Vintage Sesame Street Count Puppet from Canada

[AnimalAttack]

Hi David,

I'd like to clear up one thing. In my post above I mention an ebay auction with a box and count, with the count not having a tongue. In retrospect, that's not for the ebay auction I was thinking of, so I'm not sure the origins of that photo. I suspect the box and Count combination was put together later and were not found together. The box itself appears to be the same one that came from an ebay auction I saw recently, however, I recall now that the puppet that came with the box was a cloth count, which only adds more confusion. So, in a nutshell, I don't think any conclusions can be made that some Count puppets came without a tongue. I'll defer back to Mikey's theory for now about the tongue being easily removed without a trace left behind.

Regarding your Count, I did find at least one other photo of a count with the painted eyebrows and eye liner like yours. It was posted on a wiki a while back, but not sure if it's still there or was taken down. It's probably the nicest Count I've seen in terms of condition. Is there an easy way to post photos in this forum without having to include a url? If so, I can post the photo I'm referring to.

To answer your other question... yes, I do have a Harry puppet new in the box. Really nice condition. I bought it on ebay a handful of years ago from someone that had it in storage and it was never played with. I think it's the only Herry box I've seen.

Jeff

 

[AnimalAttack]

By the way, the seller from Canada with the current Count puppet up for auction replied to me and said he's the original owner and it came with a monocle originally. I mentioned this forum, so maybe he will join our party

He said the monocle did not have a string attached - only a nub on the end that fit into the hole.

He replied again and said everything is original including the bow tie and sash. He said he's the original owner and got it when he was 6 and it's been stored in his basement for 30 years. Not sure what to make of it since I've never seen a Count so different as this one.

 

[GroverBoy]

By the way, the seller from Canada with the current Count puppet up for auction replied to me and said he's the original owner and it came with a monocle originally. I mentioned this forum, so maybe he will join our party

He replied again and said everything is original including the bow tie and sash. He said he's the original owner and got it when he was 6 and it's been stored in his basement for 30 years. Not sure what to make of it since I've never seen a Count so different as this one.

Interesting - if this Count is all vintage he's very odd - especially the Roosevelt Franklin hands. The cape does lend credence to his being original, but why such a totally different variant? Gold stuff, etc. I wonder if the seller would tell us what year he got it new. I'd be curious if it was 1974 when we believe the Count was released or very late - explaining maybe why his puppet has Roosevelt Franklin hands.

 

[GroverBoy]

I'd like to clear up one thing. In my post above I mention an ebay auction with a box and count, with the count not having a tongue. In retrospect, that's not for the ebay auction I was thinking of, so I'm not sure the origins of that photo. I suspect the box and Count combination was put together later and were not found together. The box itself appears to be the same one that came from an ebay auction I saw recently, however, I recall now that the puppet that came with the box was a cloth count, which only adds more confusion. So, in a nutshell, I don't think any conclusions can be made that some Count puppets came without a tongue. I'll defer back to Mikey's theory for now about the tongue being easily removed without a trace left behind.

There was a wrong link up above where someone posted a photo of a Canadian box with a cloth puppet. Here is the image I meant that seems to show a MIB boxed rubber Count without a tongue - which leads me to believe not all Counts have tongues. Everything about this Count looks very new and unspoiled, IMHO. (Photo courtesy of Jelopi)

Regarding your Count, I did find at least one other photo of a count with the painted eyebrows and eye liner like yours. It was posted on a wiki a while back, but not sure if it's still there or was taken down. It's probably the nicest Count I've seen in terms of condition.

This may be the image you've seen of my Count. The original owner posted photos of him a couple times. There are other photos of my Count with a red background (from the eBay auction) But they and this one are the same puppet. If you have an image of another Count with painted eyelashes I'd love to see him. The cuff on the right side is flipped up in the photo below - but he doers have actual "cuffs" on both wrists which other counts seem not to have.

 

[AnimalAttack]

Yes, that's the picture I was referring to. So, the Count you now own and the one in the picture immediately above are one and the same. So, I think we're back to not knowing if the one you have is a one off or if there are more like it?

The other picture you posted of the Count and the box... Look very closely at the damage to the box and compare to the ebay auction of the cloth puppet and box. I believe the boxes are the same and the owner took a picture of the box and paired it up with a Count with no tongue.

 

[GroverBoy]

Yes, that's the picture I was referring to. So, the Count you now own and the one in the picture immediately above are one and the same. So, I think we're back to not knowing if the one you have is a one off or if there are more like it?

The other picture you posted of the Count and the box... Look very closely at the damage to the box and compare to the ebay auction of the cloth puppet and box. I believe the boxes are the same and the owner took a picture of the box and paired it up with a Count with no tongue.

Yes, just to be clear the puppet above is a photo of MY puppet posted a year or so ago by the seller I bought it from. She sent me the photo above after the auction ended.

I didn't originally understand what you meant about the box sold on eBay. You're saying a box showing a rubber head count was sold with a cloth puppet? And then you think the photo above shows that same actual box with a rubber-head Count "married" to the original box, yes? Alas that eBay auction's images are gone so I can't see the box for comparison. Do you have a copy or the first photo? A collector was the source of the photo I shared above and it's her info that the box reads "Irwin Toys 1974" I'll ask her if the box is actually hers now or if she just has a copy of the image, and specifics, etc.

But you're right, this vintage rubber-head box/fabric puppet auction included a vinyl cape and wand so you may well be right that this is a "marriage". I'd love to see the original photo with the box and cloth puppet.

 

[AnimalAttack]

Yes, there was a box sold on ebay with a cloth puppet. The seller speculated that the company shipped some cloth puppets with boxes showing the rubber/plastic head count. I have pictures from the auction saved on my PC. Looking closely, the box appears to be the exact same one in the photo you posted next to a rubber/plastic head Count. I'm assuming someone paired the two items together after the fact and they were not originally sold together.

I can send you pictures from the auction if you PM me your email address. I can also send you pics of my Herry.

 

[GroverBoy]

Animal Attack and I have been exchanging photos and, thanks to his archive of photos of various Count puppets sold over the years, we've found other examples of the rubber-head Count with the "ribbed" shirt instead of the much more common t-shirt fabric style shirt. So we now know there are indeed variants of this Count puppet! Below is a photo showing the two fabric styles:

Animal Attack's Count has the white ribbed fabric in the upper shirt but the black t-shirt material in the main body. My Count has the white ribbed fabric and a thicker black polyester lower body with actual "cuffs" more in the style of the Topper Ernie and Bert.

Who knew!

 

[VonCount]

I decided to join Muppet Central just so I could join in on this discussion! I bought a vintage count this year and it does have a ribbed shirt! In fact it may be a slight variation of the ones that GroverBoy and Animal Attack have posted. I'm sorry but for some reason I cannot seem to insert an image from flickr so here's a link to my Count Von Count puppet.

https://flic.kr/p/qkzp5H

I purchased him online from a seller in the Washington state area, after researching the puppet on Mikey's Museum of Muppet Memorabilia. In fact the puppet shown by Grover Boy may have been referenced in the comments on this page, the photo is gone but the person references the cape and how it was found in a basement and given to her to restore:
http://mikeysmuppetmemorabiliamuseum.blogspot.com/p/sesame-street-toy-puppets-1971-1984.html

Anyhow I've really enjoyed reading this thread, thanks for letting me share my puppet!

 

[GroverBoy]

Well, well ... the questions are mostly answered! VONCOUNT, I much appreciate your leading me to that "comment" on Mikey's site explaining my COUNT puppet. So here's what happened and what is going on with my COUNT's slightly different paint job:

I bought him on eBay in December. He arrived and was is spectacular condition even having his cape still. But I noticed the face was painted a bit differently. Beautifully! But differently. After the puppet arrived I began emailing with the seller asking questions about how long she had had him, if she knew anything about where he'd come from, and if she had done any restoration work on him.

The seller gave me a detailed history of how this and several other puppets had come out of deep storage (thru her sister's boss) and they had basically never been played with, and there was NO restoration done to them other than mending two small tears in his cape. Since he was in lovely condition I accepted all this at face value, and started asking questions about if he might have been a very early example or a prototype.

Yesterday, new MCF member "Von Count" kindly helped solve the riddle when she forwarded me a link to a comment from a year ago on MIKEYS MUPPET MUSEUM when the same seller described getting some puppets from her sister's boss and having totally repainted the Count's face and given him a new felt tongue. Hmmmm...

I've been emailing with the seller last night and today - and she has apologized profusely for not disclosing the restoration on eBay and not telling me the truth in our post-auction emails. I'm still glad to have such a beautiful COUNT puppet, I just wish the seller hadbeen honest about the restoration work.

OK, all this said - we have still discovered one new thing about the rubber-head COUNT. There ARE two shirt variants: the ribbed style with the better black fabric and cuffs - and the more common t-shirt-fabric style shirt. VonCount, AnimalAttack, and I all have the earlier ribbed white fabric on our Count puppets.

I'm glad I hadn't sold my first rubber COUNT puppet when I got the fancy 2nd one - so now I have the super nice one with a repainted face, and a beat-up one with a factory face. So I have TWO Count Puppets! One, two ... TWO! Hahhahhah