I must confess something: When I first heard that the LEGO company was making Muppet minifigures, I didn’t expect it to be a big deal. Haven’t we had a lot of Muppet toys already? Including Minimates, which are also little guys with cylindrical heads?
But wow, what a reaction they’ve gotten. There was so much buzz about them online. Even before the official release date, I was seeing tons of social media posts about which minifigures fans were finding, and where, and how. Experts were sharing guides on how you could tell which Muppet was in which bag with careful fondling.
Yep, people love Muppet Legos!
Oh, what’s that? I shouldn’t say “Legos?” That’s not what they’re called? They’re officially called “LEGO® Brand Modular Recreational Construction Interlocking Brick System?” Okay, fine. I’ll call them LEGO.
But why are people more excited about these LEGO than, say, the Diamond Select Muppet action figures, which look more like the actual Muppets? I reckon it’s the combination of two things people love. Muppets and LEGO apparently go together like peanut butter and jelly… although I would never want to eat a LEGO and Muppet sandwich.
Perhaps the niftiest result of the LEGO Muppets is that they’ve allowed fans to create all kinds of creative LEGO tableaus. Or is that tableaux? My grasp of the French language is even sketchier than Miss Piggy’s.
For example, Tough Pigs pal Jogchem Jalink made this nifty homage to the “Couldn’t We Ride” sequence from The Great Muppet Caper:
He also made this simple but effective reference to the now-classic PlayStation game Muppet RaceMania, in which Rowlf drives around in… a steam shovel truck thing? For some reason?
And perhaps my favorite Muppet LEGO creation so far, Jogchem’s LEGO tribute to Rowlf’s appearances on the old variety show The Jimmy Dean Show:
It’s not surprising that creativity is a common trait among Muppet fans, but folks have been doing some remarkable stuff with these. By taking pieces from previously existing LEGO sets, fans have recreated favorite scenes from Muppet shows and movies, and put the Muppets in all kinds of wild scenarios.
I’d love to feature a bunch of these in a future Tough Pigs article. Have YOU come up with your own creative Muppet LEGO sets, scenarios, or sensational scenes? I wanna see them! Send photos of what you’ve assembled to Ryan@ToughPigs.com and we just might feature them in the aforementioned future article!
Show me those bricktures of pics! I mean, pictures of bricks. That’s what I meant.
Click here to step on this article in your bare feet on the Tough Pigs forum!
by Ryan Roe – Ryan@ToughPigs.com
