The Axtell Hands-Free Puppets (Remote Control & Animatronic) Area! Post your HFP Puppets questions, comments, photos, publicity etc. here. This is a direct link from the main Hands-Free Puppet page http://www.axtell.com/remote.html

Recent posts yesterday on the Magic Cafe. We have one of the longest most intensely exciting threads on the cafe about these Hands-Free Puppets. I'll put a link to the year long thread below but here are a few posts from yesterday....

Jeff Christensen (Canadian who just received his Magic Chimp)....
I'll try to take some pics later tonight when I do a stage rehearsal. It's now recess and I have several large ATA cases carrying all of my gear. If I have any energy left over I will give an update tonight.

Suffice to say that this is BIG FUN
jeff

ps. Just received my first unsolicited magic chimp booking...apparently the word is out!
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Yeah....the bookings will come to you as people start talking about it. Great to hear it's already started within a few days!

Ax
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WOW that is inspiring! Alexa
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I like the fact that my agent can now place me in other catagories for clients. Instead of being a family entertainer or a childrens entertainer, I can now be hired as a teacher, as well as a salesman.

Clients that normally would not consider me at all are now looking at the RCAP as a client. Conventions and trade shows is a perfect example. I can bring potential clients to the booth and educate them about my clients products or services using the RCAP.

I will be listed as "Unique" for these types of clients. These are the ones that would not normally consider a magician. Once the other vendors see the impact this thing has, I can't imagine the future holds anything except high demand, which includes higher fees. Also, since I am able to incorporate video with my presentations, my delivery is powerful, memorable, and a step above the competition.

I seriously believe the RCAP will change my entire life and make me a local celebrity beyond my expectations. All the local TV stations have a morning news and event show. They are ALL interested in having me and the RCAP on to entertain them as well as educate them on what I do, why I do, how I do, and because it's unique and entertaining, easily gives me an advantage in my area. Muzicman
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Things appear to be progressing exactly how Ax predicted at the beginning of this (Magic Cafe) thread. (Started 1 year ago) The number of new bookings and opportunities have/will grow exponentially. I feel like I'm on a roller coaster and I'm slowly climbing up the first big hill and am excited about the wild ride that's coming. LOOK OUT BELOW!!

jeff

http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewtopic.php?topic=233079&forum=17&start=0

I have just got Tommy the Talking Toucan loaed with Jingle Bells which had some changes made to it for me by Steve and the gang. My Christmas Show is going to be so much fun with this fella in it.
I've now had my Toucan since August and the smile still hasn't gone away! These are so much fun to have in your shows!

Louis

There is a big photo gallery of Hands-Free Remote Control Puppets in action by friends and customers here

http://www.axtell.com/remotecust.html

Another 5 went out this week!

Happy Thanksgiving

My shows are so much more fun with the new remote toucan. He's a great partner and provides for several running gags throughout the performance. I leave him onstage in the "alive" mode during the whole program. Kids ask me after the show if Nelson is real.

I just added the toucan to my promo video (you can also see the Axtell Remote Marker Board):



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gisVaDHFTeo

John Hadfield

Here is a screen shot of the Hands-Free Owner's Forum... Lots of members and posting activity with free MagicTrax files to download and lots of owner support!



When you get one of the Hands-Free Puppets you are invited to be a member of the owner's forum. You are never alone with this animatronic technology...we're with you all the way!

Ax

Awesome promo video John! What a professional show!
Ax

Louis...I can't wait to see your show in action! Post a video on Youtube and then you can link the embed code right in here Like I did Johns.

Ax

Here is Andy Kean in New Zealand with his new Toucan

Well another satisfied Toucan Owner in the UK. I have already performed 3 Christmas Shows with Cecil and all I can tell you is that he went down a storm. Lets not forget that you need a strong show to start with as I already had. So I am guessing you are wondering how much he was in the show? Well about 12 minutes worth to be exact. And yes I did close and Louis has mentioned above with the Jingle Bells Routine. If you are even considering adding one of these to your show please try and see one live and in person. The videos really don't do them justice, as they are so much better in person. After all you would when putting a prop into your show so you should with one of these.

Every time I get him out to practice with my face lights up with a smile and I have only had Cecil for just over a week. What I can say is that the children and adults were mesmerized by him and all commented on how great the show was and how funny Cecil was. The children even came up and said goodbye to Cecil before they left. To me that says it all. Happy faces after a great show.

If you are based in the UK like I am then they will be appearing a few of the big conventions in January and February of 2009, so you really should get out to them if you can. Now honestly how many props do you own that put a smile on your face every time you get them out to work? For me this is the only one. After a while even I forget he's a puppet. I'll send Steve a picture of him in action with me next week after I get one during a public show.

All the best

Rob Gaffney - Magician (Robbie Magic)

Lou Hilario and his chimp MoyMoy training parrots in the Philippines!



Here is "Jingle Bells"...

Check this out!

Today a customer ordered a Hands-Free Tree! We only make the face and the client joins it to a tree base that is usually 20-30 feet tall. The tree will look around and talk from the Magic System.... There will be an animatronic Chimpanzee in the branches. You can see our big tree at http://www.axtell.com/custom.html

Ax

Getting ready to ship off to customers.....

Michael Fitch is the winner of the "International Children's Entertainer" Award from Blackpool this year. He used his winnings toward the purchase of the Hands-Free Chimp... check this out.

Check out this "Toca" Toucan we are making available... the first one was for Michael Schurkamp in Germany...

Here is my kid show performed at the S. Tyneside convention in England. It's 20 min. I did the first half as a ventriloquist with a Toucan hand puppet, and the second half with the Hands-Free Animatronic Toucan & Drawing board. For the second half I used MagicTrax for the voices to demonstrate the technique to the magicians at the show.

Because our friend and engineer Ron Palmer passed on...we are pulling the Hands-Free Puppets off the market for now while we regroup and retool. Thanks for your understanding.

Ax

Wow! Looks like we can complete another 6-10 of the Ron Palmer mechanics for our Hands-Free Magic Toucans! We have reorganized the inventory in his shop and he left us with some close to finished. That's very exciting. thanks Ron! I've got 2 other engineers working on finishing these right now. If you are interested in getting one of these "Ron Palmer originals", send me an email to steve@axtell.com When they are gone, that's it. We will have to start from scratch with the new team and new design changes will certainly occur in the process.

Louis Taylor's Tommy Toucan behind the scenes on BGT!

Rob Gafney and Louis Taylor get together in the UK for a micro-convention

Britains Got Talent star visits park



Britains Got Talent star visits park
Whitney Gazette
2:02pm Tuesday 2nd June 2009
http://www.witneygazette.co.uk/news/4414307.Britain___s_Got_Talent_star_visits_park/

VISITORS to a wildlife park were given a treat when a contestant on Britains Got Talent flew in to tell them more about the animals.

Tommy the Toucan an animatronic puppet made a guest appearance at the Cotswold Wildlife Park, near Burford, on Thursday.

The puppet was controlled by Louis Taylor, who is originally from Carterton, but now lives in South Wales, who gave a short talk to visitors about what is on offer in the park.

Childrens entertainer Mr Taylor, who bought Tommy a year ago while on holiday in California, said: He is so much fun to use.

People were a bit surprised as they dont expect it to talk as he looks like he is from Disneyland, especially when he talks to someone directly.

Debbie Ryan, of the wildlife park, said: Tommy was amazing. The children and adults loved him. He got the whole crowd flapping their arms and making animal noises, as well as making them laugh.

It was really entertaining.

Despite impressing children and adults at the park, Tommy the Toucan did not win over Simon Cowell, Piers
Morgan, and Amanda Holden when he appeared on Britains Got Talent two weeks ago.

Here are a few shots of some new customers who flew out to meet their new Hands-Free Toucans!

Jeffery Potts from Ohio will be using his for a fitness and nutrition show called "Fit Is It".



Magician & Ventriloquist Frascati from Austria ...

Our first Hands-Free Animatronic Toucan made celebrates it's first birthday! Congratulations to Louis Taylor & Tommy Toucan. They have performed for thousands, been on television...who knows what will come next! Happy Birthday Tommy!

The first Hands-Free Tree ships out to Puerto Rico.



It will go into a Bookstore with a jungle tree theme. They also got a Chimpanzee and the two characters can be programmed to interact together synched up. We did this by splitting up the 9 channels of a Hands-Free Control System between two characters.

Here's a video of an early test...the mouth moves bigger than this. I will post updated videos. Still looks great!

Hands-Free Animatronic Tree face... can be assembled onto your own tree trunk saving thousands of dollars.

Steven Kline and Dusty...

Just came in to add I really dug Steve's Toucan stage show above (England 2009). Very well-rehearsed.

So many new things happening in the HF department. Total show control systems, new characters, Hands-Free Remote Control Magic Drawing board (programmable).. and more!

Ax

So much for relaxing, huh, Steve? I have often thought about "starting over" on my shows. I picture a game show type style, with a table for contestants. I can picture a remote control host, fanfare, music for answering time (as on Jeopardy).

Are you saying that this new control system would also allow some video starts and stops?

Speaking of Jeopardy I have decided that if those contestants were really that smart they would go on a show that has bigger prizes, such as "Deal or No Deal".

Yes, video too. You'd need a projector connected to the computer of course, but yes it's a whole show concept. Recently reducing my workload in half means this is what remains that I still must complete before I get any vacation. We've invested the last year in it and it's almost launched! Serious treadmill here. Huff...Puff.. Ax

Tony, some people prefer the lower prizes -- but the intellectual prestige and challenge of Jeopardy. Deal or no Deal is nothing but dumb luck and greed. Just my opinion...

Santa

Think of this new system as you would Powerpoint.

It has a timeline, you can put slides, video, audio, and trigger them from a remote.

If the laptop that you are triggering is attached to a PA system you get your show background music, if it's also attached to a projector you have video and slides in your show.... if it's also attached to our Axtell Hands-Free Animation System (and you play a MagicTrax) it will transmit wirelessly to a Hands-Free Animatronic Puppet. The MagicTrax Mp3 will control the character in synch with the audio....all from one Timeline.....all from one small remote fob.

Additionally with the MediaStar upgrade you can do multiple Hands-Free characters, trigger other remote effects like your puppet trunk lid bouncing open on cue, a chair falling over on cue, smoke puff from a magic trick,and with the optional DMX kit you can control your show lighting.

It all gets set up into your time line for your show and you control it all from one fob.

You may get some letters of protest from magicians assistants around the world, as well as roadies, stage hands, lighting crew, sound persons etc. It is the industrial age of the 21st century!

as Tony said Steve, you might want to watch out for Unions, this inovation could make them obsolete.

LOL Just kidding, but truthfully that is a major improvement for us smaller acts who do not have the clout or money that someone really big has.

Steve any word on a rabbit in a hat HF ? ;0) would love that

We are first making a Monster in a Crate, then following it with the Rabbit. The mechanics are similar. Very exciting stuff!

This is an exclusive custom Waffle loving bear for a customer. The blinking eyelids and moving ears are working here. Not all the movements are being demonstrated.

Here is a link to the new systems... http://www.axtell.com/remote.html

Our Cheeky Monkey is available as a Hands-Free Puppet... Here's a funny clip sent by customer Louis Taylor in the UK.

Here is another video by Louis Taylor. This is an original "Mind Reading" routine he wrote that we will be making available as a MagicTrax. This was shot on stage at Blackpool Magic Convention.



Ax

Wanlu is operating the Animatronic Monkey off camera...

A Pre-Show!

Hi Everyone.

The above clip is edited to give you an idea of how we are beginning to use Louie. We are using him for the first time this week at a festival in Southesstern Michigan. We're doing 9 shows over the week, so we thought it would be the perfect place to bring Louie to life. We put him out 10 minutes prior to the show. He's in auto alive for 5 minutes, and then he goes into a 5 minutes countdown. The countdown has music (which Louie dances to) and funny announcements in between. It's incredible how Louie draws the crowd in, and how they react. I'll try to set up a camera from behind Louie this weekend, so you can see the crowds reactions to him. It really is magical. Thanks so much to everyone who voted for Austin in the Axtell Video Contest! And thank you, of course, to Steve and his entire team for creating these incredible works of art.

Ken and Austin Dumm

This toucan is set up in a Baobab tree in a Children's Museum. It has a motion detector so it turns on the bird in "Auto-Alive" when a child walks near the tree, then a MagicTrax can be played to educate and entertain!

Now THAT is way cool!!!!!!!!!!

Agreed. Way cool.

But there are naked branches there. Surely space for a whole "Enchanted Tikki Room" worth of various Axtell avians.

Taco, my hands free vent toucan, was 2 years old on May 18th. July 16th will mark his 2nd. anniversary of his debut at a day camp magic show.
He is such an amazing puppet, and has become such an important part of most of my magic shows.
He is actually a part of the family even sitting on his perch in a corner of our living room when not in use.

Yes, way cool Chris. It's hard to put them in a box. I'm glad he's part of the family. We have some amazing things coming out from the Animatronics Department in the next few months. Can't wait. Ax

Hey Steve,
With the success of the Harry Potter movies another great puppet that would be great to animate would be an Owl.
I could see myself in a wizard costume with HOOT in the background.

Gee I did a search of owl, and I saw that in April 2008, the magic castle asked if you could do an animated owl puppet. Did that ever happen?

Yes they did ask me and we entered some discussions on the project but they ran into cash flow problems, so it was delayed. It's certainly on my hot projects list. I'd love to do this for them and turn the wait time into a pre-show in the theater. Ax

Cash flow problems? They couldn't "conjure" some up?

Universal Studios should have one of these Hands Free Owls also. One of their Executive heads should add that to their Harry Potter attraction.

This was made for the convention "MAGIC LIVE"

A great thing about Axtell's Hands-free puppets is the customer service. Like most things in life parts wear out or break.
A hands-free owner is not left out on his own, trying to fix his puppet himself, or trying to find someone who might be able to fix their puppet if the puppet quits working.
I probably had a servo go out today on my Hands-free toucan puppet, Taco.
A call to John made me feel so much better. He'll work on Taco ASAP, and send him back to me ASAP.
For me to have a puppet that looks like he came straight from Disney, is unbelievable, especially knowing you can get them fixed should a part wear out.

Chris thanks for that and we want Taco back up performing immediately! Mechanical and electronics do breakdown. When they do, we fix them!

Wow, Ax! The chimp playing the piano is probably the best implementation of your Hands-Free puppets that I've seen so far. The routine is great, and the animation of the character is absolutely spot on! It really is the quality of animatronic movement that you'd expect to pay $50,000+ for. Very nice work!

Awesome piano playing! The jokes are bearable as well! I once knew a chicken who could ring a bell.