My Concerns About Collecting the New Muppet Figures!

[BlueFrackle]

bhg738,

Hey,
Me and Luke are from the UK too !

What part are you from, Im from London !

Seem's like we are nearly ready to gang up on the Yanks, First we gotta overule all those Dutch Guys first !

See ya

 

[bhg738]

brutus - Welcome to the board and thanks for your post! To be honest i am not that bothered about figures being split just that some are playset only. As I said I would love to get into the line but so much is against me - exclusives, playsets etc. I do agree Piggy could have been better it is the only below par figure and loking at other posts people seem to agree! By the way I was in Toronto recently and it is a great place!

beaker - Even I aint that mad. I am happy to only collect releases and think the best option is just 1 of each figure!

Luke - I think the Simpsons figures are getting better but there do seem to be size issues. Wave 1 seem much larger than others! I too have to think about money issues as otherwise its beans for each meal!

Warrick - I am in Liverpool - great to see some UK fans around.

Anyway it is late now so I am off to bed, please continue adding replies and I will get back to you all tomorrow.

Thanks again to you all!

 

[uncleduke]

Originally posted by bhg738

.... Jakks have lost MANY customers from too many exclusives and people are now only collecting bits when there were so many people wanting all WWE figures.

I think this line tanked because the WWE product has been terrible for the last year or better.
There really weren't that many exclusives, just the Mail away Lita and Kurt Angle (and those were pretty easy to get).
I even saw a Team Extreme on the shelf at Kmart last week (the first release from last year, not the repaint).

The Muppet exclusives are vriations of existing figures, not new and different ones.
Now, if Ken were to make up 400 Sam The Eagles for industry bigwigs at the 4th of July Wizard Con, and never offer them to the public, I would share your sentiment. But in all candor, I am really not that excited about the WW Dr Teeth. Only because he looks so much better out of the package. I would feel guilty opening up one of the rare ones, so I am content with the one I bought at TRU.

I find it quite sad that you are turning your back on something you profess to love simply because you "can't have it all".

 

[frogboy4]

bhg738 & brutus

I have assembled a chart to view the list of characters in waves 1-5: http://www.jamesvier.com/muppets/figures/

Keep in mind that 6-7 are still up in the air and that everything is still tentative.

Animal will have an exclusive repaint version, but you'd have to get on the Collector's List to nab one. You can find the email address in the Ask Ken thread around here somewhere. He will have blue leather pants and a black t-shirt with a convention logo on it.

There will also be the invisable and vanishing cream Beaker exclusives of the same sort. The Swedish Chef comes in a playset, but there may be a convention exclusive of him too.

The First Mate Piggy figure is slated to come with the Pigs in Space set so there's little that can be done about that. There has also been much talk about the Piggy scupts. The hair up one was to be a temporary version until Palisades could root some hair on her, but it didn't turn out right. I very much like the hair down exclusive sculpt, but she is quite thin. Apparently Henson wants her that way so it has nothing to do with Palisades' talented sculptors. This has been a much debated subject with us on the board. LOL!

The only other concern I can see at this time is that Sweetums (possibly with Robin) is slated to come out with the deluxe theater playset next summer. That is a set everyone should want, but it will be more expensive!

Statler and Waldorf are planned to come in the same wave but seperately (they weren't originally planned that way though).
Just thought I'd inform you - and Welcome to the board, Brutus!

 

[MaxGoof]

Couple things to comment on... First...

<<I think this line tanked because the WWE product has been terrible for the last year or better.
There really weren't that many exclusives, just the Mail away Lita and Kurt Angle (and those were pretty easy to get).
I even saw a Team Extreme on the shelf at Kmart last week (the first release from last year, not the repaint).>>

The WWE figures aren't bombing. They're selling a lot of them but there are SO FREAKING MANY!!! Last year, Jakks released over 2 dozen versions of The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin, and 4 versions of BILLY "I suck" GUNN. The reason there are no Jakks collectors left is that you CAN'T collect all the figures. Jakks is releasing well over 125+ figures per year, and has made over 600 distinct figures now. That's intimidating, even for Star Wars collectors! One of the first rules of collectibles is that you have to have something it's POSSIBLE to collect--if you put out too much, you're screwed.

I used to be a completist myself. I collected Radioactive Homer, Pin Pal Burns, and all those insanely rare Simpsons figures. And then... I realized I didn't care and sold every one of my exclusives (barring the THOH figures, of course). I collect The Simpsons because I love Kang & Kodos, Professor Frink, Disco Stu, Wendell, Uter, Cletus, and all the wonderful characters from the world of Springfield. Who really CARES if what they have is a traditionally-colored Radioactive Homer or a glow-in-the-dark one?

At the end of the day, I'm perfectly happy with my Dr. Teeth--I don't need Dr. Teeth in a weird-colored outfit that he never even wore on the show.

 

[uncleduke]

Testify, Brother Max!

Originally posted by MaxGoof
....The WWE figures aren't bombing. They're selling a lot of them but there are SO FREAKING MANY!!! Last year, Jakks released over 2 dozen versions of The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin, and 4 versions of BILLY "I suck" GUNN....


...At the end of the day, I'm perfectly happy with my Dr. Teeth--I don't need Dr. Teeth in a weird-colored outfit that he never even wore on the show.

Amen! Just to clarify I was just trying to state that Jakks did not make that many hard to find variants (which is what the gent who started the thread claims)

I agree with you on the Dr. Teeth fiasco. Personally I do not think Dr. Teeth looks that good on the card, I just never pictured the good Doctor with a bald spot. He looks much better open and on the shelf. I will not spend the ebay money for a toy I cannot open and/or appreciate all that much. If I stumbled across one at a decent price, of course I would snap it up just for the oddity factor, but I am not remotely intrested in spending the equivalent of a night out with the wife for one.

 

[bhg738]

Morning to all!

First to clarify - Jakks DID used to make a VERY large amount of exclusives however they have toned down. But now of course you have the problem that they are flooding the market. apparently Jakks took on a very aggresive brand manager. Thsi is now the problem there are so many figures and variants people have started not to care!

uncleduke - Thanks for the reply. I do agree that it may be sad of me not to collect them just because I cant have everything. I think after all your great replies I am convinced!

I am off to the shops!

 

[uncleduke]

Another Convert!

Originally posted by bhg738
.....I think after all your great replies I am convinced!

I am off to the shops!

gabba gabba, we accept you... ONE OF US! ONE OF US!



(with apologies to Todd Browning) I just couldn't resist

 

[ResidentLilly]

Jamie can you revise your list to have the shelf dates and not the ship dates? I want to try to avoid confusion...please change to:

Series 2-September/October
EM Playset-October/November
Series 3-November/December
Kitchen-December/January
Series 4-1st quarter 2003
Series 5-2nd quarter 2003
Series 6-3rd quarter 2003
Series 7-4th quarter 2003

Wnat the next year stuff to be more general until we get closer.

Would you mind?

Thanks,
Ken

 

[Drtooth]

Originally posted by towels
Five years seems like enough suspense to me!

I didn't get the thing five years ago, but rather last year. I kept it in the package because it was four years old (it was last year, so technically it's correct). I got it for free at a comic book store becasue it was going out of business. The comic store owner gave it to me!