Not quite as large as a living Scarlet Macaw, this Folkmanis puppet will still impress anyone familiar with this larger representative of the Parrot Family. Scarlet Macaws can live up to 70 years although they average 30 to 35, they are intelligent, energetic, noisy, and they are beautiful. Owners know they are expensive, demanding, and loud—this puppet might be an easier substitute.

The Folkmanis Scarlet Macaw plush puppet is approximately 25 inches long with the tail about 12 to 13 inches of the full-body size. A real macaw reaches up to 33 to 36 inches. The puppet’s tail feathers are weighted to hang in a realistic position. The mouth is workable and the beak is yellow vinyl on the upper and black on the lower, the body is red with bright yellow, red, and blue tail feathers. The chest “feathers” have black markings near the body. The feet are realistic looking made from a rigid black vinyl with the typical two toes in front and two toes in back. The large beak is hooked like a bird of prey’s beak and the eye rings are yellow with white “bare skin” surrounding the eyes. It’s amazing how much these resemble real scarlet macaws.

You can work the mouth to help this bird communicate (although you’ll need to provide the sounds), but with a little effort children can mimic the voice of a scarlet macaw. I have a large collection of Folkmanis puppets and each seems to have creative ways for the hand to enter the body. This has a relatively large entrance at the base of the tail feathers. The arm going through the chest to the beak provides some bulk to the torso. There is ample space in the head for an adult hand.

Folkmanis puppets continually amaze me with their quality. This is not the only parrot in their collection; they also have a green Amazon Parrot as well as a Macaw finger puppet.

Clean this puppet with a damp sponge and a mild laundry detergent. Washing machines and dryers will ruin this puppet. Unless someone purposely destroys this, jumps on it, tears at it or gives it to an aggressive dog, this puppet (and all of the Folkmanis puppets) will last a lifetime.

In Use

While I used this with young children at the museum in conjunction with the book, If you were a parrot, I found many adults wandering off with this puppet and carrying it around helping it talk. I’d mosey up to them and tell them where they could buy one for their children and frequently some would say that it just brought back memories of their parent’s or some other relative’s macaw. I’ve met a few macaws and they are quite impressive, but so is this puppet. I wonder how a live macaw would respond to seeing this puppet in action.

Every time I look at the Folkmanis gallery I find they improve their collection. These encourage creative play with their realism. I can see anyone who works with tropical birds at zoos or animal rescues wanting one. A little knowledge will place this scarlet macaw in an imaginative world of the bird’s natural habitat or the familiar world of someone’s pet.


Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 23.99
Type of Toy: Puppet
Age Range of Child: Whole Family