Contract Up For Bid

[rtgentry]

This is a serious offer for serious builders.

H.E.Buddy Puppet Search.

Prototypes must be completed and sent in by May13th ( I know its coming soon but I need more builders to submit)

Requirements:

Must be great in Likeness to Character.

Must be East to Manipulate.

Must be durable and Last up to at least 5 years.

Builder must be able to produce about 50 exact replicas of the final approved product within 3 months of request.

You must email a detailed list of construction and materials used, also include size and diameter of Puppet.

All Prototypes will become property of Randy Gentry & Heb Grocery.

Please check out pics at www.heb.com and click into the HEBUDDY section to see sketchs.
You can PM me here to send your email for a Picture of the Live Buddy Costume we currently use.

Please contact me at Puppetpeople@sbcglobal.net for more info and or questions.

I have worked for Heb for 6 years. We currently use the walk around costume which requires two employees. One to be Buddy and one to walk Buddy. We would like cut labor in half by using a puppet verion/recorded tape system.

I currently have a few local builders working on this but I want to open it up to the Mc builders.

Thanks
Randy

[Buck-Beaver]

Purely out of curiosity, I am reading this correctly in understanding that the people who apply for this don't get paid for building prototypes and they have to surrender ownership of their work?

[rtgentry]

Sorry, let me clear it up.

Since Buddy is a trademark of HEB and is under copyright, HEB is only giving permission to build him to those applying for the "Job". It is basically a Job interview. We have a total of 53 stores in the Sa/West Region alone. We also have stores in the Central , Coastal, Border, and Houston regions.
Oh Course we will purchase the puppets from the winner of the best prototype.

Andrew, do you have any suggestions, as I nor Heb has ever done or attempted a puppet venture.

[rtgentry]

Okay for the First stage of view prototypes, the pics of the puppets with descriptions of materials can be sent in by email but also need to be mail in to my Heb which will be sent out later.

That might put some builders to ease about sending their puppets. It will also keep me from getting a bunch of puppets that are not all alike.

[whatadoddle]

Hmmmm, you may even get 50 and not need to advertise any more! LOL!

[PaulyPuppets]

I just re-read your post and see that my concerns were not called for. Sorry. I deleted my first post. I was concerned as Buck was.

[Buck-Beaver]

That makes much more sense. You probably want to make it very clear that people are submitting pictures, not puppets. On a fairly big contract like this, it's pretty standard to request mock-ups, maquettes, etc. I just did some consulting for a show that's being developed in the U.S. and I suggested they ask for maquettes (small models of what the puppets would like) from the prospective puppet builders since it was a large contract and they were going to be spending a lot of money.

[rtgentry]

Thanks for the suggestions Andrew.

If there are any builders that are interested Please just contact me and we can work it out with any or all the suggestions mentioned above. I just wanted to give anyone here a chance. The original search was to be kept locally. But since we have some of the best builders in the world here, I MEAN THAT, I wanted to get the word out.

Thank again guys,

Randy

[ravagefrackle]

Just my Two cents here, but i think u may be expecting a lot from a puppet to last 5 years , if its going to be used everyday , or close to everyday , in varied weather conditions, and if the puppeteers are going to be store employees, or local kids with out much puppetry background,

as well as the likley hood that small children will grap at the puppet. lots of different variables,

as well as as just regular were and tear , who will be maintaining them once they are sent out to the different locations?

[Buck-Beaver]

That's a good point, any builder who warrants the puppet for five years is probably being unrealistic. Even puppets very carefully taken care of (properly stored in a dry place, in plastic, away from sun, etc.) are going to sustain damage. Especially if they are in regular use.

You should probably come to some sort of agreement about maintenance and repairs.

[rtgentry]

The Buddy costume we use now is for special occasions and only used at most 2-3 times a month. Each store would have a designated partner or two to handle Buddy.

We would certainly want to negotiate maintance of puppets with the original builder. In some case it may be that we just reorder a new puppet.

So back to the 5 year requirement. I am just saying as far as the basic construction lasting 5 years. I wouldnt want the puppets busting from shoddy workmanship or shortcuts.

I understand certian things happen and I am not saying we will return any that dont make 5 years ... its jut a guidline.

Thanks for the pointers guys.

[wes]

So let me Get this clear, all you want is a picture of the built puppet and I don't have to send the puppet in?

[rtgentry]

Yea, if you can get the pics to me in time for the meeting, then we will pick, two or three buddies and purchase a couple and try them out to see which ones are better.

[renegade]

When do you need your puppet's by ? I do the H.e. buddy commercial's that's are about to come out. I can try to match are designs that we did for that
Its just a matter of free time to do one up
thanks
nate

[bezalel]

I'm thinking the ol' fake arm bit would work nicely for this project. The H.E.B. employee (puppeteer) appearring to be holding H.E. Buddy like a grocery sack.

[rtgentry]

I'm thinking the ol' fake arm bit would work nicely for this project. The H.E.B. employee (puppeteer) appearring to be holding H.E. Buddy like a grocery sack.


Thats very creative, but dont give away all your secrets.

[rtgentry]

...

[rtgentry]

Please contact me at Puppetpeople@sbcglobal.net for more info and or questions.


For those who are currently participating in the BUDDY Search, Please email my above addess with your Real Name, and contact info so that I can put it in a file.