By Denise Dutton: I love dragons, especially poor Viserion, Dany’s green dragon she’d named after her brother. (Shoulda spotted that foreshadowing a mile away, but noooooo.) I’ve always had a soft spot for green dragons; blame it on the Harper Hall series from Anne McCaffrey. Yes, those are technically fire lizards, but when I saw the Folkmanis Winged Dragon Puppet, my thoughts immediately went to Pern.

And okay, Toho. Because while this little guy is a few fingers over one foot tall, he’s definitely got some Kaiju in him. In fact, the little fella looks as if Godzilla and Ghidorah had a baby. (No, don’t Google that. Rule 34 and all.) This puppet has an adorable chubbyness to him that makes me want to just watch him waddle around, though his pretty chiffon-meets-corduroy wings look more than up to the task of keeping him aloft. With some help from you, of course. 

He’s made with the same loving attention to detail that Folkmanis gives to all of their creations, from his beautifully stitched and imminently boopable snoot down to the tip of his slightly upturned tail. His body is softly flocked green velvet that’s been patterned to show “scales”, with a ridge on his back that has sharp points that turn to fuzziness at the touch of fingers. I’m not sure if those ridges are more stable velvet or some other addictively soft flocking, but it’s wonderful. Add in a lightly ridged inner mouth with a deep maroon forked tongue (complete with “sharp” white teeth cut from vinyl cloth) and wee felt “claws” at the ends of his toes/tip of his wings, and you’ve got one impressively powerful – and powerfully cute – fella.

Moving this puppet around is pretty easy, as each leg and wing can accommodate a finger or two for maximum performance. Nimbler folks than I can also work his mouth, as there’s space to move upper and lower mandible if you’re so inclined. I myself can’t operate wings and mouth, but that’s to be expected from my uncooperative fingers. Mouth movements or no, he’s still one adorable little guy, and I plan on taking him to Faire this season. I’m betting he’ll get a whole lot of compliments. I’ve complimented him several times already.

Denise Kitashima Dutton has been a reviewer since 2003, and hopes to get the hang of things any moment now.  She believes that bluegrass is not hell in music form, and that beer is better when it’s a nitro pour.  You can find her at Green Man Review, Atomic Fangirl, Movie-Blogger.com, or at that end seat at the bar, multi-tasking with her Kindle.