Cross-posting this from my alt-account  clopandelarue, where I post fursuit photos and commissions people do for me.

(TL;DR, I like fursuits with moving jaws. It’s hard to commission a moving jaw fursuit these days, for various reasons. If you’re in the market for one, I highly recommend  beastcub)

I have this weird fascination with fursuits with moving jaws. I think they were a big trend in fursuit making 10-15 years ago, but they’re not commonly demanded or offered anymore. Most fursuit makers dismissed them as a gimmick and stopped even TRYING to build them. It’s a shame, because I think hinged jaws REALLY add to the performance and “Wow factor” of a suit. The ONE thing all furry characters have in common is that they’re animals with the power of speech, so you’d think there’d be more demand for fursuits with the ability to “talk.”

I think moving jaws on fursuits fell by the wayside for two reasons:
1) It’s tricky to build sturdy, articulated jaws that work well and look good. Most fursuit makers just feel it’s more trouble than it’s worth, especially on a foam head base.
2) The norms of fursuit “performance” changed. A decade or two ago, fursuiters placed a large emphasis on “maintaining the magic” and trying to portray a character through immersive performance. You acted like an unpaid Disney cast member: You wouldn’t show skin, wouldn’t break character, wouldn’t take your head off in public, and wouldn’t speak unless you had an articulated jaw, because it broke the illusion of an anthropomorphic character.
Nowadays, people are WAY more casual about fursuiting. Fursuiters generally just act like they’re wearing a cool outfit, rather than portraying a character. Speaking through a static jaw has become totally normalized and expected, so nobody feels the that a moving jaw is important or necessary.

In 2018 or so, I wanted to commission a 2.0 version of my Clopan suit, and I was dead set on him having a moving jaw. I was startled to find out how few fursuit makers still offer them. It’s a short list.
If you remove the racists, predators and nutjobs, it’s even shorter.
If you remove the makers whose “moving” jaws don’t really work as advertised, it’s even shorter still. Buyer Beware: If a maker advertises moving jaws on their fursuits, but you can’t find any videos of their customers demonstrating the jaws, there’s probably a REASON for that.

I eventually landed on Beastcub as my maker for Clopan 2.0’s head, and I’m very fortunate that I got the opportunity to work with her. The suit came out wonderfully, and the hinged jaw is sensitive, expressive, and comfortable.
It works a bit differently than most maker’s hinged jaws—instead of the jaw being held closed with springs, and having you push it open with your own jaw, it works by having you bump a pad on the jaw with your chin. I find that the movement is “backwards”—if my jaw is wide open, Clopan’s is closed, and vice-versa. So it’s a little counterintuitive, but if you practice with it, you can get it to sync with your speech fairly well. I had a crazy amount of fun making TikToks with Clopan because of his ability to “lip-sync” and make expressive faces.

Do you have any thoughts on, or experiences with, fursuit moving jaws that you’d like to share?