Is a Pepe Plush a dream or reality?

[Luke]

The likeness would have been a lot better mouth closed.

 

[frogboy4]

The likeness would have been a lot better mouth closed.

The likeness would look a lot better with my eyes closed! Just had to go there.

 

[Luke]

The likeness would look a lot better with my eyes closed! Just had to go there.

lol, i had to resist myself. There's also the small matter of his antlers!

I can't think of a better place for them to have sent all the bad Nanco Pepe plushes than France. That'll teach em for the war!

 

[frogboy4]

lol, i had to resist myself. There's also the small matter of his antlers!

I can't think of a better place for them to have sent all the bad Nanco Pepe plushes than France. That'll teach em for the war!

He he. Once a project comes around I think a Pepe plush could be in the works. You know, I think I've figure it out. Disney can't really put their brand on the Muppets (as in Disney's Great Muppet Movie) without irking too many people so they keep a lot of the merchandise out of the shops. I think they might be trying to solve that. I hope so.

I would love to see Pepe at the Disney Store along with Remy, Jack Skellington, Donald, Pirate Orlando Bloom (LOL), the Ogre from Enchanted and the Singing Frogs from Meet the Robinsons. I think it can be done. Eventually.

 

[Luke]

You know, I think I've figure it out. Disney can't really put their brand on the Muppets (as in Disney's Great Muppet Movie) without irking too many people so they keep a lot of the merchandise out of the shops. I think they might be trying to solve that. I hope so.

There might be some rights wrangling going on - i notice the 3 original Muppet movies are out of TV distribution but the later ones seem to be getting broadcast. Can't be a Sony/Disney thing so perhaps its to do with the Hensons. Unless Disney just want more money than Henson did.

As for Disney Stores, it seems more a supply and demand issue, maybe marketing too. The stores are in premium locations, the foot traffic is mostly young kids, so with the cost of the space they really can't take a chance and need to sell masses of current stuff like HSM, Hannah, Pirates etc. When Disney first bought the Mupps, the UK stores were full of plushes, stationery, clothes (no Pepe though) but the kids just walked past. How is a 6 year old supposed to know the Muppets? Disney of course made no attempts to promote the Muppets to them, or put any of the shows on their channels. Yet, it would have been judged from that time that they just flopped due to lack of popularity - crazy! Ideal solution would have been to have Kermit visit some stores, put some Muppet clips on the video walls - instead they use it to try sell tickets to the parks and nobody is going to spend thousands of bucks on whim so thats stupid.

The Disney Store does seem to be moving away from stocking the classic stuff. As you say, now no Muppets, lack of Donald etc. Even Mickey stuff is gettting rarer. In the UK the shelf space is even smaller now as they are trying to turn all the Disney stores into park like "experiences" so the parts of the store that used to stock the retro stuff are now turning into fairy walkways leading to "Disney Princess", and the video wall is now 360 degrees with capsules whizzing around it showing off HSM dolls while the movie plays. I'd rather they just had a good range of stuff to buy from all the brands - if i wanted to see the other stuff i'd go to the parks or cinema.

Things are starting to happen, i'm sure the Muppets will get re-introduced but if they were really going to bring Muppets back in any major way they are going to need to do a massive re-launch across all media. It's no good teasing the kids with Kermit in Mr Majoriums Wonder Emporium if they don't follow it up elsewhere - they always miss the spot. You seem em on TV, there's no merch. You see the merch, there's no TV - or they randomly appear in Disney Comic which must have confused the heck outa most kids, lol. Not sure whether enough kids would be bothered though even if they did make em a priority and invested millions for 2009, i can see they are a good solid family brand that will always be around but as for globally re-launching them - it's such a risk, much less of a gamble to just keep doing CGI rat movies and stuff.

 

[PrawnCocktail]

Well, it all seems rather depressing to me. But even from an objective point of view the muppets have a mega potential. All of the characters you seem to recognize in real people in real life.............that's what makes it so strong.
Anyway, I blame the Japanes and the Chinese with their ugly manga cartoons like chin chan and dragonball Z. Maybe we should combine the ingredients.....Take that Kermit-san, You will never get me Pepe Z! Mmm lame...........

 

[Zack the Dog]

There might be some rights wrangling going on - i notice the 3 original Muppet movies are out of TV distribution but the later ones seem to be getting broadcast. Can't be a Sony/Disney thing so perhaps its to do with the Hensons. Unless Disney just want more money than Henson did.

As for Disney Stores, it seems more a supply and demand issue, maybe marketing too. The stores are in premium locations, the foot traffic is mostly young kids, so with the cost of the space they really can't take a chance and need to sell masses of current stuff like HSM, Hannah, Pirates etc. When Disney first bought the Mupps, the UK stores were full of plushes, stationery, clothes (no Pepe though) but the kids just walked past. How is a 6 year old supposed to know the Muppets? Disney of course made no attempts to promote the Muppets to them, or put any of the shows on their channels. Yet, it would have been judged from that time that they just flopped due to lack of popularity - crazy! Ideal solution would have been to have Kermit visit some stores, put some Muppet clips on the video walls - instead they use it to try sell tickets to the parks and nobody is going to spend thousands of bucks on whim so thats stupid.

The Disney Store does seem to be moving away from stocking the classic stuff. As you say, now no Muppets, lack of Donald etc. Even Mickey stuff is gettting rarer. In the UK the shelf space is even smaller now as they are trying to turn all the Disney stores into park like "experiences" so the parts of the store that used to stock the retro stuff are now turning into fairy walkways leading to "Disney Princess", and the video wall is now 360 degrees with capsules whizzing around it showing off HSM dolls while the movie plays. I'd rather they just had a good range of stuff to buy from all the brands - if i wanted to see the other stuff i'd go to the parks or cinema.

Things are starting to happen, i'm sure the Muppets will get re-introduced but if they were really going to bring Muppets back in any major way they are going to need to do a massive re-launch across all media. It's no good teasing the kids with Kermit in Mr Majoriums Wonder Emporium if they don't follow it up elsewhere - they always miss the spot. You seem em on TV, there's no merch. You see the merch, there's no TV - or they randomly appear in Disney Comic which must have confused the heck outa most kids, lol. Not sure whether enough kids would be bothered though even if they did make em a priority and invested millions for 2009, i can see they are a good solid family brand that will always be around but as for globally re-launching them - it's such a risk, much less of a gamble to just keep doing CGI rat movies and stuff.

Oh Luke, i miss reading posts by you!

 

[Luke]

Miss seeing you around too Zacky. Welcome back!

 

[Zack the Dog]

Thanks Luke!

I'm sure sooner or later they will be a nice Pepe doll made, and I'm sure we've all thought this before like 5 years ago, but someday it may happen!

 

[dwmckim]

My thoughts on a Pepe plush - i'd say it's highly likely we'll see one in the near future.

As far as Muppet merchandise in general goes, Disney has been waiting for existing contracts at the time of the sale to expire so they can get things under their own labels to make more money off the brand...so when the next company gets around to making Muppet plushes, i would fully expect to see Pepe in the line not only because of the popularity of the character but also because any time a popular character is produced for the first time, that's a major notch for the company releasing it. Yes Nanco may have officially been the first, but in this case it would be the first EASILY ACCESSABLE release (ie someone who wants one can get one!) There's lots of moneys that can be made here, okay?