| C
O L L E C T I B L E S |
New Collectibles •11/01 - The Muppet Christmas Carol Pop! Figures: Bob Cratchit with Tiny Tim, Mrs. Cratchit, Charles Dickens with Rizzo, Fozziwig, The Marley Brothers, Scrooge
•10/24 - The Muppets Take Manhattan 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray with Frank Oz Commentary •10/1 - Supersize Count von Count •10/01 - Sesame Street Action Figures Wave 1: Ernie with Rubber Duckie, Bert with Bernice, Count von Count, Yip Yip Martians •9/1 - Fraggle Rock Action Figures Wave 1: Gobo, Red, Traveling Matt, Architect and Cotterpin, Flange |
||
|
|
|
Dolls
and Puppets
Fraggle Collectibles
Tomy Fraggle Rock Dolls (1983)
Tomy was the first company to produce plush Fraggle Rock characters. They paid a lot of attention to the details of the actual Fraggle puppets. The materials they chose for the Fraggles body fur and skin matched the actual Muppet versions very well for a mass produced item. They also replicated the Fraggles clothing almost exactly, something that no other toy company has yet been able to achieve.
The Tomy Fraggles were also in correct scale to each other. Wembley and Boober were the smallest, Gobo and Red were about equal in size and Mokey and Traveling Matt were taller. Of course, Sprocket was out of scale to the dolls but there were probably cost issues involved. The Fraggles ranged from about 12 inches to 17 inches tall. Sprocket is around 9 by 12 inches.
Unfortunately, the Tomy Fraggles were a bit on the ugly side depending on one's tastes in Fraggle plush. The shape of their heads seems a little smaller than they should be or their eyes were too big or both. If they weren't well taken care of, the material used for their hair could easily take on a dirty frizzed appearance that is pretty much non-repairable. Their skin also developed fuzz pills easily (Hasbro may have taken these factors in account when designing their Fraggles dolls). However, these were meant to be played with so, it was either play with them or let them live life on a shelf.
There
were 7 dolls in the Tomy Fraggle Rock line; Gobo, Mokey, Wembley, Boober,
Red, Uncle Traveling Matt and Sprocket the dog. They were all sold with
a folded hangtag attached to them that included a small black and white
line drawing of that character along with information about them. Traveling
Matt and Sprocket may have been later additions to the line because they
do not appear in the Tomy Toy Catalog sent to the toy retailers when the
line began production. Traveling Matt was sold boxed as well as tagged.
The box version may have only been available in Canada.
Tomy made plastic windup Doozers which are pretty well scaled to their Fraggle dolls and is most likely the reasoning for them not doing plush Doozers.
Pedigree Fraggle Rock Dolls (1984, UK)
A fun discovery to the American Fraggle Rock collector is when they first discover that there is a set of Fraggle Rock dolls from overseas that they do not own. The British interpretation of Fraggle Rock dolls comes from a toy company called Pedigree.
The best way to describe the Pedigree Fraggles is that they seem to be a combination of the Tomy and Hasbro Fraggles. They're also a little strange.
The Pedigree Fraggles have the appearance of the Hasbro Softies Fraggle dolls as far as their scale and eyes go but the materials for their skin, fur and hair are much like the Tomy versions.
The Pedigree Fraggles have removable clothes whether intended or not. These are not connected to the dolls by stitches. This is often a woe for the Fraggle collector trying to assemble a complete set because removable accessories are often lost by the original owners.
The
plush Fraggle line by Pedigree consisted of the five main Fraggles plus
Traveling Matt and Sprocket the dog. Pedigree also did a set of three
vinyl Doozers that may have been intended to go along with these dolls
as well, but very little is known about those at this point.
A strange factor with these dolls is some of the outfit designs. Red, Boober, Sprocket and Traveling Matt all have fairly accurate clothing. Gobo, Mokey and Wembley are a tad funky however. Gobo's shirt has multiple red, yellow and orange stripes plus he has no scarf. (It's uncertain if he came with these accessories but the photo of the Gobo doll on the box shows him with a postcard and a pen or Doozer stick in his vest pockets). Wembley's shirt was designed more like a jacket and always hangs open. Mokey's robe has no sleeves. The Traveling Matt doll came with more accessories than the others including a backpack with a removable bedroll. All of his clothes were somewhat removable except for his shoes. His hat was plastic much like the Tomy Matt.
Pedigree's
Fraggle dolls were sold in an open cardboard box with some spectacular
illustrations of the five Fraggles decorating it's sides. They also had
a circular hangtag attached to them with their names. The box back shows
photos of the five main Fraggles and the Sprocket doll. Traveling Matt
was larger and more elaborately crafted and may have been sold in different
packaging.
Bendy Fraggle Rock Figures (1984)
Bendy Toys specialized in making various cartoon and children's characters with "soft, safe, foam rubber". The Bendy Fraggles were crafted from foam rubber over a bendable wire frame with troll doll-like hair and sometimes removable clothing. These toys seem to only be available outside of the US
There were 8 Fraggle Rock characters made by Bendy Toys: one Doozer with a red helmet and three Doozers with blue helmets each with different tools, Gobo, Red and Traveling Matt Fraggle and a puppet of Sprocket the Dog's head.
All of these figures are fairly difficult to come by and even more difficult to find clean and complete. Traveling Matt and Gobo are the most common. Red and the Doozers are a little harder to come by and it's still not certain if the Sprocket head puppet was ever released, it may only exist as a prototype.
The Bendy Fraggle figures measure about 12 inches tall and the Doozers were around 10 inches. There are two forms of packaging for the Bendy Fraggle toys. It seems that they were first released in tall open-window boxes that had Doozer illustrations on the sides of the box. They were also released in a more generic Bendy box that featured pictures of other non-Fraggle characters on the sides. The boxes for the Doozers were also smaller than those of the Fraggles.
The Bendy Fraggles also have a number of running changes in their production making quite a few variations to collect. The variations mainly concern Gobo and Traveling Matt. Traveling Matt can be found in two different colored outfits. The Grayer of the two is actually completely attached to the figure whereas the more tan outfit can be removed. Traveling Matt also has an orange colored tail and may also have a white tail as well. Gobo has a number of variations. He can be found with and without a removable shirt. His shirt stripe patterns also vary having one that has the one stripe across the front and one with two stripes each made of a different material.
There are possibly 3 variations to the Bendy Gobo's vest as well. There is a thinner brown felt version with white trim and no pockets, and a heavier lighter brown felt version with pockets. According to the image on the back, Gobo also may have had a vest with white trim and pockets. Also, the scarfs in Bendy Gobo's wardrobe vary from a red scarf to a big pink felt scarf which seems to be more common with the attached shirt and white trimmed vest versions. Also, Gobo can be found with a purple tail and an orange tail. Gobo can also be found with painted and non-painted lines around his eyelids. It's not certain if there is a specific combination that each of these variations fall into, but the Gobo in the generic Bendy Toy box tend to be the ones with the attached one stripe shirt with the pocketless, white trimmed vest and the pink felt scarf with the orange tail and painted eyelids. Of course, this information probably only interests the most diehard of the Fraggle collectors.
Hasbro Fraggle Rock Dolls (1985)
Originally, the Hasbro Softies line of Fraggle Rock dolls consisted of Gobo, Mokey, Red and Wembley and 2 Doozers; Wingnut and Flange (Cotterpin Doozer's parents). Uncle Traveling Matt and Boober were released later on. Boober may have been released even later than Matt because he is the most scarce of all of the Hasbro Fraggle dolls.
The Fraggle dolls measure about 15 inches tall. Their proportions are a little off compared to the actual Muppet versions but as far as size and plush versions go, the Hasbro Softies Fraggles come closet to the correct scale of a real Fraggle and are the most sought after. Most of their outfits are attached to the dolls except for Gobo's scarf and Mokey's robe which are commonly lost making it more difficult to acquire complete specimens.
The Doozers were smaller than the Fraggles which of course makes sense. Each of the two Doozers measure about 9 inches tall. Their hats were made of felt instead of plastic and were stitched into their heads. On their tool belts is a silver coil of some sort. It's odd that Cotterpin's parents were made and not Cotterpin Doozer herself.
The
packaging that the Hasbro Fraggle Rock characters came with is almost
as fun as the dolls themselves. The Fraggles came in a tall, open-windowed
cardboard box with wonderful colored pencil illustrations of the first
four Fraggles released on either sides. On the back of the box they show
all of the Fraggle and Doozer dolls. There was a running change on the
back of the box. Originally, the box showed the first four Fraggles and
the two Doozers. Also, these versions were prototype versions of the dolls
and not the final products. The difference from prototype Fraggle to the
final product Fraggle is especially noticeable on the cuffs of Red and
Gobo's shirts. The final versions lacked these sadly. The prototype Gobo
has a more detailed vest and a longer scarf as well. When Traveling Matt
and Boober were released, the back photo on the box changed. It not only
included the two new Fraggles, but the original four were no longer the
prototype versions.
The Doozers came in a window box which was smaller and made of a thinner
cardboard. The box graphics showed many Doozers at work or causing slapstick
styled accidents. The art is the same wonderful colored pencil work as
the Fraggle boxes. The back of the box shows the four prototype Fraggles
and the two Doozers.
At one point in time, these Fraggles and Doozers could be purchased at clearance prices however, nowadays, they can sell from $50.00 to over $100.00 on eBay and in the collector markets. The two Doozers fetch quite a bit and because Boober is so rare, he can usually sell for over $75.00. In the box, any of the Fraggles or Doozers can go for over $100.00.
Fraggle Rock Doozer Figures (1985, UK)
These
Pedigree vinyl Doozers dolls are probably the closest thing to Fraggle
Rock related action figure ever made.
They are approximately 6 1/2 inches tall and have articulated arms and head. The belt is removable as well as the helmet. They have a striking resemblance to the actual Muppet Doozers except that they do not come with their antennae. These may have been scaled to go along with the Pedigree line of plush Fraggle dolls.
There
are three head sculpts known to exist in this line: a smiling Doozer,
a mustached Doozer and a whistling Doozer.
So far, the only known form of packaging these Doozer were sold with was a hangtag connected around the Doozer's neck by a string. They were only available in the UK. These Doozers are incredibly rare and can sell for near $100.00 on the collector's market.
Fraggle Rock Hand Puppets (1988)
There are 3 Fraggle Rock hand puppets that were made by Dakin: Gobo, Red and a Doozer. Each puppet measures approximately 10 and 1/2 inches tall. They were fitted for smaller hands but it is possible for an adult hand to fit inside them. They were sold with hang tags and were part of a larger Muppet puppet collection by Dakin featuring the original Muppets and the Muppet Babies.
The
Doozer looks like he could be Wrench Doozer but is probably intended to
be a generic Doozer. It is also odd that they chose to not give the Doozer
a helmet. It almost resembles an infant. The Doozer has a plastic piece
inside of his head that is molded to form the shape of his face, because
of this, his mouth is not made to open so he can't talk. It's more like
a Mr. Roger's Neighborhood of Make-Believe puppet. He still appears cute
though.
The Gobo
Fraggle puppet is very disappointing, especially considering that Dakin
tends to make very detailed plush toys (and especially to
those fans that want a really nice Gobo Fraggle puppet). Gobo's head is
the wrong shape and he has no stripes on his shirt and does not come with
his vest or scarf either. This makes it difficult to tell who he is unless
you actually know that Dakin made a Gobo Fraggle puppet. He looks more
like a Sesame Street monster or some kind of insane bird creature. The
thick yarn hair does not help this matter.
Red Fraggle is probably the best from this set. When you look at her, she's easily recognizable as Red. These were released rather late in Fraggle Rock's merchandising history, probably too late since by this point the HBO Fraggle Rock series had ended and the cartoon version never caught on. Had they been released two years earlier, there may have been a chance to see a few more in the line.
One can only dream of a full figure Fraggle Rock puppet at this point. Anything is possible though.
Go back to Fraggle Rock Collectibles.
Section
compiled by
Nick Bondra, Cindy Chapman and Phillip Chapman
 |
 |
|
|
|
home | news | collectibles | articles | forum | guides | radio | cards | help
Fan site Muppet Central created by Phillip Chapman. Updates by Muppet
Central Staff. All Muppets, Bear
Muppet Central exists to unite fans of the Muppets around the world. |