Save the Fozzie Replica

[frogboy4]

Hey MRTom!

I'm sitting here with my three posers looking forlorn over the complications with Fozzie, but beautifully so!

For all the minor tweaks and critiques I have stated in the past (the Animal one is up in the official MC and on MR reviews) I still think these were the best Muppet products ever produced.

Your much appreciated post didn't mention the promotional photos. All the effort in the world was put into making these quality pieces and then these poor representational photographs were taken and used to promote the posers all over the internet. I believe those snapshots really did more harm than good and would have gladly ridden the BART or the train down to you guys on my own dime and armed with my digital camera. I still think sales of Animal and Gonzo could improve if someone took some better photos. Maybe a fan contest on the MR site for them? There would certainly be a few takers.

Thanks for your candor. We're still used to Palisades Ken giving us the play by play as far as high-end Muppet product. It was rare and I thank you for stopping by to talk with us when you didn't have to do so. I never thought this sort of product was possible, but you guys did it three times! That's a win in my book.

One more question - figurines? Will you guys transition to any figural Muppet moments? The quality of the Mayhem prototypes didn't meet expectations, but I still have hopes for something from you guys. Your Disney stuff is excellent.

 

[Telly]

MRTom ~ I agree with WOE. Thank you for giving us an honest answer. I think that the posers are fantastic, but I think they're more for the die hard fans (such as us on this forum). I have a lot of friends that are casual Muppet fans and while they marvel at the awesomeness of Kermit and Gonzo (saving up for Animal), I know they'd never spend $200 on one for themselves.
I think a lot of us feel disappointed because Having only Kermit and Gonzo without Fozzie is like having Yoda, Leia, and R2D2figures to the Star Wars fans. We need that one character to bring them together. Fozzie is our Luke Skywalker! Ok, that might be taking it a tad too far, but you catch my drift! Fozzie would've been a nice way to end the line.

I remember this was brought up in another thread, but I think it'd be cool to get replicas of Fozzie's Studebaker (from the Muppet Movie), the Electric Mayhem bus (again from the Muppet Movie), and the Swine Trek (Pigs In Space).

 

[Luke]

I really like the idea of a made to order fozzie and or really any muppet character! Get ready Terry!

Yeah but i think Tom is talking in terms of thousands of dollars, not hundreds. I might go for that just to get Fozzie, not sure i would carry on into further characters though. I'm sure they would have already tried Terry for this but if he could do something it would rock.

I like hearing these stories, and having to guess all these codewords .. it's nice to hear things directly so we know how things stand and not have false hope.

I wonder if the Doodahs had little bendy arms and a plaque?

 

[Telly]

I don't think they'd be able to do a "Pick and Choose" thing. If that's what it came down to, I think it would only be Fozzie and then they'd be done.

Although in my own little fantasy world, I would seriously save up for Fozzie, Rizzo, Pepe, Rowlf, Scooter, and Piggy. And then mayhaps Sam.

 

[Davina]

i would love to do that (special order characters) but a lot of it would come down to timing and finances. with bills to pay and kids to feed, I just can't be that free with my budget. I'm just happy that I got lucky this month and had some extra cash show up (along with the MR price reduction) that I was finally able to order Gonzo and Animal.. last time I had the money set aside we had a last minute emergency vet bill that ate the whole thing up last year. Didn't think i'd be able to get both of them anytime soon. I'm very sad that it doesn't look like the line will be going any further, I'd really have liked to get Fozzie, Piggy, Rizzo and Pepe, and hubby would really really love an Uncle Deadly (though we both knew that was extremely unlikely to ever happen..)
I was really looking forward to one day having enough of these posers to do a life sized muppet nativity display
I do agree that we are very lucky to have been able to get the ones we have, and I just adore having Kermit (the other two should be arriving later this week..)
If the line is able to continue un some manner, I certainly plan on doing my best to continue supporting and purchasing them.

 

[Kevin Knight]

MRCSTOM,

That was just about the best post I have ever read in this forum. Mine are pretty good re-reads too! Thank you, Thank You, thank you. As I have shown, my support over THEM (are we still playing this game?) has never faltered. I am for one very very surprised that a mere 9 months (not even) after Gonzo's release that his price has dropped from MR. Because of what we called lackluster promoting of the products, I think there are still people out there that, if they knew about the Gonzo AND Animal posers being available, they would pay full price. I definetely understand the economy thing. With trade disputes from the Asian market and England, etc. And the US dollar not being worth its paper globally.

I for one would be more than willing to attend any conventions as a FREE-lance MR representative just to get the word out and interact with MR's public. Having OWE as a former muppeteer, or Terry Angus as the original prototype designer. I'd be stoked as **** to meet them while looking at a product that I could purchase. But back to what I was trying to say. USE US. If we want this product bad enough, use us. It has sounded like at least 10-15% of us work in professions that are very business like, or in creative fields lending itself to common sense customer service skills. How many of you would be willing to put in 20 hours over a few days to attend a con, trade show, or in a marketing aspect with local vendors to get these products out of a slump? Would MR be interested in something of this nature? Creating a group of us "Muppet show stage hands" to go out there for MR. All I see is free help and us all wearing scooter's jackets.

I have to tell you I'm blown away at the mere thought that these are not sold at the Disney parks. The quality is there, and while on vaca there people spend ridiculous amounts on limited edition things thinking they can't get it anywhere else.

So maybe a question to MRCSTOM, what would the KING suggest we do for the kingdom? I think there's very little we would not do to help this cause. Even thought we're talking about selling a product, but in our hearts we believe we're keeping Jim's dream alive.

Once again thank you so much for your post. It was the "best" news actually we've ever had.

Kevin Knight
Waiting in Hartford CT.

 

[muppetperson]

to add some hope, I noticed the poll jumped from 42 to 65, which was a surprise from the usual jump of 1.

 

[mickeymouse18]

Why don't we put fozzie on hold and concentrate on products which will help promote whats been made already, and perhaps sell whats left. This may not be possible, and it may be crazy, but one of the problems people found with gonzo was his eye focus, would you be able to perfect these on the ones you have left, perhaps people would be convinced to buy them then, or buy a second. At the minute you say retailers find fozzie a risk because of his size, why not go for the smaller rizzo, this may help sell more gonzos as well.

For animal, in an ideal world producing replicas of the electric mayhem band would be amazing, but I understand at the minute, them not being the most famous of the muppets, they would not sell well. So how about some really great figures, that can you could pose with the animal replica, or the electric mayhem bus?

For the replicas we have at the minute, why not produce some accessory packs that have been mentioned before, this could be really great fun, and not too expensive, and may tempt people into buying the posers too.

I would really like a muppet show sign too.

Also correct me if I'm wrong, but were animal and gonzo bigger edition sizes then kermit, perhaps this is why so many are left too. I say fozzie is too big a risk of killing the licence once and for all at the minute. Lets go perhaps for some of the ideas above here, and an edition size of say 500 for the rizzo poser?

 

[Treelo]

"Let us know directly, you can call or email, and if anybody thinks they might know somebody who can get batches of these things produced in say 50’s lets hear from you."

Have you considered doing the replicas in 1/2 scale? It would save on cost and might still result in a really cool product.

 

[ButchCat]

Hi all,

mickeymouse18 the posers that were made were Gonzo's and Animal's actual size. hint: replicas at least the ones I built were. Sadly there's not much else I can say about the Master Replicas stuff for now.

Take care all,

Terry Angus