What a hand puppet can do depends on how it is made
Some hand puppets talk, some gesture with front legs or wings, and some are made for the playboard of a puppet theatre. The types overlap: a stage puppet can have a movable mouth too.
Movable mouth: hand puppets that talk
On these hand puppets, the mouth or beak opens and closes with your hand, syllable by syllable. Almost every Living Puppets hand puppet works this way. Folkmanis gives most of its animals a movable mouth or beak, often together with front legs, wings or a head that moves. At The Puppet Company, roughly half the hand puppets have one.
Stage puppets for the playboard
A stage puppet is worked from underneath, like a Punch and Judy puppet, so you can raise it above the playboard of a puppet theatre. Away from any theatre, it handles like any other hand puppet. Every Hansa Creation hand puppet in our range is built as a stage puppet, and Folkmanis and The Puppet Company have stage puppets too. The Puppet Company calls them long-sleeved glove puppets; their extra-long bodies cover the whole forearm.
Glove-shaped designs
A few designs from Beleduc and Folkmanis, mostly insects and spiders such as the Folkmanis Blue Tarantula, slip over the hand like a glove. Depending on the design, you can work all the legs or just the front pair, and the Red Octopus moves its arms.
First hand puppets for babies
Soft baby hand puppets come from Sterntaler, Haba and The Puppet Company, and Egmont Toys has its My First Hand Puppet line. At first an adult does the playing, until the child wants to wear one on their own hand.
Hand puppet brands by look and price
Folkmanis and Hansa Creation are the names for realistic animals in the higher price range; Living Puppets is the brand for expressive characters, The Puppet Company for lower prices.
- Folkmanis: pets, wildlife and mythical creatures, frequently with two or more parts that move, plus reversible designs such as the Monarch Life Cycle.
- Hansa Creation: animals such as the Koala and the Polar Bear, many with true-to-life fur, plus several dinosaurs. On most Hansa hand puppets, the head and front legs move; the Fox and the Gorilla are among the few with a movable mouth.
- Living Puppets: monsters, animals and people, plus Sesame Street characters such as Elmo and Grover. Many of the human characters have hands you can move, and quite a few have clothes you can take off and change.
- The Puppet Company: long-sleeved glove puppets, the Puppet Buddies animal series, sock monsters and hand puppets that make a sound.
- Kallisto: handmade animals and a unicorn in organic cotton, some with a head filled with organic cotton.
- Beleduc: animals, glove-shaped insects such as the bee or the butterfly, and story sets that pair a hand puppet with a finger puppet.
- Sterntaler and Haba: baby hand puppets, both animals and characters such as a witch, a princess or a king.
- Heunec and munabo: characters from children's books and television, for example Janosch's Little Tiger or The Little Mole.
Animal, human or monster
Most hand puppets in the range are animals; the rest include people, monsters, dragons and unicorns. A Sesame Street character arrives with a story children already know. A monster without a backstory gets its name from you and plays whatever part the day needs: comforter, tidy-up helper or cheeky rascal.
Who plays with hand puppets
In nurseries and early years settings, a hand puppet asks the children about their weekend or leads the story circle. Primary teachers use one in language and science lessons or in drama club. Speech and language therapists and occupational therapists build exercises and short role-plays around a hand puppet. In elderly care and dementia care, activity staff bring animal hand puppets along. For one-to-one care, Joyk makes empathy dolls.
Hand puppets for adults have their place at home too: a parent or grandparent plays the characters while the children watch, at bedtime or in a living-room show.
What to consider before buying
- The scene: Should the hand puppet talk and act out stories, or hold something, hand it over or hide? That tells you which parts need to move. Each product page lists them, and the Playability filter lets you search by them.
- A child's hand or an adult's: The fit varies by model; the Folkmanis Small Stage Puppets are made for children's hands. If you are unsure about another model, just ask us.
- Budget: Beleduc's animals and the Puppet Buddies are among the most affordable, while large, elaborate animals and mythical creatures cost the most.
- Ordering as a nursery, school or care home: You can pay by invoice; we unlock this for your account after a credit check.