• Welcome to the Muppet Central Forum!
    You are viewing our forum as a guest. Join our free community to post topics and start private conversations. Please contact us if you need help.
  • Christmas Music
    Our 24th annual Christmas Music Merrython is underway on Muppet Central Radio. Listen to the best Muppet Christmas music of all-time through December 25.
  • Macy's Thanksgiving Parade
    Let us know your thoughts on the Sesame Street appearance at the annual Macy's Parade.
  • Jim Henson Idea Man
    Remember the life. Honor the legacy. Inspire your soul. The new Jim Henson documentary "Idea Man" is now streaming exclusively on Disney+.
  • Back to the Rock Season 2
    Fraggle Rock Back to the Rock Season 2 has premiered on AppleTV+. Watch the anticipated new season and let us know your thoughts.
  • Bear arrives on Disney+
    The beloved series has been off the air for the past 15 years. Now all four seasons are finally available for a whole new generation.
  • Sam and Friends Book
    Read our review of the long-awaited book, "Sam and Friends - The Story of Jim Henson's First Television Show" by Muppet Historian Craig Shemin.

Is There A Reason There's No New Figure Line?

minor muppetz

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 19, 2005
Messages
16,073
Reaction score
2,660
Recently, there was a line of Muppet figures spoofing Star Wars... I wonder if Disney should try more Muppet figure lines based on other popular franchises. Marvel superheroes comes to mind right now.

Hmm, I wonder if there'll be new Muppet Star Wars figures when the new Star Wars movies come out.
 

Drtooth

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 16, 2002
Messages
31,717
Reaction score
6,710
...and Major Box Office Bomb Legends of Oz actually has a toy line (!)
 

rexcrk

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 6, 2003
Messages
1,531
Reaction score
198
I honestly don't know what toy company could produce good "mass market" figures that are worthy of the Muppets. The palisades line was truly amazing, and totally spoiled us lol, but I feel like all mass market toys in general have been lacking. I don't know if that's a result of me just getting older if toys really are getting "worse".

Like Transformers, the new toys for Age of Extinction all look pretty crappy to me, whereas the toys for the first three movies were all pretty great.

I think I'd rather see the Muppets not have any toys at all than not-so-great toys.
 

Drtooth

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 16, 2002
Messages
31,717
Reaction score
6,710
I honestly don't know what toy company could produce good "mass market" figures that are worthy of the Muppets. The palisades line was truly amazing, and totally spoiled us lol, but I feel like all mass market toys in general have been lacking. I don't know if that's a result of me just getting older if toys really are getting "worse".
If we saw Palisades quality Muppet figures today, they'd be well over 20 bucks a piece. The action figure bubble burst years ago, and it's only a matter of time before we lose the small amount of general retail TV cartoon based toy lines go away again. The only specialty figures I see anymore are 30 dollar video game based ones, and maybe a slightly cheaper 25 bucks a piece horror movie ones. There's no room for classic television programing toys anymore. And face it, back when they had them, only a handful of companies did a good job. The rest just over-saturated the market.

I find it HIGH time we get over the "spoiled by Palisades Quality" crap. We never saw that quality of Muppet merchandise before, and we were happy. The Fisher Price puppets look like garbage compared to those figures, it's true, but they were high quality for their day. Worst we'd get is Disney store figurine quality, and those figure sets are quite well done.

Like Transformers, the new toys for Age of Extinction all look pretty crappy to me, whereas the toys for the first three movies were all pretty great.
There's a rather lame excuse for that. There's a side collector's line that I can't really find, but the entire line was made with younger children in mind, which is why we have so many gimmick driven One Step changers and stuff like that. Which stinks because the Transformers Prime line was pretty good quality, especially the smaller ones that turned into detailed vehicles and robots instead of being crappy little brick things.
 

Mad Monty fan

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 26, 2014
Messages
409
Reaction score
117
Well at least they have Pop figures now, which although they can't begin to compare to the Palisades figures, are decent. Ones I have so far are Dr. Teeth, Fozzie, Gonzo, and Kermit. I still need Animal, Mahna Mahna, Snowth, Sam, The Swedish Chef, and Miss Piggy and then I'll be all caught up. I find that if you don't take them out of the box, they stay in good condition. I mean sure, I take my Dr. Teeth and Fozzie ones out of their boxes from time to time, but i put them back in afterwards.
 

JJandJanice

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 8, 2006
Messages
2,218
Reaction score
153
As much as I do love the Palisades Muppet line and still treasure my collection to this day, I do feel it's about time people here stop comparing EVERY Muppet figure (rather it's the Disney store figurines, Vinylmation or Funko Pop figures) to them.
 

Drtooth

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 16, 2002
Messages
31,717
Reaction score
6,710
As much as I do love the Palisades Muppet line and still treasure my collection to this day, I do feel it's about time people here stop comparing EVERY Muppet figure (rather it's the Disney store figurines, Vinylmation or Funko Pop figures) to them.
YES!

Large, highly detailed action figures were a turn of the millennium thing, and no one wants to admit it. They don't sell like they used to, and we're not going to see that kind of boom ever again. There are only hard core gamer licenses and current or cult movie licenses by semi-independent companies with no room for nostalgic or kid friendly ones. If so, Jazzwares' Nickelodeon line should have been a bigger hit than it was. Nope. it ended before a second wave which would have featured Rocko. If that was such a license to print money, we would have seen him. We didn't. And the big lines, like Pacific Rim and Team Fortress 2 are like upwards of 30 bucks.

If we saw a Muppet figure license like that, we'd see 1 or 2 at most lines of A-list characters (no Van Neuters, Marvin Suggses, or Link Hogthrobs) that would cost 20 bucks at least, come with no accessories (or maybe just one small one), and you could only buy them at comic book shops (or if you're lucky, TRU) because the big entertainment retailers that sold the Muppet line went under because everyone's using Netflix instead of buying enough DVD's to keep them in business.

That said, the Disney Store figure sets are tops. Especially if you don't mind rebuying the same figures with bases so they actually stand. I'm disappointed they didn't release a mega figure set with more characters for MMW.
 

JJandJanice

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 8, 2006
Messages
2,218
Reaction score
153
Exactly just like baseball cards and comic books before it, actions figures were hot, than went down.
 

los

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 23, 2008
Messages
165
Reaction score
73
If we saw a Muppet figure license like that, we'd see 1 or 2 at most lines of A-list characters (no Van Neuters, Marvin Suggses, or Link Hogthrobs) that would cost 20 bucks at least, come with no accessories (or maybe just one small one), and you could only buy them at comic book shops (or if you're lucky, TRU
Isn't $20 minimum what some of us are paying on the secondary market? Many times loose with little to no accessories.
That said, with heavy heart I do conceed that another line like Palisades is nothing but a dream. The Disney packs would be great if they kept expanding to other characters too.
 
Top