Stolen Figure

Question: In 1993 I bought a vent figure from Maher named Corky. I have used this dummy in my full time children's ministry for all of these past 16 years. Unfortunately, about a month ago my van was stolen and my Corky figure (who I renamed Willie Bob) was in the van as well. So far neither the van nor the contents have been found. My insurance is covering the cost of personal items, including Corky. My question for you is: do you sell the Corky figure anymore, or do you know where I can purchase another one? The one I had was a 42 inch figure with moving head and eyes. I know I can just purchase another figure, but I have used this figure for so long and I have his personality ingrained so well, it would be difficult to come up with another personality, etc. Also, children to whom I minister are used to seeing Willie Bob and are always asking to see him. This is to me like Edgar Bergen without Charlie McCarthy! It just wouldn't be the same to see Edgar without Charlie. Jay Cooper
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Answer: I am so sorry for your loss. You're absolutely correct, you can replace a ventriloquist figure but it's next to impossible to duplicate the lost character. The large Corky sold by Maher Studios was built by Keith Lovik. For some reason I'm thinking that mold was retired, but I may be wrong. The best thing for you to do is contact Keith directly: info@lovikspuppets.com

And I'd advise you to keep your eye on eBay, Craig's list, etc. I seriously doubt the thief has any use for a vent figure and will somehow try to turn it into cash. It wouldn't be the first dummy to be rescued in this manner.

PS: I should mention that I did, by choice, make a switch with my primary figure years ago. And I had to decide what to do about the character's personality since the old and new figures looked nothing alike. I finally decided to give the new character it's own unique name but I retained for it the voice and personality of the old character. Other than me calling him by the wrong name once in awhile, there was no problem with the change. My audience did ask about the earlier character's whereabouts from time to time, but did not seem to notice his personality had been reincarnated in the new character which was interesting.
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Comment from Cleve Odom: "My heart goes out for the guy who had his figure stolen. I only have one figure and once at church I got busy doing things and left my figure outside my car and it got run over. It placed a hole in his head and crushed his plastic body and both hands.... You would have thought I had run over my own kid the way my wife acted it was on a Sunday. Luckily I went to auto zone and bought a fiber glass kit and repaired the hole in his head and his body. I then fixed his hand good enough till I could get some new ones. My wife made new cloth arms and we put the new hands on him repainted him and he was good as new."