees, or be put in a museum. Here is the address:

LAIKA
1400 NW 22nd Avenue
Portland, Oregon
97210
phone: 503-225-1130
fax: 503-226-3746

Read about Ray Harryhausens recently discovered hidden collection in Germany by clicking the link below.

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