No Muppet Merchandise at Disney's NY Store

[chrislynch]

ok, didn't Disney buy the 'Muppets' ? as in Miss Piggy and Kermit?

So why did the Disney store in Time Sqaure in New York have NO Muppet products? How do they expect the brand and the new movie as a hit, with NO PR surrounding the Muppets?

I can't but help think that the Muppets have had their hey-day- the 70's and 80's - and like Muppets from Space.. It won't have the pulling power the brand once did.

 

[Frogpuppeteer]

hardly any disney stores have Muppet Merch no matter where you go...and main reason is there really isnt that much right now, id say wait be patient and check back when the movie actually comes out

 

[frogboy4]

Don't worry. It's coming. That store must have sold out or will restock in one or more of the next year's coming quarters. This was probably somewhere mixed in with the ornaments at sometime this holiday season. Expect a boom around next year's film. I just wonder how big.

 

[TheMonsterAteMe]

I was just there from the 19-23rd and when I asked a worker if they had any Muppet stuff he said "We should, but we don't." But I looked around and found that they had an Animal t-shirt for kids, an Adult laddies Muppet Show t-shirt, an Adult Male Animal T-Shirt, and a couple of Muppet coffee mugs! Also FAO had a bunch of fun Muppet stuff!

 

[BobThePizzaBoy]

This was probably somewhere mixed in with the ornaments at sometime this holiday season.

Yes, that's pretty much it for Muppet stuff for the holidays this year. But it sold really well, it's near-impossible to find now for a reasonable price. That should definitely be a sign to Disney for more Muppets next year.

 

[Drtooth]

Again, I feel that the Pook-a-Looz line shouldn't have been cleared out long before Christmas. Other than FAO's expensive because it's exclusive Miss Piggy, that was it for the line (thankfully I got all 4 of them as of yesterday... I got Animal and Gonzo back in the summer when they were first cleared out... Kermit was impossible to find after that). Ditto the coffee mugs. I'da bought one if I actually drank hot beverages enough for me to warrant getting a new one. Or I broke my Taz I got from the Warner Bros store...

But other than that, the Muppet stuff that came out in the summer was just that... Summer stuff, and some school/office supplies. Other than the ornament in question (It's not that I didn't want it... I rather would have had the Hallmark Animal and the Disney Store Agent P), the only thing I saw left last was one of those metallic water bottles and maybe an Animal shirt... probably still had some kids' ones and womens' ones.

But the movie doesn't come out for a year, yet. PLENTY of time for them to slowly integrate Muppets into their product line. By the time the movie rolls around, we're bound to see much, much more.

 

[Luke]

UK Toy Fair is in late January, it is usually the first indication of what products will come out during the year worldwide, so we are weeks away from seeing what movie merch is going to happen. US toy fair happens shortly after.

 

[Drtooth]

Toughpigs actually had an article about Toyfair earlier this year (still technically this year) right Here

The first booth I came across had an array of Disney plush, including the Pook-a-Looz (which we reported on in our D23 coverage). Unfortunately, this was the only booth at the entire convention that would not allow me to take pictures. I’ve submitted a request with Disney, so hopefully we’ll have some better photos to show soon. In any case, the Pook-a-Looz are just as adorable as they look in the image above, and they come in both regular and keychain sizes. Right now there aren’t any plans to add more characters beyond Kermit, Fozzie, Gonzo and Animal to the line, but that could easily change if they’re popular enough. And a line of stationary and bookbags with the Pook-a-Looz designs are also in the works.

The booth also had a collection of Muppet plush toys of Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzie, Gonzo and Animal which were based on the actual design of the puppets. And to be honest, they looked pretty good. The toys came as 20-inch “Giant Hugs”, 14-inch poseable characters, 8-inch bean bags, and 6-inch keychains. And now for the sad news: production on these Muppet toys won’t begin until closer to the upcoming Muppet movie release. So these might just stay as just a fantasy for quite a while…

Again, it sounds like these were planned almost 2 years in advance of the film, and we'll no doubt see some of this stuff closer. And considering they have EVERY possible character from Toy Story as a plush at Disney (except of course, for special guest star Totoro) we might just see more characters depending on the movie's performance. Yeah... no crap, but a LOT is depending on the film.

 

[Luke]

Toughpigs actually had an article about Toyfair earlier this year (still technically this year) right Here

That's the last one though. The products only appear at Toyfair when they want to sell them on to retailers and take orders (and that would be for this year) so we will see now what they have been planning.

Disney was focusing on The Muppets at Brand Licensing this year. That is another exhibition for product developers and licensee's to see the different brand and upcoming films/tv shows. So there has definitely been stuff going on with them.

 

[Drtooth]

Yeah, I find that strange too, since the movie was CLEARLY going to happen next year, no matter what. But I guess they wanted to be ready at a moment's notice. This isn't the same case of the Mindstyle Fraggle figures where they clearly were out of the loop as far as movie info was, and waiting to release them closer to a movie they clearly thought was coming out within a year. They could very well just have set them up at TF to say "Yep! We're gonna have a movie! Stay tuned."