The staff here at ToughPigs Headquarters (TPHQ) just returned from our weekends away for the Pagan holiday of Thanksgiving. We traveled to many far-away lands, including (but not limited to) Texas, Ohio, and backstage at the set of Two and a Half Men (Charlie Sheen makes the best stuffing!). While we play catch-up on all the newsbits from the past week, let's take a peek at the latest stuff you can buy at FAO Schwarz's Muppet Whatnot Workshop!

New costumes! You can dress your Whatnot up as a male stereotype football player or a female stereotype princess! But more exciting is the option to turn your Whatnot into a fearsome monster! Rarrr!

Thankfully for those of you who already bought a Whatnot or two, you can purchase the new costumes separately, thus changing the entire persona of your puppet.

There are also new eyes, new noses, new hair, and a plethora of combinations to make your Whatnot unique. Feeling stumped? Check out these samples, sent to us by the good folks at Muppets Studio!

For a refresher course on all things Whatnot, check out our Whatnot Workshop Photo Tour and watch ToughPigs' own Ryan build his Whatnot.

Click here to change your facial expressions with hot glue on the ToughPigs forum!

Labels: merchandise, Whatnot Workshop

Earlier this month, Sesame Workshop announced that they are entering a deal with American Apparel to produce four new t-shirt designs featuring Sesame Street characters to help celebrate the show's 40th anniversary.

Did the folks at Sesame Workshop forget to Google American Apparel? Because this is a terrible, terrible idea.

Take five seconds and do a Google Image search for "American Apparel" (but only when your boss isn't lurking about). You'll see advertisements with pictures of young girls with their legs spread wide, without tops on, showing an unnecessary amount of skin, and otherwise bearing their assets. Some of these girls are professional porn stars, and some of these girls look like they're spread eagle on the floor of a dirty warehouse. Now picture those same girls modeling Sesame Street shirts. That doesn't seem like the sort of image we normally see in an ad for a Big Bird tee.

Behind the scenes, things aren't so much better. American Apparel CEO Dov Charney has been accused more than a few times of sexual harassment, and has proven to be quite a sleazeball outside of the office as well. They've had their fair share of scandals, which should have raised a red flag or two to Sesame.

But beyond the pornographic advertising and disgusting CEO, we're still just talking about t-shirts, right? Maybe if the shirts are pretty, we can overlook the name on the label and enjoy our Sesame Street merch. Sadly, the illustrations don't quite chalk up to the Sesame shirts we've enjoyed over the years. Simple line-drawings that look more like fan art drawn by a kid in junior high (no offense to all you 12-year-old fan artists out there!) don't seem like something that would either benefit a worldwide company like American Apparel or do Sesame Street's 40th anniversary justice.

The worst of the bunch, however, is the image at the top of this article. Though I've obscured the naughty bits, the pantsless girl in question is most likely going commando. The image, which was grabbed straight from American Apparel's website, actually blurred out the crotch (poorly, I might add), presumably because their model was dressed a little bit too casual. I guess nobody told her that she's modeling a shirt with images of preschool characters.

So in short, Sesame Workshop needs to screen their licensing partners a little better, and possibly find one that would be a bit more appropriate. I recommend something a little less porny.
Click here to slip into something a little more comfortable on the ToughPigs forum!

Labels: merchandise, Sesame Street

Update #5 on Sept. 16 at 10:00pm.

D23, Disney's answer to Comic Con for Mickey fanatics, was the big event over in California this weekend. Amidst all of the Pirates, Poohs, and Plutos, Disney found the time for some big Muppet announcements. The big one being: Disney has not forgotten that they own the Frog.

We had a few agents in the field at D23's Muppet panel, and we're proud to bring the latest news to you of what Walt has in store for all those dogs and bears and chickens and things.

First off, the Muppets appeared in Friday's big Disney presentation, which you can view a bit of in the video above. The Muppets sang to some prerecorded tunes, and they make a second appearance at the end of the video.
As we mentioned yesterday, The Cheapest Muppet Movie Ever Made is being dusted off and handed to Jason Segel (of I Love You Man and How I Met Your Mother fame). We have no word on what will happen to his "The Greatest Muppet Movie Of All Time" script, but the promise of a theatrical Muppet movie (the first since Muppets in Space in 1999) has got us paying attention. Of course, the elephant in the room is Kermit's performer. Will Steve Whitmire be back for the Muppets' biggest break in years? That's a question for another blog. UPDATE: We've got a promotional picture! For realz.
Hey, remember those fantastic YouTube videos from last year? Well, so does Disney. They've announced that more of them are on their way, and this time they're branching out and recording non-Public Domain songs. "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Dust in the Wind", and "Stand By Me" will hopefully show up on your YouTube station soon (check local listings). UPDATE: We have more info on the upcoming viral videos! Dust in the Wind will be sung by Beaker, Bohemian Rhapsody by the Electric Mayhem and Gonzo, American Woman by Sam the Eagle, Popcorn by The Swedish Chef, as well as Carol of the Bells. Also, at least three Muppet Labs videos are coming, including "Carve-O-Matic", "Pumpkin Carving", and "Ghost Hunting". UPDATE #2: Stand By Me will be sung by Carl the Big Mean Bunny. No, really.
I am a bad Muppet fan, because I am one of the few who haven't been to a Disney theme park since Muppet*Vision 3D came out. Thankfully for me (and I guess you guys too), Disney will be releasing a "Remastered" version of the show into their parks. I don't know what that means, but it sure sounds exciting! Not to mention, maybe it'll still be there by the time I can afford a ticket to Orlando.
Also at the theme parks, the successful Muppet Whatnot Workshops will be opening new stores, causing exhausted parents to lug those giant bags around while their kids ride Space Mountain. The Workshops will also be carrying new puppet designs, accessories, and facial features, so now you have to buy at least three more! UPDATE: We have pictures of the new Whatnot accessories, plus monster fur!
More theme park stuff! Remember how we all marveled at the Muppet Mobile Labs, featuring an animatronic Bunsen and Beaker riding through the crowds, actually talking to and playing games with passers-by? Pretty soon, there will be another Mobile Muppet vehicle, and it'll be the Electric Mayhem bus! You'll be able to do the Hokey Pokey with Dr. Teeth, listen to Janice wax poetic about her trip to the beach, and watch Zoot take a nap! The possibilities are endless!
Rumors flew by a few months ago regarding a Muppet Halloween special, due out this Halloween season. And since we're already halfway through September, that rumor is decidedly bunk. Or, it was, until Disney announced that the Halloween special will be out next year. And while we wait for details about that, feel free to play through Muppet Monster Adventure for your PlayStation video gaming system and pretend it's a new TV special.
Got an iPhone? Muppet iPhone apps are coming! Personally, I have a phone shaped like a letter I, and the apps for it are terrible. Thanks for nothing, AT&T! UPDATE: We have images of two of the iPhone app ads! Soon you'll be able to carry Sexy Pepe around with you wherever you go.
Cat Cora, best known as one of the Iron Chefs on Iron Chef America, will be starring in an online cooking show with the Muppets. Will she be cooking bacon with Piggy? Bear claws with Fozzie? French Fried Frog Legs? Buns and Honeydew? Figs in Space? Yeah, I have no freaking idea. UPDATE: The show will be online this fall and will feature funny topics like "Food You Can Eat with Your Hands Night" and "Food That Gets Caught in Your Mustache Night".
More Steiff plush dolls are on their way, featuring Kermit and Piggy (UPDATE: A Fozzie Bear doll is also on its way!). We featured an article here on ToughPigs recently about the ridiculous price for the Kermit doll, so you'll excuse us if we don't foam at the mouth over more merchandise we can't afford. The good news is that there will be affordable merchandise. For example...
Pook-a-Looz! The name that means nothing! They're cuter than Ugly Dolls, and not even attempting the realism of, well, any other dolls you can think of. So far we've seen Kermit, Animal, Gonzo, and Fozzie, but I wouldn't be surprised if more were right around the corner. They'll be available in large and "keychain" sizes. I have already fallen in love with the Kermit doll, and the cuteness of Fozzie burying his face in his neckerchief has already got me emptying my wallet.
While we wait patiently with our hands folded on our laps for the Swedish Chef Christmas ornament coming out this holiday season, Disney is already jumping the gun on next year's design. Get ready for Animal at his drumset! Nothing says Christmas cheer like a furry beast chasing your wife and shouting "WOMAN! WOMAN!"
Disney is hoping that "Vinylmation" will be the next big fad for toy collectors. The toys are all shaped like Mickey (ears and all), but will have different paint jobs to resemble different characters. Some come out looking a little strange (like Kermit), and some are adorably ugly (like Sweetums). I think they'd all look less creepy if they didn't have Mickey's "nose", which would keep their faces from looking all wonky.
Statler and Waldorf will be breaking out their typewriters (which I'm sure they use to write many letters of complaint to various newspapers) and penning a book. I'm going to hazard a guess and say that the book will be in the same format as the awful "It's Hard Out Here for a Shrimp" and "The Diva Code". Look forward to our we-read-it-so-you-didn't-have-to review here on ToughPigs! UPDATE: We have a cover! Are you excited yet? How about now?
Weezer, who I'm still mad at for stealing my music video idea, will be recording a new version of "Rainbow Connection" for an upcoming CD due out next year called "Muppets Revisited". UPDATE: We have album art and more artist info! The Fray, Ami Lee, My Morning Jacket, and Andrew Bird will be singing Muppet covers too! I'm hoping for more songs, because that would make for one short album.
The Muppets will appear on David Foster's Christmas special this December with Andrea Bocelli. And since we don't have a picture of it yet, please enjoy this picture of Boccelli with Elmo and pretend it's, oh I dunno, Beaker. UPDATE: And now we have a picture! So that previous sentence makes absolutely no sense.
UPDATE: Muppet Halloween costumes! I'm thinking about having a kid just so I can dress him up as Fozzie Bear. Adowable!
UPDATE: Kermit will once again sing "I Believe" at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, this time with Tiffany Thornton. Are they trying to make this an annual thing? Because Thanksgiving already has that day saved every year. UPDATE #2: Kermit and Piggy will also be appearing in the Walt Disney World Christmas Parade Show, which will air on ABC on Christmas Day.
UPDATE: Lots more merchandise! Boy, that Kermit guy really likes being green, doesn't he?
UPDATE: We have images of two of the new parody posters that will be outside the revamped Muppet*Vision 3D show. Another one which we don't have an image of yet is Beaker as "BEAK-E". Hopefully Disney will turn these into a calendar or something so we can all enjoy them! UPDATE #2: We found BEAK-E!
And lastly, here's the big news for most of you out there. Studio DC: Almost Live will be released next year! What's that? You thought Studio DC was unwatchable? Well then maybe you'd prefer The Muppet Show Season 4 DVDs! (That's what we call the ol' switcheroo.) Yes, finally we're taking the next step toward actually owning legitimate copies of The Muppet Show, and this one will feature Gonzo and his schnozz on the cover. UPDATE: We have DVD cover art! I'm happy to see it's an old Gonzo picture, and not, say, the "chili pepper shirt" Gonzo. Then again, I'd be happy if it had Don Rickles on the cover, just as long as we get these DVDs!

And that's the bulk of what we learned at D23! We'll update this page as necessary if more reports come in this week from other D23 attendees, so feel free to bookmark and revisit. And as always, we'll keep you in the know on a more instant basis via the ToughPigs forum and our Twitter feed.

Special thanks to Danny Horn, Wilson Swain, and Greg James for all this amazing info! And thanks to Leighanne for those culinary puns!
Click here to discuss ALL of these Muppet news bits on the ToughPigs forum!

Labels: Disney, merchandise, Muppet movies, news

Take a look at this:

It’s Kermit!

Well, it’s sort of Kermit. The points on his collar are a little shorter than the “real” Kermit's, and his tongue’s not really the right color, and his head… You know, his head looks a lot like a watermelon. It's not the worst Kermit doll ever, but it's far from the best.

So guess how much this thing costs. Give up? Two hundred sixty-five dollars. That’s not a typo… The doll is made by the Steiff teddy bear company, and that’s the price listed for it on their website. How in the world can they justify such a steep price? Is the doll filled with diamonds? Does Steve Whitmire personally deliver the doll to your house and then stick around all afternoon to play board games with you? When you squeeze its hand, does it dispense chocolate truffles and swimming pools?

None of the above. You only get the doll. However, there is some exciting news. According to the Steiff website: “For the first time ever, Kermit will be made of genuine German mohair.” Wow! All these years the fans have been clamoring for Kermit to be made of German mohair, and finally our German mohair dreams have come true. And it’s genuine! None of that damn faux German mohair here. I mean, I hate it when I spend $265 on a doll, only to bring it home, look at it under a microscope, and discover that it’s made of imitation German mohair, or worse, genuine Czechoslovakian mohair, which any baby or elderly lady knows is shoddy mohair. That really chaps my hide.

What’s so special about mohair, anyway? What is mohair? Wikipedia says “Mohair usually refers to a silk-like fabric or yarn made from the hair of the Angora goat.” And here’s the picture for that article:

That goat looks pretty grumpy. But he’s going to be really ticked off when he gets shaved nekkid so his fur can be used to make a mediocre Kermit the Frog doll. I bet he doesn’t even like Kermit that much.

Oh, but the Kermit doll is a limited edition! So it's definitely worth the price, because instead of having one of millions of pretty crappy Kermit dolls, you'll have one of only a few hundred pretty crappy Kermit dolls! Your friends, coworkers, and the bagger at your local Wal-Mart will be so jealous.

Okay, I think I’ve sufficiently insulted this inanimate object now. But seriously, if you have $265 lying around and a burning desire for Kermit merchandise, you should probably dig under your couch cushions for some more dough and buy the Master Replicas Kermit photo puppet replica, which Amazon still lists as In Stock for $299.99. It's poseable, and the shape of head more closely resembles Kermit’s head than a large fruit.

Or just hold your horses for a while, and you can buy the eFX collectibles Reporter Kermit photo puppet replica, which is due around early 2010 and will most likely be similarly priced.

Or, for a fraction of the cost, you could just buy one of these guys on eBay and be done with it:

Thanks to Tough Pigs’ own Chris “Smig” Smigliano for bringing this thing to our attention on the Tough Pigs forum. Speaking of which, click here to talk about this thing on the very same Tough Pigs forum!

ToughPigsRyan@yahoo.com

Labels: complaining, merchandise

Hi, fans of Muppets. It's been a while since we did one of these news round-ups, so we have several things to talk about...

"I Wish I Could Be Santa Claus" nominated for Emmy
This year's Emmy nominations were announced this week, and the nominees in the "Music and Lyrics" category included one of Paul Williams' songs from the Muppet special Letters to Santa, "I Wish I Could Be Santa Claus." That's the one where Gonzo sings about how depressed he is that he's not a fat bearded man, and then Fozzie gets depressed for the same reason. Will it win the award? Well, the competition includes a Saturday Night Live song about Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg having sex with each other's mothers. So... probably not.


Swedish Chef Hallmark ornament
Speaking of Christmas, is there anything that captures the true meaning of the holiday better than a befuddled Scandanavian man being held at gunpoint by crustaceans? That's right: This Christmas season, $18.50 will get you Hallmark's new Swedish Chef ornament, complete with sound clips. It's so strange, I can't wait to put it on my tree.


The Muppet Show Comic Book's Roger Langridge at Comic-Con
Roger Langridge, the writer and artist of the universally-loved Muppet Show Comic Book, will be at this year's Comic-Con in San Diego, giving fans the opportunity to tell him personally how much they loved the talking cheese in issue #2. Langridge will be at the Boom! Studios booth during the convention, and he'll be hosting a Muppet Show Comic panel on Sunday, July 26th at 10:00 AM. Chances are he'll be teasing the upcoming Peg-leg Wilson storyline and the Pigs in Space one-shot we've been hearing about.


A Whole Lot of Muppets
In honor of Sesame Street's approaching 40th anniversary, NationalPost.com posted an amazing drawing of 101 Muppets who have appeared on the show over the four decades. Rolling over each character pops up a tidbit of information... and the source cited is none other than Muppet Wiki! But how many can you name without rolling over? I'll confess I didn't recognize Poco Loco or Jamie Fox...


Lady Gaga wears Animal
Remember a while back, when photos hit the internet of a fashion show in which all the outfits were made of Muppets? This week, Lady Gaga wore Animal's head as a skirt. In public! Animal's head was unavailable for comment. If you don't know who Lady Gaga is, you are incredibly uncool and out of touch with popular entertainment. (She's a pop singer.)


USB Crunching Elmo
This one was spotted on a website called CraziestGadget, and it is, in fact, the craziest gadget. See, it's Elmo, and he's doing stomach crunches, and you plug him into your computer, and... yeah. I don't understand it either, but that photo made me giggle for an hour.

Click here to join us on the Tough Pigs forum, where we're having lively and devastatingly witty conversations about all this stuff!

Labels: merchandise, news

Last week saw the release of Muppet Robin Hood #1, and this week -- Wednesday, June 3rd to be exact – will be the release date of The Muppet Show Comic Book #3. It’s a great time to be a Muppet fan who can read. If you’re a Muppet fan who can’t read, you should ask the guy at the comic book store to read the issue to you. He’ll do it. He’s a nice guy.

Issue #3 is once again written and drawn by Roger Langridge, who previously told us a Kermit story and a Fozzie story and now gives us an issue focusing on Gonzo… although it’s interesting to note that Gonzo’s not really the protagonist, but rather the source of conflict in the story. Well, I thought it was interesting, anyway. Maybe you think it’s incredibly boring.

Langridge’s designs for the Muppet characters have not been embraced by all fans, and his Gonzo in particular drew some criticism for being off-model. I think it’s recognizable enough, but if you hated the way Gonzo looked in the first two issues, you might want to avoid this one, because he’s all over it.

But I’m getting ahead of myself, so let’s start at the beginning. Issue #1 began with the Muppet Newsman, and Issue #2 kicked off with a Statler and Waldorf bit. The new issue starts with everyone’s favorite permanently squinting old guy, Pops the doorman, as he greets a newcomer to the Muppet Theater.


This works really well because Pops’s original role on The Muppet Show was to open every episode of season five by greeting the guest star at the door. Not only is it funny, it feels right. I’m going to make a prediction right now and say that a future issue of this comic will start with Scooter knocking on a guest star’s door as he did in seasons two through four.

But that guy’s not the guest star, he’s Osbert J. Smedley, an insurance agent visiting the theater for some risk assessment. This seems exactly like a backstage plot from the TV show. Smedley reminds me of Dave Goelz's Inspector LaBrea character from the Dizzy Gillespie episode, and as I read the issue and played the usual "Which performer would this be?" game, that's the voice I was hearing.

For medical purposes, Smedley needs to know identify the species of every Muppet Theater employee. (It’s a very specialized policy.) There’s just one problem: Nobody’s sure what Gonzo is.


Wait a minute! Didn’t Muppets From Space establish that Gonzo is an alien? Well, it did, but come on -- Who likes or cares about Muppets From Space? I’m actually really glad the Muppet people let Langridge do this… Honestly, the Muppets don’t have continuity. Sometimes they begin a production as strangers to each other, sometimes they all live together in a boarding house, sometimes they all live in a hallway. Nothing is set in stone.

And anyway, I hated the revelation that Gonzo was from another planet. So I’m totally in favor of applying some Wite-Out to that and saying Gonzo’s heritage is still a mystery. In this story, it’s up to Scooter to figure it out, and it won’t be easy. This is almost as much a Scooter story as it is a Gonzo story, and it’s nice to see the guy get so much screen time.

That’s the backstage plot. As before, there are lots of fun onstage acts sprinkled throughout the issue as well. There’s a chicken musical number, there’s a Pigs in Space sketch. There’s also a brand-new segment starring Gonzo, called “Gumshoe McGurk, Private Eye!” It’s a neat idea, but it doesn’t quite take off. A Muppet spoof of detective story clichés is a setup full of potential, but as it plays out it’s just not that funny. There’s really nothing here that’s even specific to Gonzo’s character – you could pretty much plug any other Muppet into this bit and it wouldn’t make much difference.


On the other hand, a Gonzo bit called “Twinkle Twinkle Little Rat” feels a lot like something from the first few seasons of The Muppet Show. It’s nuts. And hey, it has Rizzo! Rizzo was barely a character in the final season of the TV show, but in this issue he plays a pretty substantial role, with his real personality and everything, and it works quite well.


I’m going to go ahead and make the bold statement that The Muppet Show Comic Book #3 is better than #2 was. The jokes are funny, the familiar Muppet characters are plentiful, and the Gonzo story has a satisfying resolution. Also, it’s still fun to spot the British turns of phrase that pop up in Langridge’s dialogue. Scooter even says “No offence” at one point, spelling it with a “C” just like that.

There’s not one number in particular that makes innovative use of the comic book layout this time around (like “The Ubiquitous Quilp” in #1 and the car song in #2), but Langridge continues to take advantage of the medium by letting the Muppets do things they can’t do on TV. For example, we almost never get to see the Gonzo puppet do a full-body tap dance.


Speaking of Gonzo, it's nice to see him doing silly daredevil acts again. That's the guy he was created to be, but with the last few Muppet productions taking place way outside the variety show format, he hasn't gotten to act so much like himself. Here he gets to be the Great Gonzo again.

And here once again we have a lovely new episode of The Muppet Show, all between two staples and available for less than the cost of a venti mocha latte. Next month is the Miss Piggy issue… Here’s hoping it’s up to Piggy’s own lofty standards.


Click here to shoot yourself out a cannon while talking about this comic on the Tough Pigs forum!

Labels: comics/magazines, merchandise, review, The Muppet Show

Issue #2 of Boom! Studios’ Muppet Show Comic Book will be released tomorrow, Wednesday, April 29th. The publisher has already sold out the first printing and announced a second, so you might want to make sure you get to the comic book store on Wednesday if you want to grab a copy. The Muppets are the new superstars of comics! They should definitely fight Wolverine as soon as possible.

The first issue of the series got rave reviews all over the internet, and was loved by both diehard Muppet geeks and casual fans who couldn’t even tell you which one is Statler and which one is Lew Zealand. So the expectations are pretty high for the second outing, which is written and drawn once again by Roger Langridge.

As always, I abhor spoilers, so I don’t want to give too much away, but I will say that Issue #2 follows the same format as its predecessor – It’s an episode of The Muppet Show in comic book form, with a combination of onstage acts and backstage story. Where last month’s story focused on Kermit, this one is all about Fozzie.

The book kicks off with a fun Statler and Waldorf exchange…


… followed by another two-page splash that serves as the “This is what we call the Muppet Show!” intro. I was pretty jazzed to see Thog…


…as well as a Very Brief Cameo from a post-Muppet Show character. But I never did quite figure out why the Electric Mayhem are dressed as beatniks. Then we get into the story, which involves Fozzie coming face-to-face with failure. That’s nothing new for Fozzie, but boy, he sure would love it if he could get the approval of the Muppet Theater’s audience.


I’m pretty sure that’s supposed to be Sweetums standing there, but it looks like he shrank in the wash.

Among the highlights of the issue are a musical number that seems just like some old, obscure British song they might have done on the TV show, a “sketch” that would be right at home alongside some of The Muppet Show’s weirdest bits (and which makes very interesting use of the comic book page layout in a way that could never be reproduced on television), and some familiar segments like “Veterinarian’s Hospital,” which leads to my favorite panel in the whole issue:


So I guess the big question is: Is The Muppet Show Comic Book #2 as good as #1? The answer, I would say, is: Aaaaalmost. It was so exciting to see the first issue hit the bullseye so spectacularly, but it’s inevitable that the follow-up doesn’t seem quite so novel.

Also, this time around there were a few jokes I didn’t understand (specifically one involving Statler), although that may be my own dumbitude rather than flawed writing. There were a few moments in reading the dialogue where I found myself thinking, Waaait a minute! Would [name of Muppet character] really say that? That kind of thing is less noticeable in print, I think, but it's still important to nail down the voice of the characters. Also, when the resolution of the backstage plot arrives, it seems a bit rushed and just isn't as satisfying as last issue's.

I suppose those are pretty minor complaints. It’s still great to spend time with the Muppets and watch them struggle to put on a show, and Roger Langridge has given us another good ink-on-paper episode. Again I have to wonder if I would like this stuff as much if it were the script for a live-action Muppet Show redux, and again I have to think I wouldn't, really. But it sure is a nifty comic book.

So far Langridge has done a commendable job with Kermit and Fozzie stories, and I’m curious to see what he comes up with for next month’s Gonzo-focused issue, and even moreso for the following month's Piggy-centric issue. Miss Piggy has proven to be the most difficult character for recent Muppet writers to get right, so I’ll be crossing my fingers and hoping Langridge’s Piggy can carry her own backstage plot. But no matter what, it’s just nice to have a new Muppet production that most (or all?) of the fans can agree on.


Click here to talk about ubiquitous quilps on the Tough Pigs forum!

Labels: comics/magazines, merchandise, review, The Muppet Show

Beaker Wants Your Vote!
As we reported last week, the official Muppet YouTube video "Ode to Joy" -- starring Beaker, Beaker, and Beaker -- has been nominated for a Webby Award for Best Music Video. If you haven't voted yet, here's something that might persuade you: All of the official Muppet YouTube accounts have uploaded this video to get out the vote:





So go ahead, get over to the Webby Awards site and vote. After all, Beaker would vote for you if you were nominated.


Muppet Show Comic Book Does Big Business Before It's Released
In other Muppety news: Boom! Studios has announced that issue #2 of The Muppet Show Comic Book has sold out in pre-release and will be going to a second printing. What does that mean? Well, the new issue will be on sale at comic book stores everywhere on Wednesday, April 29th, but you might want to grab a copy as quick as possible if you don't want to wait for the second printing, because these things are selling like four-color hotcakes.


Spaced-Out Elmo
Elmo appeared at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum this week, dressed as an "Elmonaut" to publicize the Smithsonian debut of the Sesame Street planetarium show "One World, One Sky: Big Bird's Adventure," which stars Big Bird, Elmo, and the Muppet character Hu Hu Zhu from the Chinese Sesame co-production. The show is also playing in Chicago and New Jersey, so if you live near of one those places and you're a fan of both Sesame Street and the galaxy, you should check it out.



Muppet Stuff for Your Torso
Do you like Muppet t-shirts? If you just said "yes," take a look at these Muppet shirts at Teenormous.com. And here are some Sesame Street shirts, including the truly amazing "Mustache" shirt seen above.

Click here to talk about Muppets and other crap on the Tough Pigs forum!

Labels: merchandise, news

We haven't done heaps of coverage on merchandise here at Tough Pigs lately, but this week two recent products came to our attention that I just had to mention.


The first one is a line of officially licensed Sesame Street items made by Fisher Price. They're called Collect-a-Pals, and they were apparently designed to finally provide an answer to the age-old question, "What if Sesame Street characters were little round balls with tiny arms and legs?" You can see all of them on Muppet Wiki, but I think my favorites are Grover (as seen above), Cookie Monster...


...and Snuffy.


They had to cram a whole lot of Snuffleupagus into a tiny little space there, and I think they did an admirable job. These are reportedly available at Target, among other places, so if you've ever wanted to play softball with Elmo as the ball (and I know some of you have), now's your chance.

And now for the opposite end of the spectrum. ToyCyte.com recently posted a report on some unlicensed Sesame toys, produced by a company called RealxHead, that have to be seen to be believed. They're calling them "Real Street," and they're evidently meant to be kaiju-style, kaiju referring to the genre of Japanese entertainment involving bizarre giant monsters.


Yikes. In case you're not sure what you're looking at, that's supposed to be Cookie Monster, Elmo, Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, and the Count. Now, it's tempting to put these into the "Ugly Muppet Toy" category, but the thing is, these are ugly on purpose. They're grotesque... but they're kind of amazing, too. Most of them are obvious enough reflections of what the characters would look like if they were involved is some sort of freak accident involving radiation, but look at Big Bird:


If I hadn't told you that was supposed to be Big Bird, would you have guessed that's who it was? Maybe the orange feet would have given it away. Then again, I guess it wouldn't matter much to these toymakers if their Hideous Mutant Monstrosity Big Bird doesn't look like the real Big Bird. And here's the best part: If you follow the link on that ToyCyte page, you can order this complete set for just $160 plus shipping! What a bargain!

So, there you go. Two sets of radically different Sesame Street toys. Which ones do you like best?

Click here to talk about Collect-a-Pals, and click here to talk about kaiku Sesame toys, both on the Tough Pigs forum!

Labels: merchandise, Sesame Street, weird stuff

Does this really exist? A comic book based on a TV show that ended production 28 years ago? Did I really go to my local comic book store and find this thing on the "new releases" rack?

Yeah, I guess I did.

The first issue of the new Muppet Show Comic Book was released last Wednesday, and publisher Boom! Studios has reported that they've already sold out and will be doing a second printing. The people have spoken, and they are hungry for Muppets.

Now, it's worth noting that this publication is exactly what it says it is: The Muppet Show Comic Book. It's not about the Muppets having adventures between shows; they're not going to a haunted house or the moon, or becoming superheroes, or anything like that. It's really just an entire, brand-new episode of The Muppet Show in comic book form. That seems like a simple enough idea, but I don't think anybody's ever done it before.

I'll admit I'd read almost nothing by writer/artist Roger Langridge before this, but now I can't imagine anyone else doing a better job. It starts with a Muppet Newsflash, as the Muppet Newsman delivers a few typical gags, then warns us that The Muppet Show is making a comeback as a comic book.

And already we're off to a good start. This is clever stuff, and I can absolutely hear the Newsman doing these jokes. (Although he'd probably say "pants" rather than "trousers." There are a few other turns of phrase that pop up that sound a bit odd, but I'll allow it because Roger Langridge is from New Zealand.)

Turning the page, we get a nearly two-page spread full of Muppets under the Muppet Show logo, so this is clearly the start of the show. Langridge even throws in Nigel, George the Janitor, the "You Are My Sunshine" guy, and J.P. Grosse. This guy's not messing around. (But why does Scooter have teeth?)


Then there's a Statler and Waldorf bit, followed by a backstage scene. The only thing missing is a guest star, but that's not even a problem. I'm sure I'm not the first person to point this out, but in many of these panels, the Muppets are only seen from the waist up, which is, of course, the way we see them on the show. I don't know much of a deliberate choice that was on Langridge's part, but it's a nice touch.

Hey, you know what seems like a terrible idea? A musical number in a printed medium. I mean, it's ridiculous, really... but ridiculous has never stopped the Muppets from doing anything. And so we get this lovely thing:

And this is not just a musical number, it's a musical number about (spoiler alert!) a bunch of Muppets exploding. The timing's good, too. It doesn't get much more Muppet Show than this.

I guess if you were looking for things to complain about, you could say that those toads don't really look like Muppets, and that's true. They look like cartoon toads. And some of the characters in the comic are drawn a little looser and more exaggerated than you might expect. But they're all recongizable, so who cares if Fozzie's nose is a little long, or Robin has eyebrows? When we see these guys on our TV screen, it's the puppeteers' performances that bring out the characters, but in a comic book there're no voices and no puppetry, so Langridge uses the art to let the Muppets express themselves.


I don't want to give too much away here, but I will say that there's a backstage story that runs throughout the issue, and it's about everyone trying to figure out why Kermit is feeling sad. It's all wrapped up satisfyingly by the end, and there are some sweet moments between Robin and Kermit. My biggest critique of the issue would be that Robin sounds unusually mature here... I guess he's always been a little precocious, but at times here he sounds more like Kermit's therapist than his five-year-old nephew.

But it's fun to see Scooter get as many lines in one issue as he's spoken in the last 17 years, and a sketch with the Koozebanians, and an appearance by the Swedish Chef, whose dialogue doesn't make any more sense in word balloon form:

Yep, Muppet-on-Muppet violence. That's a nice balance to the sweetness of the Kermit story, and that kind of balance is one of the hallmarks of the Muppets at their best.

It's tempting for me to just list all the stuff I liked about this comic, but I'm not going to do that because I think you should buy it and discover it for yourself. But the point is, I liked it. Next month's issue will be a Fozzie-centric story, followed by a Gonzo issue, and so on. Starting in late April, Boom! Studios will be also be publishing a four-issue series called Muppet Robin Hood. Which is cool, I guess, but honestly I'd could do with or without the literary adaptations, just as long as we get more Muppet Show comics.

And yet, as much as I dug this comic, I should point out that I do not want to see a new television series called The Muppet Show that takes place in the Muppet Theater. Whenever I hear fans or semi-fans say, "They should bring back The Muppet Show!", my response is, Well, no, they shouldn't. I'm all for the Muppets returning to series TV, but to attempt an exact duplicate of the series that was the apex of Jim Henson's career... That's just not a good idea, and it would only invite unfavorable comparisons: Scooter doesn't sound like Scooter! The Miss Piggy puppet's not as pretty! The new "Veterinarian's Hospital" sucks without the original performers! And so on.

But with this comic book, none of that matters. As I read Scooter's word balloons on the page, he sounded exactly like Scooter in my head. Roger Langridge's cartoon version of Miss Piggy looks like a cartoon version of Miss Piggy, so I wasn't thinking for a second about whether the puppet's wig was too short or too long or too curly or too flat. If they tried to produce this issue's script as an episode of a new TV series, I don't think it would work as well. But for 20-odd pages, we have the chance to enjoy a new Muppet Show, and that's good news for Muppet fans.

Click here to talk about exploding toads on the Tough Pigs forum!

ToughPigsRyan@yahoo.com

Labels: comics/magazines, merchandise, review, The Muppet Show

posted by Ryan Roe  # 7:00 AM

Did you buy a Muppet Whatnot from FAO Schwarz? Did you get a chance to see it get made? Or did you buy it online, leaving the production process left to the imagination? Well fear not, loyal puppet aficionados, we did the dirty work for you and took footage of ToughPigs' own Ryan getting his Whatnot customized, glued, and brought to life. And thanks to the magic of YouTube, we're bringing the Schwarz to you! So enough of this "reading" stuff, let's get to the motion pictures!


Click here to put hot glue on your face on the ToughPigs forum!

Labels: merchandise, Whatnot Workshop

On Wednesday I showed you some strange and wonderful Sesame Street toys from Japan, made by the Chara Hiroba company. Today I'm going to show you some more, starting with these:

Labels: merchandise, Sesame Street, weird stuff

You gotta see this stuff. There's a Japanese toy company called Chara Hiroba that makes a lot of Sesame Street toys, and Tough Pigs founder Danny Horn recently told me about their website, where new Sesame toys are displayed every single month. These toys are... different than our Sesame Street playthings in the U.S. of A.

I mean, a lot of them are cute. Like these Muppets wearing sombreros:


Yay, they're forming a mariachi band! Except they all showed up with maracas and nobody knows how to play guitar. Oh well.

And then there's these guys:


Look how adorable they are! And they're best friends, 'cause they're holding hands! Except Rubber Duckie, who doesn't have any friends. These toys are also very small. You probably shouldn't leave those lying around anywhere near a small child, because that's the kind of thing kids love putting in their mouth. Oh, but you think those are small? Check these out:


One of those could fit in your nostril with no effort at all. Oscar seems to have traded his trash can for a cotton ball.

So those are all very nice, but then you come across something like this:


And two questions come to mind: 1. What? and 2. Huuuh? Are these bricks? Could you build a house out of Cookie Monsters and Elmos and Big Birds? If so, that's the most compelling reason to move to Japan I've ever heard. By the way, these three Muppets seem to be the most popular characters in Japan, at least if you judge by toys like these similarly rectangular products:


Elmo, you're a blockhead. Ha!


Now these are interesting. The only thing distinguishing Elmo from Cookie Monster here is the presence of a nose, and slightly more focused eyes. I guess that's two things. Oh, and the color, so that's three things. Nevermind.

Hey, how about Muppets in animal costumes?


This is from the time Cookie, Elmo, and Big Bird tried to crash Kermit's family reunion, I guess. But where are Cookie's froggy eyes? And more importantly, would they be googly too?


Man, I don't remember Elmo being so leggy. Or so... army?


These aren't actually that weird... but look at their faces. They seem to be expressing pure terror, don't they? "NOOO! NOOO, PLEASE DON'T PUT ME ON YOUR HEAD! ANYTHING BUT THAT! AAAAARRRRGGGGHHHHMMMF!!!" Something like that.


Hmm. Are they cheerleaders, or boxers? Or did they get melons stuck on their hands?


Yikes! What kid in any country of the world wants this thing? I think it would be a little less shocking if his nose were in color. Then it would just be like, Oh, okay, it's Elderly Elmo! Tickle him and he laughs and then has a coughing fit! But this is something else altogether. I don't really know what it is.

Have you seen enough? Well, I haven't. Click here for part two!

Click here to discuss crazy toys on the Tough Pigs forum!

Labels: merchandise, Sesame Street, weird stuff

It was recently announced that a new 25th anniversary edition of the Sesame Street movie Follow That Bird will be released on March 24, 2009. Extras will include a featurette and an interview with Caroll Spinney.

All of which is great. Follow That Bird is a fun movie with good songs, touching moments, and the lesson that it's okay for a six-year-old to jump from a moving truck. So we Muppet fans really have nothing to complain about here... but that's never stopped us before.

See, where the previous DVD release basically just duplicated the original movie poster, this release has a brand-new cover. And it's hard not to notice that Elmo is prominently featured along with the other Muppets, despite the fact that the film was made before he was really a character, and he only appears onscreen for about two seconds as part of a crowd scene (and not performed by Kevin Clash).

We've been talking about this over on the Tough Pigs forum, and one thing led to another, and now we're asking ourselves: Could we do a better job? A couple of forum members have already whipped up their own alternate versions, and I'd like to see more from the Tough Pigs reader population at large. (Longtime TP readers will recognize that this is the same concept as the highly successful "Muppets Magic Extreme Makeover" commissioned by Danny Horn way back in 2003.)

So here's your assignment: Come up with a new Follow That Bird DVD cover and send it to me at ToughPigsRyan@yahoo.com. That's it. It can be a legitimate redesign, or it can be silly, and a few weeks from now I'll post the good ones here. Here's something I just came up with to give you some inspiration:

Look, Big Bird has a moustache! And glasses! And the movie is called Follow That Cow! Ha ha!

Okay, that's really terrible. I know you can do better... so get to it.

Click here to do something or other on the Tough Pigs forum!

Labels: merchandise, news, reader participation, Sesame Street

Welcome, everyone, to the 2008 Ugly Muppet Toy Pageant. In case you've forgotten how this works, here are Sad, Pathetic, Broken-Eyed Cookie Monster and Drum Major Oscar to present the rules:

Labels: fanaticism, merchandise, reader participation

We've heard a lot lately about Disney's big plans for the Muppets in the near future, and it's all very exciting, because it means there will soon be lots of new Muppet stuff for us to buy. I mean, we all love watching new Muppet TV specials and movies and crap like that, but what we really want is more merchandise to take up space in our houses.

I just have one very important request to present to whoever is in charge of these things: Please never use this image of the Swedish Chef again.


I have no idea how long this photo has been around... Since the early 2000s at least, and probably longer. But I've seen it on jigsaw puzzles, coasters, magnets, and various other merchandise for years, and it just showed up on the new 2009 Muppet calendar.

Did nobody at the photo session realize that this pose makes it look like the Chef is smoking a joint? It's practically begging for a quick, effortless PhotoShop job! In fact, I'm going to do an image search right now and show you all the different places on the web where people have taken this shot and turned the Chef into a pothead.

. . .

Huh. Okay. Well, I can't find any. For the first time ever, I'm actually disappointed that the people of the internet have refrained from corrupting one of my favorite family-friendly characters.

But my point still stands! It's not like this is a trademark gesture for the Chef. Has he ever even done this? Usually he uses his hands for much broader movements, like throwing rolling pins, or throwing spoons, or throwing chickens. Basically, he throws stuff. And anyway, it's not like there aren't other, better shots available. What's wrong with this one?


Isn't that better? Why can't that be the default Chef shot? So far all I've done is complain, but I want to help too. So here are my suggestions for Five Other Things for the Swedish Chef to Do with His Hands:

1. Smack a lobster.
   
2. Perform the old "detachable thumb" trick.
3. Juggle.
4. Toss a pizza.
5. Some other thing.

I've made my point, and now it's time to take action. I strongly recommend that all Muppet fans, Swedish or not, join me in aggressively rolling our eyes every time we see that picture from now on. I believe it will make a real difference. Thank you for your time.

Click here to roll up and discuss this article at my favorite joint, the Tough Pigs forum!

Labels: complaining, controversy, fanaticism, merchandise, The Muppet Show

Everyone: get out a pen and some paper. At the top of the page, write "[Your Name]'s Holiday Wish List". Now erase "[Your Name]" and actually write your name. Below that, write "My Very Own Muppet." Then underline, bold, and italicize. Yes, I know you can't italicize after it's already written; I was just testing you.

The Muppet Whatnot Workshop is open for business at New York's FAO Schwarz toy store, right across from the candy section. (Did you know you can buy M&Ms in any color you want?? I'm addicted to teal!) ToughPigs' own Ryan and ToughPigs' own I made a visit to the Workshop to see what all the hubbub was about, bub.

Sometimes (often) I forget that not everyone lives in New York, and they can't just hop over to FAO whenever they need a Tonka truck fix. The FAO Schwarz people thought of that and made the Whatnots available on their website. Still, there's lots of neat Muppety stuff in the Workshop itself, so we brought along a camera to show you everything Tom Hanks would have seen if only Big had been made 20 years later.What's a Whatnot? What a great question. It's like an Anything Muppet. What's an Anything Muppet? It's like a Whatnot. Eh, just read their Muppet Wiki articles.

There's something slightly morbid about Muppets hanging lifeless on a wall. But is it more or less so if they don't have names?

The FAO Schwarz people were stitching and hot gluing features onto the puppets like they've been doing it their whole lives. The wood and brick façade gave the place a Geppetto-like feel. But, y'know, owned by Disney.

ToughPigs' own Ryan tried one on to see how it manipulated. According to him, it was a bit of a squeeze getting his hand through the neck, but there was plenty of room inside the head for an adult-sized hand. He plans on customizing and buying one of his own soon, so keep an eye out for a possible review a bit later on.

There's a small conveyer belt with costumes running above the Workshop. Nothing too special about that, I'm just a big fan of conveyer belts.

My favorite part of the shop is the overhead lights. When you're standing underneath them, you can't tell that anything's special, but once you move away, you can clearly see the Muppet-esque eyes and nose. Rumor has it that at night, the entire Workshop comes to life and demands human sacrifice.

A TV screen was playing a loop of new Muppet content. The video with Kermit and Piggy from the FAO webpage played, as well as videos of Pepe outside the store handing out flyers, the Muppet Newsman (surprisingly performed by Dave Goelz, doing a bang-up job) with falling chickens, Reporter Kermit interviewing people on the street, a short bit with Bunsen and Beaker, and a short bit with Rizzo. The people working at the Workshop didn't know if the videos will surface online, but I sure hope they do. It was hard to hear over the tourists, but they looked like quality sketches. And with the new YouTube accounts, maybe a Whatnot will start one so he can share the wealth.

Twelve large framed pictures of the Muppets, all signed with well-wishes to the Whatnots, were posititioned around the Workshop. Click the images to embiggen and see what the fictional characters had to say about fictional non-characters.

A Whatnot Workshop t-shirt was also being sold. I couldn't find it on their website, so this might be an in-store exclusive. The front of the shirt has the Workshop logo and the back of the shirt has the eyes and nose seen above. Nearby, a merchandise shelf held Muppet DVDs, Kermit's book, and Pepe's book. I can't believe it took the addition of an entire Muppet wing to get FAO Schwarz to finally sell some Muppet merch.

Two glass cases were filled with some junk. Lots of limbs and fur and foam and pictures were tossed in, leaving people like me scanning every inch for anything of interest. Well, lo and behold, I found a few easter eggs!

Bunsen's half-a-head was on the bottom shelf of one case. The poor guy, bodiless and blind inside a shadow box.

Here's a bunch of eyes. But if you look close, you'll see that one of those eyes is actually a ping-pong ball! Remind you of anyone?

As we saw in Secrets of the Muppets, Gonzo is carved from a foam block whenever he needs to be replaced. So, does that mean this guy is a failed Gonzo clone?

If you look closely, you'll see some recent Miss Piggy stock art made for Muppet Studios, dated 7/15/08. Now, stock art is constantly being made, whether it's used or not. But let's hope this is an indication of more stuff coming our way.

Another fun bit to notice was the three doors in the Workshop, labeled "Crossed Eyes", "Over-Sized Noses", and "Single Socks". Oh those wacky doors! They were my favorite characters on The Muppet Show.

We also spotted a few stickers placed near the cash register. I came very close to ripping them off the wall and running, but those toy soldiers FAO has at the door aren't just for show.

I hope you got a glimmer of what it's actually like at the Whatnot Workshop. If you decide to place your order for your Whatnot online, now you can pretend you're actually there, admiring the feng shui.
Click here to choose a nose for this article on the ToughPigs forum!

Labels: merchandise, Whatnot Workshop

Just look at that thing. That right there is an ugly Gonzo doll, sent to me by Tough Pigs' close personal friend Marianne. He's hideous, isn't he? And yet, I'm only including him here as a runner-up. It gets worse from here, friends.

There they are... It would take a mother to love any one of them. Send me your ratings now at ToughPigsRyan@yahoo.com, and check back here in a couple of weeks for the results!

Click here to talk about ugly toys and their mothers on the Tough Pigs forum!

Labels: contest, merchandise, reader participation

On Tuesday, November 4th, two Jim Henson Company DVD releases went on sale: the Fraggle Rock Complete Series Collection and The Christmas Toy, which is on DVD for the first time.

The Fraggle Rock set's release means that all 96 episodes of the series are now available, from Beginnings to Change of Address, with lots of songs and fun and life lessons and Doozers in between.

But here's the thing: If you're like me (and who isn't?), you already bought the first, second and third seasons on DVD as they came out individually. Those are some beautiful collections, with the episodes looking great and a ton of lovely and informative extras, and they were well worth the $40 or so I paid for each one. But as of now, there are no plans to release a fourth season DVD set. So if you want every episode, you have to buy the first three seasons all over again. The list price is $139.98.

Basically, Henson and HIT Entertainment are saying, "Hey there, loyal fans! Thanks a lot for buying those first three seasons on DVD, thus proving that Fraggle Rock is commercially viable. We'd like to reward you by making you pay 140 bucks for three-fourths of a series you already own! We sincerely hope you have lots of fun giving us more of your money!"

Now, it's possible they'll release a season four set in the future, and when they do, I'll stop complaining. But for now I'm going to sit here and kvetch. Oh, and the other thing -- when they first announced the complete series set, the special features touted included a new short starring Red Fraggle, which was pretty exciting news for the fans. But don't look too hard on your DVDs for this extra, 'cause it's not there. Apparently they made the announcement before the short was actually filmed, and whoops, they ran out of time to make it.

Wasn't there a Fraggle episode where Mokey learned why you should never make promises you can't keep? Maybe the Henson people should have watched that one.

As for The Christmas Toy: It's a classic, and I haven't seen it in years, so I'm pretty happy that I'll be able to own it. But that doesn't mean I couldn't be happier.

As soon as we heard that the Jim Henson Company was releasing this special on DVD, we expected that Kermit would be edited out, and sure enough, the frog is nowhere to be seen. I happen to think the whole "Henson can't release any DVDs with Kermit because he's owned by Disney now" thing is really, really stupid. I'm not a lawyer, so I'm willing to accept the possibility that it's easier legally to just leave him out. But if Fox could release Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium on DVD with Kermit's very brief cameo intact, why can't Henson keep Kermit in a special they've owned the rights to since 1986?

But that's not all! According to this review from DVD Talk, the new disc includes no special features, and no menus. No menus! Can you believe that? I mean, it's not like I love and cherish DVD menus. Usually I don't even pay much attention to them. It's just that their absence makes it seem like Henson and HIT didn't even try. To not bother with menus indicates that they didn't put any more effort into this release than any number of those no-name companies that produce the DVDs littering the dollar bins, with names like Murder Explosion and The Man With the Ugly Hat. The Christmas Toy is such a good TV special; it really deserves more.

Maybe I'm sounding ungrateful, but that's a risk I'm willing to take. Come on, guys. We've been good fans and loyal DVD-buying customers. Can't you try just a little bit harder?

Click here to complain about cool DVDs on the Tough Pigs forum!

Labels: Christmas, complaining, DVD, Fraggle Rock, merchandise

Hey, remember this guy? He's a Fozzie mini-bean plush made by Sababa, and in 2005 he was hideous enough to win the Tough Pigs Ugly Toy Pageant.

It's been a while since 2005, so it's high time we had another Ugly Toy Pageant around these parts. Now, I know there are scads of ugly Muppet toys that have never been featured in a pageant, but there's no way I can find them all myself. Which is where you come in.

Send me photos of ugly Muppet toys! You can send your entries to ToughPigsRyan@yahoo.com, and you can send as many entries as you got. They can be from Sesame Street, Fraggle Rock, whatever. Just keep in mind this rule: Toys that are ugly because they've been beaten, abused, or manhandled don't count. Only toys that were ugly straight from the factory.

The deadline for entries is October 7, 2008. Then I'll post the nominees for Ugliest Toy, and you'll judge their ugliness and send in your votes. And yes, I know the pageant has traditionally been an April Fool's Day event, but let's just pretend it's an April Fool's Day joke that we're doing it in October.

Now, to inspire you, here are the winners of the pageant from 2004, 2003, and 2002:






Click here to talk about ugly toys on the Tough Pigs forum!

Labels: contest, merchandise, reader participation

Season 3 of The Muppet Show comes out on DVD May 20, which is TODAY! Or, depending on when you read this, yesterday. Or two days ago or three days ago or five years ago if you read this in 2013. But the point is, I'm happier than a termite at a ventriloquist's dummy convention about the new DVDs, and I can't wait to hold Fozzie's huge face in my hands.

The season three shows I'm familiar with are full of hilarious/bizarre stuff. Pigs sing in Hawaiian! Gonzo falls in love with Big Bird! Miss Piggy sells her soul to a rock star! All these moments are terrific, but they're not the only reason I'm jazzed. See, I've been looking over the list of episodes over at Muppet Wiki, and I realized that almost half of these are episodes I've never seen before.

The third season was when The Muppet Show got all country & western, so many of the new-to-me episodes are the ones guest-starring country singers, like Kris Kristofferson (whose hits include "Help Me Make It Through the Night"), Roy Clark (whose hits include "Yesterday When I Was Young"), and Jean Stapleton (whose hits include "Boot Scootin' Boogie").

Other never-seen-by-me episodes include the ones guest-starring Cheryl Ladd, who is my third favorite Charlie's Angel, and Elke Sommer, whom I know nothing about. I think she's an actress, unless "Elke" is a man's name, in which case she's probably not an actress.

Maybe one of these episodes will have the funniest Veterinarian's Hosptial sketch ever. Maybe one of them will feature a musical number that will become my new favorite Muppet song. Maybe some of the non-comedian guest stars will surprise and delight me with their ability to share the stage with Muppets. I won't know until I watch the DVDs. Still, I can be certain of one thing: I will like these episodes of The Muppet Show.

I don't have to tell you that these are uncertain times we live in. Prices are up on every single thing that costs money, the airline industry and the housing market are both in dire straits, and nobody knows just what is wrong with Paula Abdul.

So it's incredibly comforting to know that I can purchase season three of The Muppet Show secure in the knowledge that it will be a good investment. I have no idea what gas prices will be tomorrow, but I know that The Muppet Show will make me chuckle and snicker and guffaw and sing along. When I get my DVDs home today, I can forget about plagues, famine and pestilence for a while and just get a kick out of Fozzie's bumbling attempts to write the script for the Harry Belafonte episode.

In these trying times, the Muppets are a sure thing. I, for one, plan on voting for these new DVDs for president in 2008, and I invite you all to do the same. Frog bless America.

Click here to discuss the season 3 DVDs on the Tough Pigs forum!

Labels: DVD, merchandise, The Muppet Show

Well, there you are! Welcome back! This is the second installment of Most Treasured Muppet Possession stories submitted by Tough Pigs readers. The first installment can be found here. Now, what the heck are we waiting for? Let's hear about more Kermit dolls and junk:

Marianne:
Unfortunately the Most Treasured Muppet Possessions I had in mind a little earlier are now outdated, since I just received MR Gonzo for my 16th birthday today (and he’s all adorable in his wittle purple tux, aww, etc.) So it’s a whopping three-way tie between that and the drawing I received from Elmo in Long Island:


And the 500 piece puzzle I glued to my wall (contains Lew Zealand, Angus McGonnacle, Sal, Bobo, Link Hogthrob, AND Clifford: what are the odds)



Mary Catherine:
My most treasured Muppet item would have to be my Fisher-Price Rowlf puppet. Last spring, my mom picked me up in Albany after exams were over, and we went on a road trip to the University of Maryland so I could see the Jim Henson exhibit they had set up, watch Muppet clips at their library, and of course, take a picture at the bench with Jim and Kermit.

On the way there, we stopped in Princeton, NJ to visit my aunt. Before we left her house, she announced that she wanted to pass on a family heirloom to me that she had been saving for almost thirty years. I opened up the bag she handed me...and inside was the Rowlf puppet. She said that it had been a Christmas gift from my dad (her brother) to her when she was in high school and, amazingly enough, a really big fan of The Muppet Show.

Not only is it a pretty cool Muppet item to have, but now I have proof that my dad, for all of his grumblings about my fandom, does not hate the Muppets. Which means that all is right with the world.

Emma H:
My favourite Muppet possession is probably my 1984 baby Miss Piggy doll. I had one when I was little and stupidly threw it away when I was a sulking, miserable teenager. My brother trawled eBay to buy me one for my 21st birthday. It had to be the 1984 version, though - all the others of baby Miss Piggy are hideous. Especially the 1987 version, ugh.

I'm also very fond of my copy of Miss Piggy's Guide to Life and It's Not Easy Being Green because they both contain, in their own ways, some excellent advice... The thing I miss the most from my childhood Muppet fandom, though, is my Muppet Babies wallpaper. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures, but I remember it being white and covered in Muppet Baby heads! My parents let me choose it when I was about four, and they were worried I'd give myself nightmares. Never.

The two Muppet things I'd like most in the world are the complete collection of Muppet Babies on DVD (a dream that I suspect will be unfulfilled forever) and a Miss Piggy purse I once saw on eBay - it was covered in sequins and was very glam. She would approve. But I've never been able to find it again. Gosh, this was a long post. Apologies!

Tim:
Number 1 is pretty easy, though I have to mention several runners-up. This Kermit was released the year I was born, and has always been one of my most treasured possessions. I have no idea how he's managed to stay in good nick.

I was also terribly fond of my Baby Rowlf, though (like the Baby Kermit I have) the costume change puzzled me somewhat. I also have Piggy and Fozzie. Muppet Babies arrived at exactly the right time for me to latch onto it properly so it remains one of my favourite Henson properties.

Much uglier but also holding special places in my heart were the Fisher Price Piggy and Fozzie beanbags. They're fairly horrendous but in the flesh they have a bizarre charisma. Judging from the picture on the wiki, I should be glad that they had to hang out with the larger Kermit instead of his beanbag counterpart.


Alex G:
My most treasured Muppet item is a Kermit wired stuffed animal I picked up in a small shop in Fergus Falls, Minnesota. I was just beginning my Muppet fandom, but Kermit accompanied me on The Ride Across Minnesota, raising money for Multiple Sclerosis.

He accompanied me not once, but twice as I completed the ride. I changed it up for two years, once with a Ernie rubber ducky and an Animal stuffed animal (hehe), but both years suffered problems... Because I didn't have Kermit. For these reasons it is my most cherished and beloved Muppet item, even topping my 1986 Sesame Street figures (some of my first loved toys), or my Palisades exclusive Adventure Kermit, which I draw enjoyment from every day.


Wes:
My Most Treasured Muppet Possession is my Pigs in Space metal lunchbox! When I was younger my grandparents managed a Mini-Storage place and they would pay me a few bucks to clean the abandoned units and if I found anything I got to keep it. Needless to say, I found a Pigs in Space lunchbox and kept it.

Several years later it went missing... I think someone stole it when everyone was in a metal lunchbox craze. Well, last year my brother got me one for Christmas, better than the old one, in mint condition and even has the thermos. My apartment's small so I proudly display it in the bathroom, so everyone can enjoy it when they come over.

Joe:
My MTMP is a Kermit the Frog beanbag doll. I've had it as long as I can remember and it's accompanied me to my first day of school, my first summer at sleep-away camp, college, apartments, and so forth. And it's still with me today. Somewhere along the line, the Frog went all pirate on me and lost his right eye. The eye has never turned up, and I've long since stopped searching. I still expect to find it in an old Cracker Jack box or something one of these days.

A few years back, a friend gave me the Fozzie Bear beanbag that completes half of the full set, which elates me to no end. So, while my one-eyed, droopy, lumpy, never-washed Kermit might not win any beauty pageants, he's a prom queen in my book, and I love him so.

Christer:
My Most Treasured Muppet Possession has to be, as with most people I suppose, my oldest. And that little treasure is the Norwegian version of the Fraggle Rock album, on tape. As a kid I *loved* the Fraggles! Actually I loved most puppetry, but the Fraggles were my absolute favorites, and I nagged and nagged until I got the tape, and then I played it and played it until my parents nearly lost their minds.

Somewhere along the way I managed to lose the cover (how could I lose that cover, and not lose the covers of any other tapes I had at that age!), and the tape is obviously pretty worn now, but listening to that soundtrack just puts me right back to when I was five years old and Fraggle Rock was the most exciting, scary and exhilarating place on earth. I never believed in Santa, I never believed in Jesus, or The Tooth Fairy, but I *believed* in the Fraggles! Just look at Travelling Matt - they were out walking around us!

Some few years later, a little older but still a huge Fraggle fan, I experienced the biggest high and the biggest low, Henson-wise, in my life. I read in my local paper that Mr. Fraggle himself, Jim Henson, was working on a project filming a book by Roald Dahl, one of my all-time favorite authors, and certainly my favorite at the time. This project, of course, was The Witches, a book which I had recently read and loved. The best part was; they were going to be filming in my hometown! Norway in the book was going to be represented by Bergen, and they would be filming right where I lived, in the yawn of a city where nothing ever happened! I was extatic!

Sadly, the joy did not last. Before the movie reached Norwegian theatres, both Jim Henson and Roald Dahl had died, only a few months apart. My euphoria had turned to absolute devastation, and I had to do some pretty quick growing up. Many years would pass without me thinking of The Fraggles as anything other than a show I loved as a kid.

This all changed when, five years ago, I happened to stumble upon my old tape. I put it on, and the memories all came instantly flooding back. After singing along to all the lyrics I still knew by heart, when I reached the end, I heard the instrumental version of All Around The World, a track that featured on most of the European releases. As a kid I always used to skip that track (I couldn't sing along to it!), but when hearing it again as an adult, it was just about the best darned piece of music I had ever laid ears on!

Today I own pretty much every Fraggle music release (as well as a fair bit of other paraphernalia, of course), and have about 10 copies of the 7" single of All Around The World, including mint, sealed and picture disc releases. People tend to describe me as a true Fraggle nut, walking around the office donning my "I Appreciate The Muppets On A Much Deeper Level Than You" T-shirt. Your post is filed with the tag fanaticism, and my Most Treasured Muppet Possession is the single piece of merchandise that truly launched the avalanche that took me from Fraggle fan to Henson fanatic - for the second
time in my life.

I hope I can still get a tape player when I'm 60. Or 80.

Scott E:
This one's easy, because my most treasured Muppet possession is my most treasured possession, period. Several years ago, a group of my friends decided to get me a Christmas present…why… I don’t know. Anyway, one of them is very big into books and frequents a lot of used book sites on the net. On one of these sites, he stumbled upon a copy of Of Muppets and Men. He knew I would love it, so he checked it out only to find that it was an autographed copy.

The woman who was selling it bought it in a huge estate sale and was selling off all the pieces that didn’t interest her. The inscription in the book reads “Christmas 1981. To Buddy with our love, Kermit the Frog, Jim, Dave, and all the gang”. My friend contacted the Henson archive to see if it was authentic and who Buddy was. They responded that it was authentic and that the book had been given as gifts to everyone who had appeared on the Muppet show that year, so Buddy was, in fact, Buddy Rich.

They also asked who my favorite Muppets and sent picture of the main Muppets, autographed by Animal and Pepe with their response. So…as a huge Muppet fan, who happens to be a drummer, and whose favorite Muppet is Animal, this book is by far my most treasured possession. It spends its days on prominent display in my great room.

It's Ryan again.  I know this wasn't a contest, but we can all pretty much
agree that Scott won, right?  I mean, I'd love to own any copy of Of Muppets 
and Men.  It doesn't even have to be previously owned by an awesome guest
star like Buddy Rich... I'd settle for one of the lesser ones, like Shields... or
Yarnell.

Anyway, thanks to everyone for the great submissions. And take care of your
Muppet stuff!

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Labels: fanaticism, merchandise, reader participation

Muppet fans love their Muppet stuff.

Beth:

My treasured Muppet possession would have to be the Palisades Muppet theatre backstage playset. I mean, how cool is it? It's a perfect small Muppet show set that I can transport back and forth between college and home. And all the Palisades action figures that go with it of course, especially Sweetums.

Amy:
My Fisher Price Sesame Street Little People playset.

I got it for Christmas when I was four or five years old. I remember being upset that David and Maria weren't included amongst the Little People, but being very happy to have Mr. Hooper and Susan. (Guess I didn't give a rat's ass about Gordon!)

Big Bird, Oscar, Ernie and Bert were cool to have, too, but Mr. Hooper and Susan really made me happy. Mr. Hooper reminded me of my grandfather, and Susan was my favorite female role model at the time. She was a nurse, she drove a VW Bug, she wasn't afraid to talk back to Oscar -- how cool was that?!

Possibly the thing that fascinated me the most about the playset was looking into Bert and Ernie's apartment and counting the bottlecaps on the wall. They had the most interesting domicile of the apartments. My brother and I also had the Fisher Price Castle. We used to have the Sesame Street people look around in the Castle for the Count. We also pretended that Snuffy lived in the dragon's dungeon in the FP Castle. Kind of dumb, but we had an awful lot of fun with that fantasy. I still have Susan and Big Bird someplace. I miss Mr. Hooper.


Jenny:
A plastic Snuffy wearing a scarf and beret. It was a toy at my grandma's until one day I never saw it again. Then, years and years later in high school, my theology teacher had the exact same toy on his desk, and I had a huge SIRE* moment. I tell him the story and he freaking GIVES it to me. Snuffy now resides on my Ledge O' Crap. (despite the name, it is where the most esteemed plushies and figurines live)

*[Editor's note: SIRE, for those not in the know, is a Tough Pigs-coined acronym for Sudden Instant Recall Effect]

Martha:
My oldest, most-loved Muppet posession has to be my Grover puppet, circa 1974. I absolutely love him. I remember taking him to kindergarten - when he was much prettier than he is now - for show and tell. I have a picture with me, age 4, with my brand-new Grover puppet, which arrived at about the same time as my brand-new baby brother. Guess which one I was more excited about...

It's not really a posession, but I'm also awfully proud of the INEBG* Bathroom, which has a brand-new Kermit display shelf.
*It's Not Easy Being Green

Melissa:
I have several, I don't have the Fisher Price puppet but I got the doll, I'd say out of TOYS, it would be that, my Rowlf puppet and my Fisher Price Ernie doll that looks like he was hiding out where they found Saddam Hussein. But I can't part with any of them.

As far as NON toys, my genuine Big Bird feather that they gave me as a Henson intern, my Muppet Treasure Island crew hat that Steve Whitmire gave me when I visited the set, and all my autographs and photos with Henson folks.

Peter:
My favorite... was probably a 3D stacking Big Bird puzzle. I can't find a picture of it anywhere on the Internet, though. My brother once mischievously hid the various pieces throughout the house and I don't know how long it was before I found the last piece in the cream cheese. I had once actually decided to give it to Danny or Scott for Christmas, but then I couldn't find it. And then I decided that even if I ever found it, I was too selfish to let it go.

Cathy:
My very favoritest Muppet thing is actually two things. When I was a wee little tot, my parents got me a Miss Piggy trinket box. It was a knockoff of a Sigma piece and it was obviously handmade, but you could tell it was made out of love.

Anyway, my parents spotted this thing at a garage sale and the person selling it said that his daughter had made it, but had "outgrown" her Muppet phase, so they sold it to my parents for a dime. I loved this little box so much. It always made me happy when I looked at it because it reminded me of how much my parents loved me and supported me and my love of Muppets.

Anyway, a few years ago when I got married, Danny (who didn't know about my knockoff Piggy box) gave me the real Sigma Piggy box as a wedding gift. And it was such a great gift, because I could tell it was really thoughtful and given from the heart. And now both boxes are displayed proudly on my shelf, and while one reminds me of the awesomeness of my parents, the other now reminds me of all the awesome people I've met through the years here. All because of a shared love of the Muppets. Who knew?


Yancey:
Well... I would have to say my Miss Piggy Fisher Price dress up doll. My younger brother gave her to me for Christmas (probably in 1982?). I sewed her a number of spectacular outfits. She is one of my Muppet things I've owned the longest. I'm also very fond of my Piggy Enesco Marie Antoinette and Cleopigtra dolls. They're just so awesome. I got those off of Ebay about 6 or 7 years ago.

Anthony:
As for my own most treasured Muppet possession . . . I've never been much of a collector of things that you can't watch, read or listen to, so it's not a toy or anything.

Actually, I've gotta say the first Fraggle Rock LP. The kindergarten teacher in my hometown found it in her classroom and gave it to me when I was about a freshman in high school. I had only seen a few episodes of the show at the time, and I used to spend hours lying on my bed listening to that record over and over and over.

Even now, when I've seen all of the first 72 episodes of the show and several of the last year, those are the Fraggle Rock songs that always come to mind - Follow Me, Wemblin' Fool, The Friendship Song, Muck and Goo, Do It On My Own, Doozer Knitting Song, Easy is the Only Way to Go, and The Beetle Song especially.


Kyle:
My most favorite Muppet possession would have to be a several because I can't just think of one. The first one would be my plush 80's Big Bird. My mom said I carried that sucker everywhere. It was mine and nobody could touch it unless it was my mom or my sister.

But my then for some reason my dad told my mom that he had to throw it away because i had ripped its head off, but my mom thinks he threw him away because I was getting too old for it. I've been looking for him everywhere but can't find him. Hope I find it on ebay one of these days.

The second one would have to be the Oscar the Grouch in a can where you blow into the hose and his head pops out of his trash can. Not mine but my cousins', and I played with it all the time.

Third one was a Fraggle Rock drum set, but then I busted out pretty much all the drums and that was it for that set of Fraggles. I feel really sorry that i destroyed lots of my toys as a kid so now if I find something I had as a kid I save it and keep it from bad little hands.

Fourth one would be still not be mine but still I played with it. It was the Kermit the Frog puppet just like the one on the front page. It was my cousins but a different one from the first one.

Fifth one would have to be a Baby Kermit that sat inside of a wheel that looked like a Ferris wheel and spun around. Don't know why I liked it but it I did.

Sixth one would be a Oscar the Grouch puppet that came out in the late 80's or early 90's. He's still in his can but you could move the mouth. It was one of the Fisher Price ones. I now have a Cookie Monster one too that I found at Goodwill. That about does it but that's pretty much my Muppet Treasured stuff I have.

Quinn:
This is impossible for me to narrow down. The Palisades action figures, taken altogether, are probably my favorite Muppet possession, but not necessarily the most "treasured." I love every single one of them, and there are some highlights like Adventure Kermit and the Jim Henson figure that stand out above the rest.

While they were all made with attention to detail and more care than most Muppet toys we had seen up until that point, there was something special about some of the figures. Purple Tux Gonzo is still my favorite version of one of my favorite Muppets, and even seeing the Master Replicas Gonzo--the eight dollar piece of plastic is a better likeness, and more fun, than the version I'd have to pay hundreds of dollars for. And because of that, I appreciate Palisades' work on the Muppets line.

As for the most treasured...this is probably a cop-out, because it's not technically a Muppet possession. My Rubber Duckie. Even though he's not a licensed Muppet(TM) product, I only have him because Ernie has a Rubber Duckie. My brother gave me Rubber Duckie for my 17th Birthday, which was 17 years ago. And even though now I'm on Rubber Duckie II, I still have that same unnatural attachment to, and affection for, my Rubber Duckie.

He goes on every trip with me, and Miles and Carter consider him almost as much a part of the family as they are. They know when it comes down to it, he's been in the family longer than they have, and if I have to make a choice, it'll get dicey. I have more expensive Muppet toys, I have rarer Muppet toys, I have a piece of Gonzo's fur on my fridge from Muppets in Space--but it's Rubber Duckie that I love. I feel a song coming on.


Great stuff, eh? And I'm only a little bit envious at all the cool merchandise other people have that I never had. Click here to jump to Friday for more sappy nostalgia!

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Labels: fanaticism, merchandise, reader participation

True Story: Last week, I was walking through New York's SoHo, and my Spidey Sixth Sense kicked in. "There are Muppets nearby," I says to myself. I started sniffing the air for the scent of felt. Lo and behold, on the side of a building there was a quartet of weather-worn pictures of Kermit the Frog! "What is Kermit doing here?" I says. I thus removed my propeller beanie and donned my argyle detective's hat. I had a mystery to solve.
My first clue was the word "Supreme" on Kermit's shirt. I suppose all I really needed was that one clue, because a quick Google search told me all I needed to know.

Supreme is a New York-based retail store, specializing in "counter culture," like punks and skaters and other weirdos. So naturally, they'd want Mr. Counterculture himself, Kermit the Frog, to headline their latest campaign. Or maybe they meant to hire Kermit the Forg, but got their e-mail addresses mixed up.

Kermit had his picture taken by Terry Richardson, a photographer well-known for taking pictures of high-profile celebrities. The pictures Terry took with Kermit are currently on display at Colette, a high-end retail store and gallery in Paris, France. So what are we waiting for? Road trip!!!

There's a short video out there of Terry and Kermit where you can see that they actually used a puppet with a performer (Steve maybe?) as opposed to a photo puppet. And you can see the difference in the final product. Kermit's head is far from flat, and he actually looks like he's happy to promote Supreme, rather than just being propped up in a t-shirt.

So, enjoy these pictures of Kermit and a bunch of people I don't recognize!


Click here to join the counterculture revolution on the ToughPigs forum!

Labels: merchandise

Hey, Muppet fans! Picture this scenario:

Late one night, you're enjoying a pleasant dream about dancing rats when you're suddenly awakened by a bunch of aliens. Using their powers of telepathy, they explain to you that they’re working on a comprehensive project to study Earth (last week they were studying entomology; next week is toupees), and they’ve just now gotten around to analyzing Muppets. They're going to take all your Muppet merchandise back to their home planet and you will never get it back, but they're going to allow you to keep one item.

So what will it be? Your vinyl LP of the Muppet Movie soundtrack that was the first album you ever owned? The Swedish Chef plush you got on your family's trip to Disney World? Or maybe a McDonald's Happy Meal toy of Mokey Fraggle driving an eggplant? Or a doll of Miss Piggy driving a carrot, a toy that actually exists but is sadly not on Muppet Wiki?

As Muppet devotees, we own a lot of stuff, and there are happy thoughts and memories associated with all of it. But I suspect I'm not alone in having one Most Treasured Muppet Possession. Mine is that guy in the picture up there: a 1978 Fisher Price "Muppet Puppet" Kermit.

For one thing, he's one of my oldest Muppet possessions. When I was just a tadpole of a thing, my parents went on a trip to New York City (leaving me in Grandma's capable care), and they brought me back this puppet as a souvenir. My parents provided me with a lot of Muppet toys in my early years, thus ensuring that I would grow up to be a total geek and spend the rest of my life wasting heaps of money on my Muppet collection. Thanks, Mom & Dad!

This puppet has been with me my whole life, just like my Muppet fanhood. It's moved from place to place (currently residing in my apartment in… New York City, which seems poetic somehow), and it's appeared in various school projects and home videos. When those trademark squinty eyes began to rub off, I filled them in with a black Sharpie, a fact that becomes painfully obvious on close inspection. (I can only hope that somebody, someday, cares enough to fill in my eyes with a Sharpie when I get old.)

What's your Most Treasured Muppet Possession? I want to know. Where'd you get it? How long have you had it? What's so special about it, anyway? You can tell me by sending an e-mail to ToughPigsRyan@yahoo.com, or just drop by the Tough Pigs forum and talk it about there. If you have a photo of it, that's great, but by no means necessary.

Then I'll post the best stories right here on ToughPigs.com. I'm not going to put a deadline on it or anything... Let's just say I'll give it a few weeks. And if you don't have a Most Treasured Muppet Possession, why not go out and get one? I bet you could find an old, used Baby Gonzo toothbrush on eBay for pretty cheap.

Click here to talk about your Most Treasured Muppet Possession on the Tough Pigs forum!

Labels: fanaticism, merchandise, reader participation

This past Sunday, I had the amazing opportunity to attend the New York Toy Fair, where all of the toy companies come out to show their wares. ToughPigs' own Martha and Andrea were with me as we used our finely-tuned Sixth Sense to spot anything with a Sesame or Muppet logo. And that Sixth Sense was invaluable, as there were hundreds upon hundreds of booths. We were lucky enough to see some great toys that are coming out in the next year, and what kind of friend would I be if I didn't share the news? A pretty crummy friend, that's what. Well, crummy ain't in my profile, so here's some fun things to whet your whistle.

Master Replicas/Corgi

It's times like these that I wish I had a business card with the ToughPigs logo. Because dropping the "I write for a Muppet fan website" shout-out is apparently good enough to get us inside Corgi's closed doors, but not good enough to take pictures or ask detailed questions. Thankfully someone out there was able to grab photos, so you can see what I'm talking about.

The Kermit, Animal, Gonzo, and Fozzie Master Replicas photo puppets were on display. It was the first time I'd seen the Animal, Gonzo and Fozzie ones up close. There's a lot of good to be said for Animal, though I'm still convinced that his facial hair is all wrong. But the ostridge feathers are very pretty, and they flow like he's alive when there's a breeze. Gonzo looks great, with the exception of his nose, which is not-so-arguably the most important feature to get right. I understand the problems that arise when using foam, but I would have much preferred if they caved in and built a nose out of hard plastic. Fozzie, as TP's own Martha put it, makes up for all of the ugly Fozzie merchandise we've ever had. He's beautiful and perfect. I can't think of anything bad to say about him. He's a little shorter than I pictured him, but it fits with the sizes of the other photo puppets. I can only hope that he's affordable, as I pretty much need to own one.


The other Muppet product in Corgi's hidden room was five small Electric Mayhem figurines. They were very pretty, but the design was just flawed enough to make a shopper second-guess. The person I spoke to didn't have any details, but she said that the figures will be sold on the higher-end. Meaning that if they aren't perfect, and they're a little more expensive, they'll probably sell approximately 3 of them. And they'll all be Animal, because everyone loves Animal. Eat drums.



Gund

The Gund showroom was also closed to the public, so we decided to be sneaky and see how much we could see before someone noticed us. Most of the toys were nothing new. Dolls and puppets and some Abby Cadabby stuff. What caught my eye was a beautiful Count von Count doll. He really looked just like the puppet, and I'll shell out some dough for it. Another new (to me, at least) item I saw was Twiddlebug finger puppets. It's an idea so natural, I'm upset with myself for not thinking of it first. At that point, someone realized that we weren't important and we were shown the door. Well, the joke's on you, Gund, because I'm promoting your products anyway! Ha HA!

MINDstyle/Dark Horse

MINDstyle and Dark Horse had two booths across from each other, so forgive me if I didn't bother to tell them apart. They had all of the City Critters out on display, which are very nice. Not quite as Muppety as I'd like, but they're fun little toys. There were three Dark Crystal statues on display, including a pretty statue of Jen and Kira with the Crystal Shard. But the highlights were the Fraggle Rock toys.


First off, there is an 8" Doozer. And he's beautiful. Though Doozers are so simple, I'd imagine they'd be hard to mess up (I'm sure that won't stop the toy companies from trying). They had just received the Doozer that morning, so they didn't have any details yet, but they said he will probably be on a slightly higher-end than an action figure. I'll do some research to try and find out more about it.


The other Fraggle surprise was the upcoming Fraggle Rock blind-boxed figures. They're maybe about 2 1/2" tall, slightly stylized, and very very pretty. Characters include: Gobo, Mokey, Wembley, Boober, Red, Traveling Matt, two Doozers on a Doozer construction, the Trash Heap's head, Pa Gorg's head, Sprocket's head (with bowl), and two generic Fraggles. I'm a little surprised that they included the two generic Fraggles above Junior or Ma Gorg, Cantus, Convincing John, or even some sort of variant (Boober dressed as the Old Gypsy Lady?). The other strange part is that each character is placed on top of an alphabet block. I'd think that these would be marketed toward an older crowd, so the "educational" value might be better left off. Plus, I have no idea what learning letters has to do with Fraggle Rock. But other than that, these figures are terrific, and I can't wait to own them. I'm not excited about the blind-boxes, but a Muppet fan's gotta do what a Muppet fan's gotta do. And that's spend a lot of money.

Toy Vault

The good people at Toy Vault were nice enough to let me take pictures, so I'll let them speak for themselves. And in case my photo skillz aren't good enough for you, here you'll see a pillow with the Dark Crystal logo, a plush Fizzgig (with giant, scary opening mouth), plush of Rygel from Farscape, Labyrinth Door Knocker plush (I can only assume the other one will be produced as well), and a Talking Ludo plush (unfortunately, the demo didn't have the voice chip yet, but he's adorable anyway).



Deal Makers

This is a Dutch company that makes Sesamstraat wooden toys like scooters, toy trains, toy cars, and the like. Their American counterpart will soon be selling these toys (with the Sesame Street logo, I'd wager), and I happen to think they're cutie patootie. I especially like the cars, which wobble as they roll. They've got a vintage look to them, and I'm a sucker for toys that don't even try to be "realistic". Just a wooden ball with Ernie's face painted on it, that's all I need. Also pictured are some Sesamstraat bicycle bells. Not yo-yo's, as I originally assumed.




Putumayo Kids

The last booth we visited was Putumayo Kids, which specializes in international CDs and DVDs. They had a video playing of their new release, called "Sesame Street Playground," which is a compilation of songs and skits from all of the different Sesame Street productions from around the world (subtitled for the mono-lingualled like myself). The video looked like a lot of fun, and it's always interesting to see Elmo trouncing about in some foreign nation. The DVD will come packaged with a CD, so get ready for some new-to-us material from Sesame Workshop! The art in the image is the final album art without the text added yet.


Unfortunately, we were not able to get access to the Fisher Price room where they were unveiling the new Elmo Live doll. But you can see some video of the unbelievable living Elmo here.

So, I hope you enjoyed this quick review of Toy Fair, and I hope you feel like you were there too. If you do, you owe me $8 for the cab. C'mon man, we said we were splitting it! Don't be that guy.

Click here to get all excited over toys that won't hit the shelves for another 8 months on the ToughPigs forum!

Labels: DVD, Fraggle Rock, merchandise, Photo Puppets, review, Sesame Street

Quite often, I find myself sitting at my desk, looking slightly to the right so I can't see my wall calendar (which features pictures of people ironing in dangerous locations), and slightly below the vantage point of my computer monitor, and I can't help but wonder what day it is. Here is where I take note of my options. I can either stick my head out the window and sing "O Solo Mio" until someone shouts "Are you crazy?? It's 2:30 in the morning on Tuesday, December 9th!" or I can consult my brand new Day-At-A-Time Muppet calendar!

That's right, for the Muppet fan who can't stand to see the same picture for more than 24 hours, you can now head out to your local Amazon.com retailer and purchase a year's worth of calendar.

Right there on the front of the box, the calendar is advertised as having "Full Color on Every Page". And thankfully, they aren't guilty of false advertising here. If they were, I'd sue their pants off. Though that'd be pretty easy since many of the Muppets are already sans pants.

Aside from the colors, the pictures themselves are pretty impressive. At first glance, it just looks like a bunch of poser shots we've seen 100 times before. But at second and third glance, I didn't see many repeated images, plus a significant amount that I'd never seen before. Flipping through right now, I see Piggy on a carousel, Kermit as Galileo, and a picture that looks like the Swedish Chef is smoking a joint. Wait, forget I was ever amazed by that last one.

A word of caution from ToughPigs forum member and all-around nice guy Jimmy: "It seems like the variation of the pictures is pretty good, but towards the end they repeat images, sometimes for several days in a row. August 26-September 7 show "A spotlight on Statler and Waldorf," and the images consist of just two poser pics, alternated for all the days. On November 3-7, there is a list of all Muppet show guest stars, and while the accompanying picture is one I have never seen, it is repeated for all of those days. Despite this, the overall variety is pretty good and the calendar does have quite a few pictures I had never seen before. " Thanks, Jimmy!

The calendar also claims to have "Everything You Ever Wanted To Know, But Didn't Know Who to Ask." First of all, for those of you who actually don't know where to go for Muppet trivia, may I direct you to the Muppet Wiki? No? Ok, moving right along...

A secret squirrel has informed me that long-time Muppet writer Jim Lewis was tagged to help write up the trivia for the calendar. Although Jim (whoever wrote the text) probably could have entered some Morsel-worthy trivia into the calendar, we're left with trivia bits like Who-is-Scooter? and "Say, who were the celebrity guests in season 2 of The Muppet Show?" All easily attainable information for anyone with Google at their fingertips.

And speaking of trivia, we should only hope that the trivia in the calendar is all correct. While scanning a few random pages for this article, I found one that asks "Which of these Muppets was created first?", in which the upside-down answer claims that Rowlf debuted before Kermit. According to the Muppet Wiki, Kermit was built a full seven years before Rowlf. A minor quibble, but another example of how the Muppet Wiki is better than just about everything else in the world.

After having the calendar for almost two weeks now, I've gotten over my high expectations for brilliant Muppet trivia and focused more on having a great Muppet picture every single day, and I'm loving it. I look forward to the end of the day when I can tear off that picture of Sam the Eagle and find a new image of Clifford. It's what they should have been giving us every year for the last 10 years. Daily Muppets.

Highly recommended, for people who like days.

Click here once a day to discuss this article on the ToughPigs forum!

Labels: merchandise, review

After the not-so-surprising success of Tickle-Me-Elmo's younger brother, TMX Elmo, last Christmas, Sesame Workshop is following up with two new TMX characters. TMX Ernie and TMX Cookie Monster will be available in your grocer's freezer this fall at the not-so-pricey price of $40 each. They're a little bit smaller than your run-of-the-mill TMX Elmo, but $10 cheaper than the red giggler was last year.

Click here to see videos of TMX Ernie and Cookie in action. Ernie's laugh isn't quite what I expected, but I'd imagine it'd be tough to keep his signature guffaw going for two full minutes. The Cookie Monster, however, is a gem. He's hilarious, what with his "Me have to roll over this way" and "Me have to roll over that way". I'd buy him faster than Cookie can go through a white chocolate macadamia nut macaroon.
Click here to ROFL over this article on the ToughPigs forum!

Labels: merchandise, Sesame Street

If you're a huge [insert obscure comic book name here] fan like me, then you're probably following all the exciting news coming from the San Diego Comic Con. There's inter-company crossovers, fanboys and girls, and writers being treated like celebrities. Of course, nobody is coming to a Muppet fan website for news from Comic Con. That's what Newsarama is for.

Thankfully, for the comic book intolerant of you, there are lots of companies presenting their wares at Comic Con, just like in the opening number of episode 511 of The Muppet Show. Except there are no pies. And no pie salesmen.

This year, we were lucky enough for Master Replicas to be presenting their Muppet line of photo puppets. Kermit was there, which was released last year. But you know all about him already. You probably have him posed in some kind of lewd position over your bedpost. Yeah, I've seen the pictures.
First up is the Animal photo puppet. A picture of him was released a while back, but you can tell there has been some minor adjustments to his design to make him a little more feral and a little less... um, pointy. His hair is still a little all-over-the-place, but you can tell that he's got potential to be great once he's officially released. Unfortunately, because of the wild hair, his head is almost completely hidden. Hopefully once we can see him in real life, his design will make a bit more sense. Most ideal photo pose: slightly hunched over, eyes closed, panting, and ready to attack.
Next we've got the Gonzo photo puppet. A very rough design of his head was released to us a bit ago, but the additions look a little awkward. The photo makes it look like the last scene in Big when Tom Hanks starts to turn into a boy again, but he's still wearing the grown-up clothes. And speaking of clothes, the last time I checked, Gonzo's tux was purple. Though I wouldn't put it past him to wear bright pink as an artistic statement (possibly while eating a hi-fi system to the tune of "Baby Got Back"). Of course, the nose is far from the finished product. It's also the most important part of the puppet, since that's how most people will recognize him. Hopefully Master Replicas will find out how to make a good-looking schnozz out of a material that won't disintegrate after 6 months. Most ideal photo pose: belly dancing in a vat of butterscotch pudding.
Lastly we've got a Comic Con surprise. Fozzie Bear is the next photo puppet to be produced, and I couldn't be happier with their first stab at the comedian. Fozzie actually looks like he's in the middle of a joke that's bombing, but he doesn't yet know that the audience doesn't find him funny. He looks like he's actually alive, and for an early prototype, he looks better than Animal and Gonzo put together. Though the first thing you'd notice is that he's going to be a huge photo puppet. And while I love the idea that all of the Muppets will be to scale, I don't know any Muppet fans who will be able to afford the giant Fozzie. Well, maybe they'll shell out the money once he's wearing his hat. Most ideal photo pose: banana in one hand, rubber chicken in the other, trying to ignore the two old guys in the balcony.

Post-lastly, Master Replicas is reportedly working on a few more photo puppets that weren't quite ready for display yet. Rizzo is high on the list, as is Miss Piggy. Personally, I'd love to have the rat in my apartment, though that's mostly so he can kick out his mousey brothers. A Miss Piggy photo puppet would be spectacular, but she's reinvented her style more than Madonna, so who knows which version we'd end up with. There's also the possibility of accessory packs for each of the photo puppets, so feel free to let your imagination run wild.

So, start saving your dollars, because the Muppets are invading your house and they're aching to be posed, photographed, and left on the mantle to collect dust.

Click here to put this article in a provocative position on the ToughPigs forum!

Labels: merchandise, Photo Puppets

Wouldn't you like to spend every day of 2008 looking at pictures of Muppets? I know I would. Though you've got to have a little variety in your life. That's why there's brand new calendars coming out for 2008 featuring all things Muppety. Which is good, because I doubt my 2007 calendars will stand the test of time.

First up is your basic Muppet calendar, featuring everyone's favorite character poses. You've got your embarassed Fozzie, Animal wearing sunglasses, flathead Kermit, and "I dunno" Statler and Waldorf. While there's nothing new or original, it's still not a bad looking calendar. But for the Muppet fan, it just might not be enough.

There's also a Fraggle Rock calendar coming out. We haven't seen the art yet, but it's a good guess that it'll be more production promos from the show. Wouldn't it be nice to have some new Fraggle art? Ah well, beggars can't be choosers. Especially when Mokey actually makes it onto the cover this time.


Last up is the page-a-day calendar featuring the Muppets. To my knowledge, there's never been a page-a-day calendar with Muppets before. So, for the Muppet fan who just can't commit to one picture for 30 days, now you can have a fresh pictures, trivia, jokes and quotes every single day. Unless you're lazy like me, and then you can see the same day for about 2 weeks at a time. Meanwhile, your boss will wonder why you haven't shown up to work.


No word on Sesame Street calendars yet, but if history proves right, we're bound to get one or two for next year. The above three calendars are now available for preorder on Amazon.com.

Click here to count the days to 2008 on the ToughPigs forum.

Labels: merchandise

What do you do when you’re a Muppet fan with an extra $950 burning a hole in your proverbial pocket? Might I suggest spending it on some mediocre art?

While Disney continues to try and figure out just who is left to run things in the Muppets Holding Company, merchandise continues to trickle out. And I do mean trickle. Without a production to promote, Disney’s plan to keep the hopefully-temporarily-inert property alive in our hearts and wallets is to put out stuff that we can see on their website, yet can’t buy. The latest in this endeavor is a small series of limited-edition Giclée paintings. More on that strange word in a minute.

A total of six paintings are available on DisneyShopping.com. Sadly, when you do a search for “Muppet” on the site, you come up with only one of the pictures, a t-shirt, a watch, a small collection of CDs and DVDs, and a set of (again, overpriced) pins. If you take away the stuff you can purchase at the local Wal-Mart, the selection of what you can buy from the company that owns the Frog and his pals is bleaker than anything I’ve ever seen. So when I heard that you can buy paintings on their site, imagine my glee at the prospect of new stuff to throw my money at!

Let’s backtrack for a moment to a couple paragraphs ago when I introduced a new vocabulary word: Giclée. According to Wikipedia, Giclée (pronounced “zhee-CLAY”) is a process to reproduce fine art from a digital source using ink-jet printing. So, essentially, these pictures are prints made from the Hewlett Packard printer next to my desk.

The first four pictures are pop-art portraits of Kermit, Piggy, Gonzo and Animal. As you can see, there’s just a little bit too much detail in the images, which makes the pictures walk that line between photo-realistic and illustration a little bit too uncomfortably. If you want a photo, go with a photo; if you want to capture the essence of the character, go with something cartoonier. My first reactions were that Kermit looks old and tired, Gonzo should not be photographed from straight ahead, and Animal has no neck. I actually kinda like the Miss Piggy, though I’d sooner cut her picture out of a magazine and slap it in a frame (assuming she shows up in magazines any time soon). I might not want to put these over my headboard, but I would definitely consider buying them as pins or stickers. These babies are 14”X14” and go for $295 each.

Next up is a 20”X27” picture of the Electric Mayhem. My gut reaction was that it looked like a color-by-number watercolor. I have been told that it is a parody of the style of some psychedelic rock band posters from the 60s and 70s, so if that’s true, then props to Disney. Though as I’m trying to critique the painting, I find that I can’t stare at it too long or I start to freak out about either going blind or accidentally inhaling the fumes. The one big drawback to my appreciating this one is the terrible caricature of Animal who looks more like Rip Taylor than a Muppet. Though Rip Taylor does lend himself to Muppet-impersonation more than most. I must say, I’m curious as to what this picture looks like with a black light. And what it looks like while I’m stoned out of my gourd. You can make this one yours for a whopping $595.

Last but far from least is a recreation of the scene everyone mistakes for the opening scene of The Muppet Movie. Kermit’s in the swamp, strumming on the old banjo, southpaw-style. At a first glance, you can tell that Disney staff artist James Coleman has a lot of talent in painting scenery. The swamp, the trees, the sunset, the perspective, it’s all spot-on. Even his Kermit, when viewed as a thumbnail, looks like he’s actually singing a song as solemn as “Rainbow Connection,” looking up to the Georgia sky with hope in his eyes. And then you zoom in. This has got to be one of the worst images of Kermit I have ever seen. To Disney, I say shame on you for allowing this to even come close to the public. He looks like a cheap reproduction puppet made for a 5-minute parody on MadTV. When you only make 2 or 3 new products a year for the entire brand, you’d better be damn sure they’re picture perfect. Or else you end up with quite the opposite type of picture. This 20”X20” picture will put you in the poor house with a devastating pricetag of $925.

Add $25 for shipping and handling and please allow 2-4 weeks for delivery. Oh, and start saving for that $1,100 painting of Mr. Poodlepants coming out in May.

Labels: Disney, merchandise

What is this ugly thing? It's furry like a Muppet. It's got big wacky eyes, ears, nose and teeth like a Muppet. It smells like a Muppet. Oh yeah, and it sounds like a Muppet.

Allow me to introduce you to the Monster Maniacs. The name doesn't lie, they're monsters and they're quite manic. They come from our good friends at Kmart who have successfully amalgamated the cuteness of a Muppet monster, the collectability of the Furbee, the pizzazz of a singing hamster, and the hair of a troll doll.

"But ToughPigs Joe," you ask, "Why are you doing a commercial for Kmart on a Muppet web site?" Well I'll tell you, ominous voice. These furry creatures sing "Mahna Mahna" (the song) and sound pretty durned close to Mahna Mahna (the character).

I had to press the little button on the toy's foot a couple dozen times until I could guarantee that it isn't Jim Henson's voice, stolen and encapsulated inside a fur-covered hunk of plastic. What I mean is, it sounds just like Jim. But it 'aint Jim. But it sounds like him.

He sings the song, he does a little dance, he lights up. This guy does everything except cook you breakfast.

Kmart has been cranking these bad boys out over the past year or two. They made them for Christmas, Halloween, Valentines Day, and maybe even Gorilla Suit Appreciation Day. My own Valentines Day Monster may be a little pink for my motif, but I do enjoy the fact that I can squeeze his tootsie and hear Manha Manha whenever I want. Or at least the next best thing.

My suggestion: go to YouTube.com and type in "Mahna Mahna," sift through the hundreds of people who thought they were the first to upload a video of the Muppet version, and you'll find a horde of videos of different styles of Monster Maniacs doing their very best Jim Henson imitation.

And if you find yourself at the local Kmart, you can pick one up for just $9.99. Or you can press the button on every single one on the shelf and run away.

Labels: merchandise

I really apologize for the above post title, but when you're writing about checks (you know, the things old ladies use at the grocery store to make people in line behind them furious?) you only have so many options for humor, none of them good. And as it happens, checks are what I'm writing about. So there you go.

Wow! So over the past year, a certain number of events have happened in Muppet news; who'da thunk it? And now there's actually a lot of little things to catch up on. Rather than post about this years Kermit and Elmo Christmas decorations, I'll put up something that was actually released fairly recently. Let those other contributors talk about the Lenox figurines, that's what you get for being a slacker.

So!... Checks. Yeah. Still, if you're going to get excited about checks, these are the ones that'll do it (unless you're a Star Trek fan or something). Checks In The Mail personalised checks (See? What'd I tell you about check jokes?) has released a new series of Muppet-themed checks. According to the website, using these checks can help you "add a new level of humor and zaniness to your check writing". Which is odd - I always thought the humor level of writing a check peaked at zero. But hey, if you're the kind of person that gets jazzed by what is essentially filling out a form, you go have yourself a blast.

I will say the images on these are pretty nice. You have the main five Muppets as well as a group shot, Statler & Waldorf, Bunsen & Beaker and the Swedish Chef, as well as some Piggy-Kermit lovin'. You can also get a Muppet leather checkbook cover, as well as order extra deposit tickets and check registers. Although the tickets and registers don't include Muppet imagery, making them significantly less zany, as you'd imagine.

But it seems kind of moot to me - who really uses checks now? Unless you're one of the aforementioned old ladies and you are, in fact, at a grocery store, couldn't you be a little less horrible and just use an ATM card? In which case you could get the much-more-useful Muppet address labels offered by CITM, which I have to admit I really kind of like, in an address-labely kind of way.

Minor Muppet news item out of the way: Check! I'm sorry.

Labels: merchandise

Welcome to the new Tough Pigs blog! On teh Int4rw3bz! Forsooth! One of the interesting things about this newly revamped TP (2.0!) is that there's more than one person writing it. While everyone's favorite crab Danny is still going to be around, he's gotten a bunch of great people (myself included) to help out.

Don't worry about the signature Tough Pigs humor and crabbiness being toned down, however - we're all funny and I know I, at least, am just as crabby. But for real, I hope to be a worthy contributor to the site, and that you like me. Really like me. That previous joke is a contractual obligation, by the way. The other contributors should be letting you get to know them soon with their own posts.

So enough of that, onto what you're really here for: Muppet stuff! It's a new year and a new ToughPigs, so let's kick off with one of the most exciting new pieces of merchandise since the Disney merger - the Master Replicas Kermit the Frog Photo Puppet!



This product had been talked about for almost a year, and was released in late 2006. It's essentially a replica (and a Master one at that) of a Kermit poser, ie. the kind of Kermit used in professional Muppet photo shoots with no puppeteer controls and an internal metal armature (but you knew that). The Master Replicas version includes a custom display stand and numbered plaque for added fancy-tude.

I've had the opportunity to see one of these up close, and it's the real deal. The fleece MR used for the outside of the replica is spot-on. Little details like the invisible Henson stitching are there, and with a bit of effort it's possible to tweak the eyes; a lot of the replicas shipped have the "flathead kermit" wonky eye focus preinstalled. But all told, great results for a first effort. I mean, it's Kermit! For really real Kermit, not a toy! Very much not a toy!

I say 'first' because on the (tentative) slate at Master Replicas for 2007 are several more Photo Puppets, namely Gonzo and Animal - and how exciting is that? Especially since the retail price for Kermit is a decent $199 (although some looking around on eBay can get you one for as little as $169) (didn't I say it's not a toy?). Given the current status of any official Muppet productions at Disney (not a lot) you could start your own authentic-looking Muppet performances at home while you wait. Except, don't put on any Muppet performances at home. Disney's legal department could be on you like that.

Images Courtesy of Master Replicas

Labels: merchandise, Photo Puppets