Full - Bodied Muppet Full - Bodied Muppets , sometimes known as full - costume Muppets , are large scale characters who combine elements of puppetry and costumery . According to Christopher Finch , " These figures are a kind of hybrid , not so much true puppets as costumes to which a puppet head has been attached . The eyes , if necessary , can be operated by remote control . These creatures are sometimes half again as tall as the puppeteer inside . " Early Full - Bodied Muppets . Splurge from " Hey Cinderella ! " and Delbert the La Choy Dragon were amongst the earliest full - bodied characters . The La Choy Dragon would alternate between a large - scale Live - Hand Muppet for special effects shots or scenes with other puppets and a full - bodied character ( performed by Frank Oz who hated performing full - body suits ) for scenes that involved terrorizing supermarket patrons or knocking over cans . A variant of this type were characters such as the farmers in " The Muppet Musicians of Bremen " ( Caleb Siles , Mean Floyd , and Lardpork ) . This trio was not fully costumed but had special puppet heads worn by live actors . Famous Full - Bodied Muppets . Some of the most familiar and popular Muppets are full - bodied characters . Big Bird is the best known example , though his " Sesame Street " cohorts include Snuffy and his family , Bruno the Trashman , Sam the Robot and Barkley . " The Muppet Show " played host to Sweetums , Thog , Timmy Monster , The Mutations , Doglion , Behemoth , Fletcher Bird , and Sopwith the Camel . The Gorgs loomed large on " Fraggle Rock " , while Bear and his friend Ursa star in " Bear in the Big Blue House " . Later examples include Mopatop on " Mopatop ' s Shop " . Various overseas versions of " Sesame Street " have had their own larger than life stars , including Kippi Ben Kippod , Boombah , Nimnim , and Zeliboba . Feature films brought a new raft of full - bodied characters , including Miss Finch , Mommy Dodo , Daddy Dodo , Marie Dodo and Donny Dodo from " Follow That Bird " , and The Ghost of Christmas Present and The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come from " The Muppet Christmas Carol " . Creature Shop productions such as " Dinosaurs " and " Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles " made extensive use of more advanced types of realistic suit characters . Usefulness and Scale . Full - bodied Muppets are often used as ogres or other types of monsters ( as with Sweetums or Doglion ) , because they can tower over puppets and human performers alike . Big Bird ' s height is generally given as 8 ' 2 " , while Bear is seven feet tall and Thog ' s height was generally estimated as at least 9 1 / 2 feet . Their size allows for more complex facial mechanisms as well as almost completely free movement . Full - bodied characters have the additional advantage of being able to share the stage with regular human performers or celebrity guest stars on a more equable basis , or indeed to loom over or manhandle them . While Grover or Kermit the Frog can only interact with live actors by careful placement via concealing walls , platforms , or other tricks , full - bodied characters can fully interact with human actors . For this reason , nearly every of " Sesame Street " has at least one full - bodied character , that country ' s own " Big Bird . " Indeed , many of these types have been birds , such as Abelardo or Pino , while others such as Samson are completely different animals , but ones normally existing in large scale . Moshe , on the other hand , is 10 times the size of a normal meercat . These characters can dance , rollerskate , embrace a human co - star , or hug or even lift up a child . Bear ' s size , on the other hand , allows him to take a more fully paternal role towards the smaller , more child - like characters on " Bear in the Big Blue House " or the real - life children on " Breakfast with Bear " . Not all full - bodied characters are larger than life , however . Characters such as Hoggle or the Dodos from " Follow That Bird " are smaller , for contrast with larger puppets or human performers . Still other times , full - bodied versions of characters who are otherwise hand puppets are constructed , at a scale comparable to their puppets and inhabited by little people performers , for use in dance or stunt scenes . Miss Piggy existed in this form for both " The Great Muppet Caper " and " The Muppets Take Manhattan " , while various Skeksis from " The Dark Crystal " and goblins from " Labyrinth " were also performed this way . Visibility . The fact that a full - bodied character is completely inhabited by the performer allows for greater freedom of movement , but also brings its own problems , most notably visibility . Whereas hand puppet performers can simply look beyond the puppet or see through a camera monitor positioned in front of the set , other techniques have had to be developed for the full - bodied creations . The early characters like the La Choy Dragon were performed virtually blind . For later characters , according to Finch , " The puppeteer sees out through a carefully concealed scrim and works the mouth with any of various hand and rod devices . " Advancements in small - scale monitors and other technical devices greatly improved the situation . For Bear , Big Bird , and Ludo , amongst others , their respective performers have a monitor strapped to their chests or stomachs , allowing them to see their performance just as the audience will see it . ( A wireless microphone attached to a headband transmits the puppeteer ' s voice . ) Later , special cameras within the head were developed , beginning with " Fraggle Rock " , for characters operated by more than one puppeteer . Operation and Movement . For Big Bird , Bear , Sweetums , and others , a single performer plays the character , providing both voice and movements , and that performer is almost always consistent . The performer uses their dominant ( usually right ) hand to operate the mouth , eyes , and other facial mechanisms , pushing the hand into the head area , while the puppeteer ' s other arm ( usually left ) inhabits the character ' s other arm . The right arm for such characters , though very occasionally allowed to hang free , is generally controlled by a special monofilament which causes it to move in opposition to the left arm . Other times , as with the hand puppets , special camera techniques and computer tricks are used to allow an assistant to operate the other limbs . Someone such as Mr . Snuffleupagus is operated by two performers , in the manner of a masquerade or circus horse , one operating the front end and face , and the other the back legs and tail . With the exceptions of recasts or occasional substitutions , full - bodied puppeteers are usually consistently cast as their character , and indeed sometimes come to specialize in this variety of puppetry , as exemplified by Caroll Spinney ( Big Bird ) , Noel MacNeal ( Bear ) , or Richard Hunt ( Sweetums ) , allowing for the development of a consistent , familiar , and complex personality . Others , like Doglion or Timmy Monster , have often been handed over to whoever was available and could fit in the suit , and thus have remained basically background characters as opposed to stars . The operation of a full - bodied character is more purely physical and hazardous in many ways , as the weight of the suit itself has to be taken into consideration ( many full - bodied Muppets weigh in excess of forty to sixty pounds ) . The oppressive heat is also an occupational hazard , mediated in some cases by periodically cooling the performer with an air hose inserted into an opening in the character suit , thus allowing the puppeteer to continue performing without either getting in and out or collapsing from exhaustion and overheating . The occasional inconvenience of full - bodied puppeteering was openly parodied in " Puppetman " , as performer Gary doesn ' t have time to undo the harnesses of Clyde , a 9 foot tall dragon character , and must rush to the hospital still in costume . Beginning with the Gorgs in " Fraggle Rock " , advances in technology allowed for a different way to operate full - bodied characters . One performer , usually trained in pantomime or physical action , would wear the suit and perform all of the physical movements , with monitors embedded and raised within the heavily wired head allowing the performer to see out and also have their line of vision be identical with that of the character , a method Jim Henson dubbed " Gorg Vision . " A second performer , standing nearby , provides the voice and operates the radio - controlled facial features ( eyes , mouth , brows , etc . ) via a waldo , at the same time as the suit puppeteer is performing . This technique was used extensively in " Labyrinth " , with additional performers assisting with the radio controls for even more complex movements , and for Ghost of Christmas Present in " Muppet Christmas Carol " . For " Dinosaurs " and other Creature Shop productions , a third performer was usually involved , a , whose dialogue would generally be recorded over the original scratch track by the facial puppeteer . Dance and Pantomime Characters . At times , the voice and face are minimal factors at best . Characters such as Betsy Bird , Fletcher Bird , The Mutations , or Ballerina Pig were created specifically for dance sequences . Though the designs of the characters are as detailed and expressive as any other Muppet , the mouths , while often open , are seldom moved , allowing the dancer to focus on fully operating the character and moving all four limbs at the same time . Performers such as Graham Fletcher , with backgrounds in dance and ballet rather than puppetry , were frequently cast in these roles . Indeed , rather than creating a character and then finding a performer , the characters , notably Betsy and Fletcher , were often conceived and tailored to fit the actor , to best express their movements and style ( an approach which was not always fully successful ) . In some ways , this was also the forerunner of the full - bodied characters used in " Sesame Street Live " and ice show productions , detailed but designed for body movement rather than expressive facial operations . Four Legged Characters and Multi - Character Operations . With the exception of the two person Snuffy , the previously discussed characters are all upright and their movements are essentially exaggerations or caricatures of human motion , while incorporating certain aspects of the animal or creature they represent . Other characters are more fully animal , performed by a single puppeteer who must crouch or otherwise operate the character in an even more difficult manner than the upright performers . Barkley walks on all fours , and essentially moves in much the way that a lumbering Saint Bernard would . Alice Snuffleupagus is likewise on all fours , yet her movements are not that of an animal as much as they are of a toddler , tumbling and rolling about . The Giant Spider from of " The Muppet Show " was intended to mimic the crawling actions of a real spider , and was performed by Graham Fletcher by crab - walking on his back . The Landstriders from " The Dark Crystal " are four - legged creatures , performed by puppeteers wearing stilt extensions in the legs of the costume . Other times , a puppeteer can actually perform both a full - bodied character and another puppet at the same time . Bruno the Trashman was conceived in this manner , with arms permanently clasped around the trashcan , allowing Spinney to move around and still operate Oscar . The riding goblins in " Labyrinth " are variations on this , with the performer donning the riding beast and operating the steed ' s face and mouth , while a goblin ' s torso is draped over them , and flexible legs , recoiling in joint - like movements as the performer walks , appended to the puppeteer ' s own torso , creating a complex movement dynamic .