Link Hogthrob, in puppet form, wasn't used at all last decade (and in fact it seems like hardly any Muppet pigs appeared except for Miss Piggy). I wonder if the puppet was no longer usable then (I brought this up before, and someone pointed out that a Link puppet was on display in some Henson exhibet. Then again, just because a puppet was in good enough condition to be on display doesn't mean it'd be in good enough condition to be performed... And the one on display might have been the only one left). When Andy and Randy appeared on The Muppets Kitchen, somebody at Tough Pigs had heard from a secret source that they originally wanted to use Link and Strangepork but didn't want to spend money rebuilding the puppets, which I guess means they needed to be rebuilt then (if all that's true then it's great they came to their senses in time for filming the movie). Though that appearance came after Muppet Bohemian Rhapsody, which Strangepork made a cameo in (and it looked like a new, or newer, puppet to me).