Hasbro's Sesame line to be unveiled at Toy Fare

[Drtooth]

At least they're not all Elmo toys. I dunno how I feel about that Murray figure; he seems kinda off. But hey, we get a Telly figure!

It's the nose. It's not correctly placed right under the eyes. But I'd still buy it anyway. Hopefully, they fix that in the final product.

And they're not what I'd call "straight up" PVCs. The figures are stylized—squished, really. A little like the Japanese practice of making chibi or super-deformed versions of characters, with oversized heads and small, compressed bodies. They're also similar to "baby" versions of the characters, although that's clearly not Hasbro's intention.

They seem to be very much the same style as their Buddy pack Star Wars/Transformer/Marvel Comics/G.I. Joe sets. They could very well be sold like that.

Overall, this is exactly what I was expecting, if not a little more. I'm guessing more "fan favorite" oriented characters would come out in future releases if this is successful enough. But really, Count, Murray, Telly... SNUFFY? Those guys alone make me very happy. I wasn't expecting them to venture out with character the little'ns don't remember. But just the fact that it isn't just Cookie, Ernie and Elmo makes me pretty happy.

Sigh... I hope certain figures are married to playsets.

EDIT: DOI! It appears, look in the lower right corner, that they WILL Be Buddy Packs

 

[GonzoLeaper]

Nice! It will be great to see some characters represented that have not had any kind of figurine made for them before- particularly Telly and Murray Monster! And I'm glad The Count and Snuffy are being included, along with Big Bird.

 

[Drtooth]

I can't say I have a beef with anything. Overall, I'm completely thankful they have characters that appear on virtually every episode anyway who never get merchandise representation. Though, I WOULD say I want Murray to have come with Ovejita... I really hope to see other characters froM Abby's Flying Fairy school too. I want a Gonnigan/Blogg set.

 

[minor muppetz]

Though, I WOULD say I want Murray to have come with Ovejita...

I would have expected the Murray figure to be sculpted holding Ovejia. Much like how pretty much every toy of Slimey is sculpted to an Oscar toy (though I haven't noticed Slimey sculpted to any of the new Oscar toys planned in this line).

 

[Drtooth]

I dunno. Even as a kid I HATED the idea of characters sculpted into each other. It really doesn't help much with play time... Elmo holding Dorothy is one thing... but Ovejita is a very energetic character... it would be hard to play with Murray and Ovejita if they're fused together.

 

[DTWolf]

They seem to be very much the same style as their Buddy pack Star Wars/Transformer/Marvel Comics/G.I. Joe sets. They could very well be sold like that.

I assume by "buddy packs" you mean the Galactic Heroes, Robot Heroes, Super-Hero Squad, Combat Heroes, etc. lines. While these do seem to be the same general concept, the Sesame figurines go much further in deforming the character designs. Those heads are enormous. I think most of those hero/buddy figures are pretty cute, and I even own two or three. But these Sesame figurines go too far for my tastes.

Plus those others (nearly) all have movable arms, and it looks like the Sesame figurines won't.

I really can't see myself buying these.

But I agree Hasbro deserves praise for their character selection, and I definitely appreciate the effort to go beyond the usual three or four characters that always get made.

 

[minor muppetz]

I dunno. Even as a kid I HATED the idea of characters sculpted into each other. It really doesn't help much with play time... Elmo holding Dorothy is one thing... but Ovejita is a very energetic character... it would be hard to play with Murray and Ovejita if they're fused together.

You know, I sort of feel the same way regarding the Mini Muppet PVCs that sculpted characters together, though each choice was appropriate. For example, the Snowths are permaneantly sculpted together. It's good to have both Snowths, and the alternatives would have been to either have two seperate Snowths in the sets (meaning less character variety) or have to buy two sets if I wanted two Snowths (but then I'd also have two of two other characters that don't go in pairs). I can play the "Mahna Mahna" routine, but can't have Mahna Mahna go between/through them, unless I carefully cut the Snowth's apart. The MCC PVCs seem to fit the "two characters in one" thing perfectly, as MCC PVCs seem more like decorations, the movie had a scene with Kermit holding Robin (and the movie poster depicted Kermit holding Robin as well), and it's not too bad that two penguins were sculpted together.

It looks like this collection currently isn't going to include a regular Grover (just a fireman and Super Grover variants). If down the road we do get a regular Grover, I hope he comes backed with Mr. Johnson. I also hope that a Super Grover 2.0 toy comes out soon, either as a PVC or a plush (perhaps that can come packed with a Herry Monster).

 

[Drtooth]

I assume by "buddy packs" you mean the Galactic Heroes, Robot Heroes, Super-Hero Squad, Combat Heroes, etc. lines. While these do seem to be the same general concept, the Sesame figurines go much further in deforming the character designs. Those heads are enormous. I think most of those hero/buddy figures are pretty cute, and I even own two or three. But these Sesame figurines go too far for my tastes.

Plus those others (nearly) all have movable arms, and it looks like the Sesame figurines won't.

Seems the movable arms (and we're basing these off prototypes... they could very well have or not have them in the finished product) were removed clearly because this is indeed a younger demographic than the Star Wars line. Though, to be quite honest, you never saw the Toy Story ones, have you? Not the Mattel Toy Sotry 3 line, but the Hasbro Backyard Heroes line. i've got all three sets, and I'm too lazy to try to get pictures of them, but it seems they're pretty much closer to those than the Star Wars/Marvel ones.

However, there is a very vast stylization on their other lines to accommodate smaller heads than these ones. There seems to be no stylization beyond the point of big heads on smaller bodies. And you have to believe me when I say this, the Toy Story ones were almost exactly the same (Rex had some mild stylizing, but both Buzz varients, the Alien and Mr. Potatohead were just scrunched up body wise.... Potatohead had really long inarticulated arms).

This also depends on companies.... Mattel's Brave and the Bold/DC Comics line and Toy Story lines are really stylized, the DC universe moreso than TS3, Playmates short lived TMNT Minimutants line had some body adjustments to certain characters, but looked relatively like the movie line... and unlike other buddy packs, they had removable accessories. Personally, I like the Scooby-Doo ones the most. They mostly aren't articulated (except the monsters), but they're fun to collect, and actually quite cheap (I got mine at TRU for 4 bucks... they're probably more, now since TRU went on a "raise the price on everything" spree after Christmas). I'll do a line up of them all later.

But you have to admit, when Mattel tried to do a similar thing, they just gave us old sculpts of 6 characters... here, all new sculpts. Plus, the fur texture on Telly is amazing! He actually looks more like the puppet that the style guide of cartoons and or posers they no doubt used.

All and all, I miss the Applause line of every character under the sun... but I haven't seen loose PVC's other than German Smurf figures in some time. Perhaps in time, Hasbro will do something more collector friendly, but as for me, I'm TOTALLY getting as many of these as financially possible when they come out.

 

[beaker]

Ooh, I am officially excited:

http://www.seibertron.com/events/gallery.php?event_id=166

Telly...Snuffy....Murray? *faints*

Sure I'd prefer if they were 3-4" action figures, but these are way too awesome

 

[Drtooth]

Anyone else loving the fur texturing? I am so sick of smooth Cookie Monster figures that look like Twiddlebugs. The fur on Murray and Telly is just beautiful. Snuffy too... Other than odd nose placement on Murray (it needs to be like 2 micrometers up), these sculpts are some of the best PVC sculpts I've seen in a long time.