Switching rod-hands and live-hands

This is a list of instances in which a character who is normally an arm-rod puppet appears with live hands, and vice versa.

Live Hands to Rod Hands[]

Daniel
- Sesame Street in Communities video ("Just Ask a Question")
- Sesame Street in Communities video ("The Wiggle Jiggle Game")

Hilda
- The Muppet Show episode 118 — trying to look young in front of Kermit.

Lulu
- Sesame Street Episode 3900
- Sesame Street Episode 3920
- Sesame Street Episode 3965

Gonzo
- Muppet Treasure Island — while looking inside the treasure chest for the treasure map with Jim and Rizzo, he discovers a book and tosses it on the ground.
- Muppets from Space — when examining the telescope
- A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa — while examining the unsent letters to Santa he discovers in his backpack.

Grover
- Super Grover 2.0 sketches, in close-up shots picking up objects.
- "The Coffee Plant" — when pouring the beans in the coffee maker.
- Count on Elmo
- My Sesame Street Friends "My Sesame Music: Cookies"

Miss Piggy
- The Muppet Christmas Carol — during the song "Bless Us All," she handles a candle.
- The Muppets Episode 103: Bear Left Then Bear Write — during the end credit roll, she takes off her sunglasses for the police officer to recognize her.

Red Fraggle
- Fraggle Rock "Red's Blue Dragon" — when she picks an apple off the tree, and when she throws a rock to the Blue Dragon
- "Ring Around the Rock" — when she tosses the ring away

Sarah Hall-Small
- The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss "The Cat in the Hat's Art House" — when she is creating a picture of her mom for her mom's birthday

Uncle Traveling Matt
- Fraggle Rock "You Can't Do That Without a Hat" — when observing the donut he's inadvertently purchased.
- Postcards from Traveling Matt — when picking flowers for his outfit.
- Consistently for the United Kingdom's co-production's month of live presentation for CITV in 1985.
- Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock "Deep Dive" — when cowering in fear under a parachute after skydiving.

Zoe
- Sesame Street Episode 4077 — While eating a Peanut Buttered Swirl Cookie.
- Sesame Street Episode 4126 — While holding invitations
- Sesame Street Episode 4409 — in close-up shots of Zoe dropping Leela's cellphone in the flowerbed and picking it up.

Zola
- The Ghost of Faffner Hall Episode 102: Delighting in Sounds - For most of the episode, her hands are rod hands, but when she plays the keyboard guitar, her left hand is a live hand.

Hoggie Marsh has one rod hand and one live hand in his appearance on Herb Alpert and the TJB.

Dr. Teeth originated as a rod hand Muppet in The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence. During the first season of The Muppet Show, he alternated between rod hands and live hands, eventually remaining a live hand puppet. Appearances by the rod hand Dr. Teeth puppet include: Both of his appearances on The Tonight Show in 1975, Episode 103 ("Willkommen"), Episode 104 ("Sunny"), and Episode 116 (exiting the stage from "Tenderly"), Episode 218 ("That Old Black Magic"), episode 302 (Leo Sayer's dressing room).

Grump had rod hands in early appearances, such as in an FHA commercial, The Ed Sullivan Show, and in the earlier Muppet Meeting Films. Beginning with "Computer!", he is rebuilt with permanent live hands. He previously had one live hand in "Grump Critic".

Mokey Fraggle and Funella Furchester are examples of Muppets who switch back and forth between live hands and rod hands, depending on the requirements for a certain scene. Some Wubbulous World characters (e.g. The Grinch) also qualify, as well as Mel and Googel from the "Monster Clubhouse" segments on Sesame Street.

Sonny Friendly originated as a rod hand Muppet (a modified version of the Large Lavender Live Hand design) from his earliest appearances in season 18 of Sesame Street. During season 25, he was rebuilt as an actual Large Lavender Live Hand puppet. However, in later appearances from the late 1990s into 2000, Sonny Friendly shrank to a Little Lavender Anything Muppet with rod hands.

The Large Lavender balladeer in "The Ballad of Slippery Slim" has one live hand and one rod hand in the opening and closing shots.

Elmo's mother Mae was originally built from an existing AM Monster puppet with live hands. The puppet was rebuilt with rod hands for the 2010 video When Families Grieve. By 2022, she was refurbished as a live hand puppet again.