1 The Muppet Mindset: Toys
Showing posts with label Toys. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Toys. Show all posts

Jul 25, 2013

News Update: July 25, 2013

NEWS UPDATE: July 25, 2013
The biggest news of the week over in the real world was the birth of the royal baby, the Prince of Cambridge, the son of Prince William and Kate Middleton. Why should we as Muppet fans care about the new heir to the British throne? Because Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy care, of course! Check out the video below, direct from our friends at The Muppets Studio, to watch Kermit and Piggy pause filming of Muppets Most Wanted to congratulate the royals on the new baby!



At Toy Fair this year, the toy company Funko revealed a new series of "Cupcakes" figures modeled after various Disney characters. Two of these characters in the series will be Kermit and Miss Piggy! The figures are kind of weird but also pretty delightful... so check out the figures and their boxes below! They'll be released in October and will retail around $14.99. (Thanks to our friends at VinylmationWorld.com for the info!)
This week The Jim Henson Company launched a brand new website for Jim Henson's classic fantasy epic The Dark Crystal. The site is located at http://darkcrystal.com and it is totally awesome. It is jam packed with information, mythology, pictures, and a whole encyclopedia of vast information about the film. I'm not a huge fan of The Dark Crystal, but the website is pretty incredible. You could spend ages pouring over all of the interactive content. Well done, Henson Company!

Last week, the great Jeffery Tambor appeared on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson to promote Arrested Development. Well, since Craig is such a big Muppet fan, it shouldn't be such a big surprise that they ended up talking about Muppets From Space. It's a fantastic moment, that you should definitely check out in the video below. Skip ahead to 8:45 for the Muppet talk!



Back in February, we were thrilled to showcase a fan made animated video starring Baby Sinclair and Earl Sinclair from Dinosaurs. The video was ridiculously good and made by our friend Davide Maugeri and his team of animators. Well, I'm once again thrilled to announce that Davide and his team are working on another short starring even more Dinosaurs characters! Check out the teaser poster below and be on the lookout for the new short sometime in 2014.






The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier, muppetmindset@gmail.com

Apr 5, 2013

News Update: April 5, 2013

NEWS UPDATE: April 5, 2013

Are you ready to hashtag your cares away, Muppet fans? Yesterday The Jim Henson Company started an official Twitter account for Fraggle Rock (handily choosing the username @FraggleRock). They haven't tweeted much yet, but there is promise of more Fraggle goodness to come--in 140 characters less, that is.

In news that might make you tear up, after the passing of co-founder of the Muppets Jane Henson, the Smithsonian American History Museum has decided to pay tribute in their own meaningful way. The Kermit the Frog puppet they have on display at the museum now sports a black armband in honor of Mrs. Henson. Check out the picture at right (click it to make it bigger) to see this wonderful tribute for yourself. It is a simple honor for a great woman, who worked a lot with the Smithsonian for exhibits like Jim Henson's Fantastic World and who donated the original Sam & Friends puppets to the museum recently.

A few weeks ago we reported that Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzie, and Animal would be appearing on the Disney Channel sitcom Good Luck Charlie on April 28th. Well, the fine folks at Entertainment Weekly have an exclusive clip from the appearance. In the clip, Kermit sings part of a brand new song written for the episode called "Dream House." The clip isn't terrible, so here's hoping the appearance isn't either!

Last week at a Disney Parks merchandising event, Disney showed off some new figures coming to the Parks for their annual Star Wars Weekends. This year those figures will include two brand new Muppet sets, including Uncle Deadly as Emperor Palpatine and Bean Bunny as an Ewok. Uncle Deadly also comes with Gonzo as Darth Vader and a chicken as an imperial guard. Deadly and Bean look fantastic and a definite must-buy for me! No word yet on when the figures will be released or how much they will cost.

Finally, in cameos for The Muppets... Again news, the folks over at BleedingCool.com are reporting that singer/songwriter/dancer/actor Usher has filmed a cameo for the movie. The article says that Usher's cameo part involved dancing with Sweetums, which could be hysterical and awesome--and very Muppet Show-esque. Just another reason to get excited for The Muppets... Again!






The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier, muppetmindset@gmail.com

May 24, 2012

News Update: May 24, 2012

NEWS UPDATE: May 24, 2012

We in the Muppet fan community know all about Paul Williams, scribe of songs in The Muppet Movie, The Muppet Christmas Carol, Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas, and more. However, the general public is vastly unaware of Williams' incredible contribution to the world of music. That is what filmmaker Steven Kessler is setting out to remedy in his new documentary Paul Williams Still Alive. The film follows Williams in present day and chronicles his storied career as well. The trailer is below and features plenty of Muppets. Paul Williams Still Alive premieres in New York on June 8th and goes wide soon after.



The fine folks at Destination Vinylmation have snagged pictures of three new Star Wars Muppet action figures to be released at Disney Parks later this year. Last year they released action figure sized versions of Kermit as Luke Skywalker, Link Hogthrob as Han Solo, etc. The new figures feature Animal as Boba Fett, Link Hogthrob as Han Solo in Carbonite, and Scooter as Lando Calrissian. They are set to be released in August and will be priced at $18.95.
One of my favorite things is watching people who adore and understand Muppeteers get to interact with them. That is what we get to see in the latest video on The Nerdist Channel from Harry Knowles. In the video below, Knowles and his puppet doppelganger get the chance to meet and talk with Caroll Spinney. There's not much more I can add about this beautiful thing, so watch it for yourself!



In the weirdest news of the week category we have a brand new product from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab Perfumes. Why does this matter, you ask? Because the perfumes are scents based on Jim Henson's Labyrinth. Take that in for a minute... okay, yeah, that's a weird thing. Scents include 13 Hours, Fairy Bites, Goblin Cider, Hoggle, and Jareth. These are things you can actually buy and then smell like. Why anyone would want to smell like Hoggle (who apparently smells of fermented pumpkin, brown leather, dust, tobacco leaf, and dark woods) is beyond me, but to each their own!

In other weird news, the Muppets have teamed up with BAND-AID Brand bandages for a brand new iPhone/iPad application called Band-Aid Magic Vision Starring Disney's The Muppets (catchy). I can't even begin to explain what the app does, so here's an official statement sent to us from BAND-AID Brand people plus a video that shows how surprisingly cool this app is: Your favorite Muppet characters are being featured in a brand new, first of its kind, mobile application launched by BAND-AID® Brand! The app— BAND-AID® Magic Vision—uses augmented reality (AR) technology to provide parents with an unprecedented ability to help their kids forget about boo-boos, and transform moments of hurt into moments of healing and virtual fun like never before!



Finally, enjoy this awesomely amazing behind the scenes video from roughly 1977 featuring Jim Henson, Richard Hunt, Jerry Nelson, Dave Goelz, and a bunch of awesome people performing and building Muppets and just being amazing. (Video found by our friends at ToughPigs.)









The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier, muppetmindset@gmail.com

Mar 29, 2012

News Update: March 29, 2012

NEWS UPDATE: March 29, 2012

We're thrilled to inform you that friends of the blog, Copper Pot Productions, are producing a hugely exciting new documentary bout Caroll Spinney, the man who is Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch. The documentary is called I Am Big Bird and it won't be out for quite awhile, but Copper Pot has released an incredible trailer for the documentary on their Vimeo site. Watch it below and try to contain your tears and excitement!


I AM BIG BIRD Trailer from Copper Pot Pictures on Vimeo.

Speaking of the wonderful Caroll Spinney, the fine folks at Rock Cellar Magazine have an incredible interview with Mr. Spinney. There are some amazing insights here, such as why he never made any money off of Sesame Street albums, which celebrities he became friends with, and much, much more. It's a truly wonderful, fantastic interview that you simply have to read. Don't miss out on this one!

A few weeks ago we reported about upcoming Muppet vinyl figures from Funko POP! Well, the people at Muppet Wiki have finalized production images for the figures and they look fantastic. The first series includes Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Gonzo, Animal, Dr. Teeth, Mahna Mahna, and Snowth. The Mahna Mahna and Snowth figures look especially awesome, but all of these figures are bound to be must-owns when they hit store shelves in April!

Speaking of April, on April 14th at Carnegie Hall in New York City, they will be hosting an incredible musical performance called "Jim Henson's Musical World." Hosted by the amazing John Tartaglia, the performance will feature an incredible array of special guests are slated to appear and perform. They include Muppet/Sesame Street performers Dave Goelz, Kevin Clash, Eric Jacobson, David Rudman, Matt Vogel, Leslie Carrara-Rudolph, Karen Prell, Pam Arciero, Stephanie D'Abruzzo, Rollie Krewson, Lara MacLean, Sesame Street humans Alison Bartlet (Gina), Sonia Manzano (Maria), Loretta Long (Susan), Roscoe Orman (Gordon), Bob McGrath (Bob), Alan Muraoka (Alan), and Nitya Vidyasagar (Leela). And it that's not enough to either get you to buy a ticket or make you seethe with jealousy, then wait till I tell you that Paul Williams will also be there. (So will SNL alumnus Rachel Dratch, but no one seems to know why.) If you're in New York City, or if you have the money to travel there on April 14th, you should absolutely buy your ticket to see this performance!!

A while back we reported that the new Disney Cruise Line vessel, The Disney Fantasy, would feature a brand new interactive mystery game on board starring the Muppets. Well, this game is The Muppets Midship Detective Agency, and with the inaugural launch of the Disney Fantasy came the inaugural launch of the game. The awesome people who run Inside the Magic have posted a video on YouTube with full gameplay footage of the game on board. It's a lot of fun. Bobo, Beauregard, Lew Zealand, Rizzo, and lots of Pepe... it's fantastic! You'll note that there are instances where Steve Whitmire is NOT doing Kermit's voice, but since it's still in the early stages of the game, that's sure to be corrected down the line.








The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier, muppetmindset@gmail.com

Feb 16, 2012

News Update: February 16, 2012

NEWS UPDATE: February 16, 2012
Miss Piggy was chosen to host the BAFTA Red Carpet ceremony in London this past weekend and, as you would guess, she did an amazing job. She mingled with the likes of Daniel Radcliffe, John Hamm, Gary Oldman, and plenty of other major stars all showing up for the British Academy awards. You can check out an eight minute video of Piggy's hosting gig below!



ToyFair 2012 was this past weekend as well, and our good friends at ToughPigs stopped by the convention to look out for Muppet stuff! They found some awesome Sesame Street toys coming soon, along with some cool Muppet toys as well! You can check out the full coverage on ToughPigs proper, but we wanted to spotlight some cool stuff below. First up is another look at the Funko POP! Muppet figures coming soon. The artwork shown here reveals pupils on the figures, along with fantastically awesome Mahna Mahna and Snowth figures! Looky looky!
Also from Funko are some incredibly awesome Muppet bobbleheads--also coming soon. How amazing is it that we'll be getting a Dr. Teeth bobblehead before too long?! Must have!
It was a slow week for Muppet news, but here we have an article from Empire Online in which they interviewed various celebrities to find out their favorite Muppets. There are some spectacularly obscure choices (Simon Pegg loves Floyd, Ricky Gervais loves Robin the Frog, etc.) and some hilarious and aggravating, incredibly wrong choices as well. Someone asserted that Walt Disney was a Muppet, Ryan Reynolds made an off-color comment about Gonzo, David Yates like something called Ernie the Frog. But mostly, it's just neat to hear celebrities talking about Muppets!

Finally, the petition telling The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to let the Muppets sing at the Academy Awards next Sunday, February 26th, has reached nearly 60,000 signatures. It's over halfway towards its goal of 100,000, so if you haven't already sign and share the petition with everyone you know! We could get the Muppets at the Oscars! Come on, Muppet fans!






The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier, ryguy102390@gmail.com

Feb 9, 2012

News Update: February 9, 2012

NEWS UPDATE: February 9, 2012

Coming soon to a video game console near you: Muppet costumes for the popular game Disney Universe available on the X-Box 360 and PS3! The game, which acts as Disney's answer to the popular Little Big Planet games (which coincidentally also have Muppet costumes), features downloadable content which allows you to get more costumes for your player to dress it up as your favorite Disney characters. Specific characters or costume details (or even pictures) have yet to be released, but for an example of what they might look like, check out the Mike Wazowski (from Monsters, Inc.) costume at right!

In huge awards show news (no, The Academy still hasn't changed their minds about Original Song performances), Miss Piggy will be hosting the Red Carpet for the BAFTAs in London! BAFTA stands for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and they've chosen Piggy to host their red carpet arrival ceremony before the awards kick off. This means that our British friends across the pond have the chance to see Piggy on TV interacting with the likes of George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Meryl Streep, and many, many other major actors and actresses. The show begins this Sunday night in London. No word yet on if American audiences will get to see the Pig in action... but one can hope.

Speaking of the Brits, Kermit the Frog and Pepe the Prawn recently filmed a commercial for the Cravendale milk company. The commercial stars Kermit and Pepe (obviously) along with the breakout star: Pepe's magic potato. Watch for yourself below...



Hysterical, no? What's even better, our good friend Matt Drapper has started an internet sensation (sort of) with his Tumblr account: Pepe Potatoes, where he matches up Pepe and his magic potato alongside quotes from history and movies and television. The result is absolute hilarity. Check out one of our favorites below and head over to Pepe Potatoes on Tumblr for yourself!
The incredibly popular line of POP! Vinyl figures from Funko, which partners often with Disney, is releasing a line of Muppet figures! The first wave of figures will feature Kermit, Piggy, Fozzie, Gonzo, Animal, and Dr. Teeth and will be available in stores soon. For now, you can see concept art for the awesome looking figures below (and start saving your money to buy them as soon as they come out):
The folks at Virgin Radio are hosting a Fake Film Festival, in which filmmakers spoof popular films in 60 seconds. Well, one of the incredibly talented people has made "The Muppet Movie in 60 Seconds" with a mixture of Palisades Toys, old dolls, and paper cut-outs--and it's absolutely spectacular. You can watch the video below but be sure to go to Virgin Radio's contest page and click the "Like" button to help make this the winning film!



Finally, in Oscar news, after The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that there would be no Best Original Song performances on the Oscar telecast--thus meaning no Muppets--people all over the internet took to protesting. Celebrities ranging from Judd Apatow (The 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up), Alison Brie (Community), Adam Levine (Maroon 5), Jeff Garlin (Curb Your Enthusiasm), and Patton Oswalt (Ratatouille) took to Twitter to show their support for the Muppets and their disdain towards The Academy. Even The Muppets co-writer Nicholas Stoller took a stand alongside Jason Segel on Twitter to protest the decision. But the biggest contribution came from noted blogger Perez Hilton who started a petition to "Get The Muppet On The Oscars!" As of writing, the petition has over 9,000 signatures (in less than one day, mind you) and is still growing. If you haven't already, please go sign and show your support for Walter, the Muppet, Jason Segel, Peter Linz, Bret McKenzie, and everyone on The Muppets team. Don't they deserve it? You never know if we can make a difference!







The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier, ryguy102390@gmail.com

Aug 13, 2011

New Sesame Street Hasbro Toys Now Available

Way back in February, our friends over at ToughPigs took a visit to Toy Fair where they snapped some pictures of upcoming Sesame Street merchandise from Hasbro/Playskool. These new toys and plush dolls looked awesome and I for one couldn't wait for them to be released. Well... the first wave of Hasbro's collaboration with Sesame Street have hit store shelves recently and most of the stuff is fantastic. Below we break down most of the items currently available from Hasbro and include the price and where to find them!

Sesame Street Playset, $39.99
Available at Target and Toys R Us
Elmo and Oscar 2-Pack, $5.99
Available at Target and Toys R Us

Bert and Ernie 2-Pack, $5.99
Available at Target and Toys R Us
Telly and Cookie Monster 2-Pack, $5.99
Available at Target and Toys R Us
Sesame Street School Bus with Count von Count and Elmo, $14.99
Available at Target and Toys R Us
Oscar the Grouch's Garbage Truck with Oscar figure, $9.99
Available at Target and Toys R Us
Grover's Fire Truck with Fireman Grover figure, $9.99
Available at Target and Toys R Us
Sesame Street Mini Plush, $6.99 each
Available at Target and Toys R Us

Talking Ernie Plush, $19.99
Available at Target and Toys R Us

 Talking Abby Cadabby Plush, $19.99
Available at Target and Toys R Us

 Talking Big Bird Plush, $19.99
Available at Target and Toys R Us

 Talking Elmo Plush, $19.99
Available at Target and Toys R Us

 Count 'n Crunch Cookie Monster, $29.99
Available at Target and Toys R Us

Talking Super Grover Plush, $19.99
Available only at Target
There are also numerous random toys available and Sesame takes on Hasbro brands like Silly Swimmers, Play Doh, and others. Fortunately, this is just the first wave of Hasbro/Playskool Sesame Street products being released. Later we'll see more of the 2-pack figures including already-revealed figures of Big Bird, Abby Cadabby, Snuffy, Murray Monster, Zoe, and Super Grover.

Keep an eye on The Muppet Mindset for more updates on these exciting new Sesame products coming soon and now available from Hasbro!







The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier, ryguy102390@gmail.com

Mar 24, 2011

"?" with Jarrod Fairclough: What is the Best Sesame Street Toy? ANSWER!


Jarrod Fairclough Presents: "?"
Because Asking Questions Is A Good Way To Find Out Things
Question: What is the Best Sesame Street Toy?
 THE ANSWER! 

Jarrod Fairclough - Hello sports fans, and welcome to a very special edition of my little segment.  Why is it a special edition?  We’ll get to that.

This is of course the follow up to my question “What is the best Sesame Street toy?”, and I received a few answers from people around the Muppet fandom world.  So let’s just jump in shall we?

Out first answer comes from our good friend Joe Hennes from ToughPigs:
“The Pook-a-Looz are really great plush. I gave one to my nephew a few months after he was born, and it's pretty much the most adorable thing ever. I was going to give him Fozzie, because I think he's most adorable, but I ended up with Kermit because I had a vision of him dragging the Kermit around by his leg, and that was too cute to pass up."

I love it, and I do think the Pook-a-Looz are pretty adorable. And I do have great visions of my little niece-phew (thats a mixture of niece and nephew seeing as we won’t know the babies gender until it’s born) dragging around a little Muppet.

But let’s see our next answer, from the always wonderful Ryan Dosier:
"I, personally, love the Collect-a-Pal toys. They're tiny, but not so tiny to be swallowed or stuck in ears or other orifices, cheap, and fun. They're like little ball versions of the Sesame characters. They're quite stylistic and not exactly accurate representations of the characters... but how can you not love them? And, also, I know it's not really a toy... but you absolutely cannot beat The Monster at the End of This Book."

Ha, I love those little guys. Might need to jump on the internet and buy some... For my niece-phew. And for me...

Some quick answers from some blog readers:
Lucus – “Sesame Street Firehouse.  Big Bird and Grover as firefighters...  It came with Barkley, too!”
Sparkle – “Tickle Me Elmo”
Shane – “Sesame Street Beanie Babies”

And a nice long answer from frequent contributor Michael Wermuth, Jr.:
“I don't have any Sesame Street toys that have been produced in the past ten years, but I guess you can't go wrong with Tickle Me Elmo or any variation. Or those anniversary plush that came out a few years ago. I'd also recommend the Sesame Street Beans that came out in 1998, the Magic Talking Kermit, the finger puppets from the 1970s and 1980s, and the die-cast Sesame Street vehicles which I think were released by Playschool in the 1980s. Of course you'll probably have to try eBay or search flea markets and goodwill stores for those.

I think it'd be easier to pick out books and DVDs. You can't go wrong with The Monster at the End of the Book, and there is a book called the Sesame Street Treasury, which combines many books from the show's 40 year history (including How to Be a Grouch and The People in Your Neighborhood). When it comes to DVDs, I'd suggest Monster Hits, Silly Storytime, C is for Cookie Monster, Bert and Ernie's Word Play, A Celebration of Me Grover, or any of the anniversary DVDs.”

Some great answers there.  I love every single one of these ideas, and I’ve actually seen the big Treasury book around, so I might have to get that and put it away for a couple of years time.

So there we have it, some fantastic answers from fantastic people.  And a lovely little way to wrap up my segment "?"

Whoa, I hear you say.  Rewind that.  Play it again.  “...lovely way to wrap up my segment ‘?’”

Yes  That is why this is a special edition, my friends, for it is, at least for the foreseeable future, my final edition of this segment. Why? Let me tell you. When I began this post with the question about Oscar’s can, that was the only thing I could think to ask. I managed to come up with a few questions, but the vast majority I came up with were easily answerable with a bit of looking. And truth be told, I’m out of questions. So, I’ve decided to end it. But thank you to everyone who ever submitted or helped get answers for me.

Thanks to Joe Hennes from ToughPigs for getting me in contact with Joe Mathieu. Thanks to Joe Mathieu who was kind enough to give me a detailed answer in my first edition, and has since been very kind to me.  Thanks to Katy Perry for wearing scantily clad clothing. Thanks to Corey Edwards, the hopefully director of The Fraggle Rock Movie. Thanks to Jim Lewis for an answer about Pepe, and then of course a huge thanks to Bill Barretta for an answer on the same question. Thanks to the people here who put in their answers about kids toys. Thanks to Beau for his comments. Thanks to Artie Esposito – he knows why. Thanks to Paul McGinnis. Thanks to Emilio Delgado, who had written an answer for an unpublished edition about Maria and Luis’ last names. Thanks to Matt Vogel – he didn’t do anything for my segment, but the man is still responsible for getting me on the Sesame Street set back in 2008. And, of course, thanks to Ryan Dosier, a man so filled with Muppet fan-ism that it makes me jealous.

BUT NEVER FEAR, for I’m not disappearing. Just this segment is disappearing. It took me 18 months to get a ‘Frequent Contributor’ credit, and I’m not losing it anytime soon. I will be back, in some type of other format, doing some other type of segment. I need to talk to Ryan about some ideas.

But, before I really end this thing, you may recall in my very first answer about Oscar that I saw an episode where he was wearing a garbage can lid as a hat, but I missed out on getting a photo...

Well, guess what I managed to catch on TV the other day?


See ya, kids.
Jarrod Fairclough.







The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier
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