What are the highest quality Fraggle plush?

[Gonzo's Hobbit]

If some of the colors on the other characters weren't so off, things would be perfect... I'm really not a fan of the too dark red violet Gobo hair...

Yea, someone reviewed the Sababa Wembley doll and mentioned that they didn't like the hair color. I'm guessing that it's a lesser of two evils things with some of these dolls.

Any idea why Mokey wasn't in the Sababa line? Did they just think that she wasn't that popular of a character of something?

 

[Drtooth]

Yea, someone reviewed the Sababa Wembley doll and mentioned that they didn't like the hair color. I'm guessing that it's a lesser of two evils things with some of these dolls.

Any idea why Mokey wasn't in the Sababa line? Did they just think that she wasn't that popular of a character of something?

I'll answer both. Sababa's Wembley was made to give the illusion of the multicolored layered hair of the Puppet under studio lights...'

sort of like this poser. It's sort of the same paradox as Gonzo's nose color... when the light hits it, it refracts and colors that weren't present can be seen. That's why one of the Palisades Gonzos (I forget which one) had various small color highlights of yellow and orange in it.

Secondly, Mokey AND Matt were GOING to be made. Sababa had every intention of releasing one or two new smaller plush a year, and they even planned a larger Mokey, Boober, and (presumably) Matt with DVD's too. But the retailers weren't biting, and I don't think they could have made enough money to sell them exclusively online. So they WERE prototyped (at least Mokey)... one member actually claims to have seen it at a Toy Fair, but ... well, you are forbidden to take pictures in certain areas. Other than that, they Wanted to, the same way Palisades wanted to have Muppets series 10 and Sesame Street figures... we just didn't get them because of retail.

 

[beakerfan76]

I find it sad that retailers wouldn't think Mokey or Travelling Matt, let alone any other fraggle would sell. I mean look at all the other 80's franchises these stores had (Care Bears, Smurfs, My Little Pony, to name a few) and tell me they aren't marketable.

Sorry, I just had to get that out of my system. As for Wembley, I don't have him yet, but I plan on getting him once I get a little cash. I'll let you guys know how he is when I get him.

 

[Gonzo's Hobbit]

I asked for Wembley for Christmas which is why I have been looking at them for a bit.

As for the whole marketablility thing I hate to say this but if you were go out onto the street right now and mention the above brands to people, Fraggles would mostly likely draw the most blank looks (I say this because I actually did something similar to that once and got blank stares or people who just barely remembered what Fraggles were). Now if they had indeed been marketed in retail areas the it could have worked out that people would be more aware of them and I don't claim to be an expert at these things but that is my understanding of the situation at least.

 

[lotusoftheleaf]

I came home tonight to find Wembley waiting for me! I took some pictures with him for you all to see how cute he is. I'm in them too because I took them with my laptop's built in camera and it was hard for me to stay out of the picture. I don't look the greatest because I just got home from work, but, oh well. Not like this is a submission for a beauty contest.

From the front:
http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/2996/photo6pw.jpg
From the side:
http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/989/photo7c.jpg
And the back:
http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/2215/photo8ns.jpg

 

[Gonzo's Hobbit]

Nice Pics lotusoftheleaf, thanks for sharing.

Question, does anybody have any input on this particular doll. I can only find Wembley in this particular make which makes me wonder if it's part of a brand or not.

http://www.amazon.com/Fraggle-Rock-...=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1292135578&sr=1-9

 

[beakerfan76]

I came home tonight to find Wembley waiting for me! I took some pictures with him for you all to see how cute he is. I'm in them too because I took them with my laptop's built in camera and it was hard for me to stay out of the picture. I don't look the greatest because I just got home from work, but, oh well. Not like this is a submission for a beauty contest.

From the front:
http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/2996/photo6pw.jpg
From the side:
http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/989/photo7c.jpg
And the back:
http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/2215/photo8ns.jpg

I guess it's safe to say I'm officially sold!

Looks better than the stock pictures, and you're not bad yourself.

 

[Drtooth]

I find it sad that retailers wouldn't think Mokey or Travelling Matt, let alone any other fraggle would sell. I mean look at all the other 80's franchises these stores had (Care Bears, Smurfs, My Little Pony, to name a few) and tell me they aren't marketable.

To be fair, a LOT of 1980's comebacks didn't work so well at retail. He-Man didn't do so well, and they only made expensive collector's edition toys that were internet sales exclusives for a while. My Pet Monster went no where, Ultimate Muscle was a disappointment (and I would have gladly sold vital organs to buy them if they went beyond 12 figure sets... as it stood, I had to buy the last of the assortment from Canada)... Turtles managed to have a nice stay, but that's because 4Kids actually did a GOOD job marketing them (too bad Playmates continuously screwed up the line with useless variant figures)... but Turtles and Care Bears were the only massively successful ones.

I don't count G.I. Joe (especially that it predated the 80's... that's just when they had the cartoon) and Transformers since those have solidly been around for years.

But The Smurfs stuff really didn't sell as well as people tend to think, and the movie... gah.. that's not going to be successful. Plus, you realize that internationally, Smurfs came out in the 1960's, and is still beloved in Europe right there with TinTin. So Schliech has always produced figures.

When the FR large plush hit Target, they had lots and LOTS of Reds on the shelves, but Wembley and Gobo managed to eventually sell. But if any problem was on Sababa's end, it's that they really should have released 3 medium plush a year instead of 2. That way we would have got Mokey and Matt... but let's not forget they ALSO made 3 Doozer plush (and figures) as well as a few other things. Too bad they didn't introduce Mokey in one of the other sets (the ones with DVD's... though they WERE planned).

 

[beakerfan76]

To be fair, a LOT of 1980's comebacks didn't work so well at retail. He-Man didn't do so well, and they only made expensive collector's edition toys that were internet sales exclusives for a while. My Pet Monster went no where, Ultimate Muscle was a disappointment (and I would have gladly sold vital organs to buy them if they went beyond 12 figure sets... as it stood, I had to buy the last of the assortment from Canada)... Turtles managed to have a nice stay, but that's because 4Kids actually did a GOOD job marketing them (too bad Playmates continuously screwed up the line with useless variant figures)... but Turtles and Care Bears were the only massively successful ones.

I don't count G.I. Joe (especially that it predated the 80's... that's just when they had the cartoon) and Transformers since those have solidly been around for years.

But The Smurfs stuff really didn't sell as well as people tend to think, and the movie... gah.. that's not going to be successful. Plus, you realize that internationally, Smurfs came out in the 1960's, and is still beloved in Europe right there with TinTin. So Schliech has always produced figures.

When the FR large plush hit Target, they had lots and LOTS of Reds on the shelves, but Wembley and Gobo managed to eventually sell. But if any problem was on Sababa's end, it's that they really should have released 3 medium plush a year instead of 2. That way we would have got Mokey and Matt... but let's not forget they ALSO made 3 Doozer plush (and figures) as well as a few other things. Too bad they didn't introduce Mokey in one of the other sets (the ones with DVD's... though they WERE planned).

Forgive me for my ignorance, I was only about 10 or so when these toys were out. and even then, I only got back into FR last summer.

I knew Care Bears and TMNT were big sellers, but I also knew franchises like Ultimate Muscle were going nowhere (The cartoon was awful, to be fair).

Like I said, the should have made the two, since they had prototypes and everything. Too bad there's no photos available, I'm curious as to how they looked.

 

[Drtooth]

I knew Care Bears and TMNT were big sellers, but I also knew franchises like Ultimate Muscle were going nowhere (The cartoon was awful, to be fair).

GRRRRRRRRRRR!

The show was as good as it got since Toei edited the heck out of it and made it kid friendly. The comic book is far superior, as was the original Kinnikuman series.

But with all the other garbage anime toy commercials we got in that era, it was a breath of fresh air. An actual series based on an actual comic that wasn't a toy first, and one where people wrestled each OTHER instead of hiding behind crap like monsters, tops, cards, stuff like that. You'll never find a greater enthusiast of the Kinnikuman legacy than myself, and it was one of the first animes I showed any major interest in before I got hooked on all the other stuff people aren't watching over here. And one could argue that was one of the few 4Kids dubs that was actually good. However, the cartoon was a moderate success, as it was a flop in Japan (again, the comic series was meant as an anniversary project for the older fans who grew up with the original in the 80's) 4Kids actually commissioned new episodes from Toei which tied up a very big loose end in the form of the Chojin Olympics arc that was never animated for the Japanese audience.

That said, the link to M.U.S.C.L.E. was blurred because Bandai (the company that originally did the small plastic erasers of the characters, as well as other anime that Mattel used the molds of) decided to make the toys similar to the 1980's Kinnikuman line, and not like the more memorable in the US M.U.S.C.L.E. line.