A hot glue gun melts solid adhesive sticks and dispenses them as a fast-setting liquid — the most common tool in craft work, and the most commonly misused one in puppet building.
High-temp guns melt foam
This is the first thing to know. High-temp glue runs hot enough to pit and dissolve the surface of most reticulated and polyfoam on contact. You will apply a bead, press the parts together, and find a shallow crater where the foam used to be. If you are gluing foam and using hot glue at all, use low-temp.
Cured hot glue is brittle
It goes on flexible and sets rigid. On a static decoration that is fine. On a puppet jaw that opens ten thousand times, or an arm joint under load, the bond cracks and lets go — usually mid-performance, usually on the piece you were proudest of.
It is also thick
A hot glue seam sits proud of the surface and telegraphs through thin fleece as a visible ridge. Contact cement lays flat.
Where it genuinely belongs
tacking parts in position while you sew them properly, attaching rigid trim, hair and fur detail work, mounting eyes to a plate, and any fast repair that has to hold through tonight’s show.
Where it doesn’t
foam-to-foam structural joints, the jaw hinge, arm attachments, and anything that flexes repeatedly.
The hack: keep both guns on the bench. Low-temp lives near the foam. High-temp handles wood, plastic and rigid props. Labelling them saves one ruined head, which is the only lesson that ever sticks.