An Educational Public Service

It was a momentous occasion!

I had started ordering them in September of 2021. Each set had multiple year delays that overlapped when the following set was due to be released, meaning there was no way I could stop. ( It was a "need.")

Then…

FINALLY for Christmas in 2025 I got the last figure complete with the case. (Thanx Mom!) 

I proudly showed everyone at work my completed and displayed collection of deluxe figures from the Puppet Master Franchise!
 
AND NO ONE HAD HEARD OF THEM!!!! 
This was clearly a travesty. 

Therefore, I shall proudly present the history of the wild, varied, bizarrely entertaining, and constantly and extremely underfunded horror franchise that produced 15 films over 33 years (And counting in both cases):
THE PUPPET MASTER FILMS
 
No discussion of the Puppet Master franchise can begin without a mentioning of the man behind it - and many other horror films and franchises- Charles Band.
 
He started with Empire Pictures which gave us Re-Animator, From Beyond, Laserblast, and a boatload of other horror and sci fi films. One of the biggest successes, which funded many of his later works, was Ghoulies, famous for making children across the country afraid of toilet training.

 
His brother, composer Richard Band did the scores for many of them, and came with Charles over to the home of the Puppet Master Films- Full Moon. He composed great music for the earliest films, including the main theme- one hauntingly creepy waltz with little playful elements mixed in. The music personifies the puppets well, and gets reused in many of the entries. Richard Band came back multiple times to add to the scores. The franchise entries without his music just don’t sound right.
 
Full Moon was all about direct to video movies, and has now transitioned to newer technology home releases including streaming. (Their channel's original slogan, "Netflix for lunatics.") They frequently showed up as our family favorite “Showtime Wednesday Night Special” films. Besides the puppets, Full Moon also introduced the vampires in the Subspecies films, Edgar Allen Poe adaptations, Demonic Toys, and Jeffrey Combs in what was almost a Doctor Strange film called Doctor Mordred, plus two separate Tim Thomerson sci fi action franchises:
Trancers (where he played Jack Deth- a detective from the future who can take a drug and time travel into his ancestor- in six films)
Dollman (where he played Brick Bardo- a thirteen inch tall alien cop who chases his prey to earth- in two films and a failed TV pilot… alas.)
 
The Puppet Master movies did well in their homes of late night cable and video rental stores for quite a while. The first five were made when Full Moon was backed by Paramount, who used them as their unofficial “B Movie” home release factory. After those five, that backing vanished and the later films got made following a series of Charles Band and crew coming up with a cascade of creative, if strange, financial situations to keep the stories coming.
 
Because of that backing, the first five, while still low budget by almost any standard, could make use of relatively sane shooting schedules, and a combination of varied effects on the puppets. Rod puppets, multi person wire controlled mechanisms and stop motion were employed in those original flicks. (And the stop motion scenes were reused MERCILESSLY in later outings.)
 

This shows the brilliance of the franchise. Because when all of those methods are used, and then in later films when much lower tech manipulations were used, the end effect was often, “The creature looks like a puppet.”
However, in this case, the creatures ARE puppets, making the movements look more realistic for them, not less.

Along these lines, in the better made entries of this franchise, there is excellent use of shadows. The puppets all have very distinct silhouettes, and it adds a lot to the creepiness factor. 

 
The films are on blu ray now and look fantastic (mostly). Though they were all designed for home release, they were still shot on 35mm film. In the cases where that footage could be found (hence the mostly) the films have been digitally remastered for the blu ray and streaming releases to be high definition and widescreen. (Again, mostly. The grainy scenes in some of the middle entries make me nostalgic for late night cable, however.)
 
I’m not going to bother talking about the dates the films are set in. The back story contradicts itself almost immediately and it is best to not worry about that kind of detail when enjoying a franchise based on puppets that come to life via a combination of magic, psychic ability, and science to kill people in entertaining ways.
 
With an exception in the most recent entry, the puppets aren’t all that dangerous on their own, unless they have a massive element of surprise. Their varied talents do allow them to be extremely effective working as a group. It is a combination of stealth and that cooperation that leads to their sizeable body count.  
 
Arguments can be made for the first three being the core of the franchise as the highest quality entries. I’d extend that to the first five as there are some cool ideas in the last two both in storytelling and lore, plus well executed stop motion and mechanical effects. After that the methods of film making and funding got more and more expedient and creative.
 
The puppet point of view shots are a staple of the franchise and work just as well as the “Evil Dead Cam” or “Jaws Vision” scenes. That coupled with a mix of puppeteering styles brought the puppets to life in an impressive manner in those first five films. After that, its straight forward puppetry, reuse of old footage which makes the new stuff look worse… and occasionally stooping to a person in a puppet costume shot at a different speed. (Which looks exactly as out of place as it sounds.)
 
However, there are some worth while entries later into the franchise as well, mostly because the people involved in those specific outings’ special effects and puppet making had a passion for the originals.
 
Here is the full list of movies to act as the index.

Puppet Master 1989

Puppet Master II 1990

Puppet Master III: Toulon's Revenge 1991

Puppet Master 4 1993

Puppet Master 5 1994

Curse of the Puppet Master 1998

Retro Puppet Master 1999

Puppet Master The Legacy 2003

Puppet Master vs. Demonic Toys 2004 (Not produced by Charles Band)

Puppet Master: Axis of Evil 2010

Puppet Master X: Axis Rising 2012

Puppet Master: Axis Termination 2017

Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich 2018 (Not produced by Charles Band)

Blade: The Iron Cross 2020

Puppet Master: Doktor Death 2022