Disney Store Muppet Merchandise Released

[frogboy4]

1. The Palisades line came out during the Muppet dark ages, so one really has to credit Ken and his team for insisting the line continue to the very end. As Frogboy said, its better when you have a major project for the public is aware. Kids are way more into Phineas and Ferb than the Muppets...sometimes I wonder if in the end itll mostly be college kids and adults more into the Muppets resurgence.

2. The figures did not look kid friendly. I said it in 2002 I'll say it a decade later: They were perfect for older collectors, in the tradition of Mcfarlane and now NECA. But they were a bit too ornate, grotesquely detailed, and just not kid like enough for kids to be interested. But if Disney were to make smaller smoother action figures ala the upcoming Star Wars figures, those would have a better chance perhaps with all demographics. Even the buddy 2 pack thing ala Toy Story would be great.

Hey, I really take issue with your description of calling the figures "grotesquely" detailed! A very poor choice of words. Other than that, i can pretty much agree with what you've said.

 

[robodog]

I'd want a huge Dug plush but then I'm an obsessive collector of toy dogs. I'm starting to relax my "No plush" rule a bit.

Muppets cereal would be awesome. If they brought back Croonchy Stars I'd buy a year's supply. I loved that stuff back in the day. If the Flintstones can have a cereal on the shelves for thirty years why not the Chef?

 

[a_Mickey_Muppet]

I can't recall if it was really life sized, but it was pretty big. They had Dug in a big plush (I wanna say around the size of the larger Muppet toys) and a very large one that cost I wanna say well over 30 bucks. It sold, but not all that well. it was never cleared out, but I can't imagine anyone would want something that big. Whereas it took them almost a year for a manageable bean bag plush. I hope to see Bean Bag sized plush when the DVD comes out. Something I can sit on a desk.

While I see a crap load of Cars candy and to a lesser extent things with other Disney characters on it (including Kellogg's line of fruit snacks), I really don;t see why we can't have Muppet SOMETHING. Other than the Pez we'll get (when does that come out and TELL me it isn't an international only item). I wanna at least see Kellogg's Fruit snacks... but it would have been something to have a Muppet Cereal. Maybe a new Croonchy Stars. But not even a candy bar wrapper. And I LOOOOOVE collecting candy wrappers with cartoon characters on them.

the new muppet pez are due out in january 2012!

 

[Drtooth]

Thanks.

I guess that November/December is too close to the release date of the Christmas Pez... I hope these are going to be world wide... as a Pez collector, I know there are certain licenses they only award to Europe. Luckily the Disney license more or less comes to the US (with the exception of the Ducktales set from years back).

Plus neither the American or international Pez site has any mention of them yet... though I didn't know about the Phineas and Ferb ones until I saw the US site a while back.

 

[a_Mickey_Muppet]

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Thanks.

I guess that November/December is too close to the release date of the Christmas Pez... I hope these are going to be world wide... as a Pez collector, I know there are certain licenses they only award to Europe. Luckily the Disney license more or less comes to the US (with the exception of the Ducktales set from years back).

Plus neither the American or international Pez site has any mention of them yet... though I didn't know about the Phineas and Ferb ones until I saw the US site a while back.

it HELPS to have sources when u run a disney fan site....i have ALL the DK (Ducktales pez) and The Phineas & ferb ones been out for around 2 months now i bought mine at the Dollar Tree, agent P is my fav of the 3. seems to me that the PEZ.com site is always slow on updating things!

 

[beaker]

Hey, I really take issue with your description of calling the figures "grotesquely" detailed! A very poor choice of words. Other than that, i can pretty much agree with what you've said.

Well it's not a bad thing at all. Mcfarlane pretty much created the modern adult collector figures based on R rated films, cult movies, M video games, etc. DC Direct, NECA and a couple others are still keeping the flame alive at Toys R Us, but basically the concept is to have insanely detailed large scale figures for an older market which I can't see appealing to a lot of kids.

 

[Frogpuppeteer]

food promotion is tricky...most of it has to do with product placement and who sponsors what in the film...it doesn't seem like the Muppets are taking that route, cause we would've seen the tie in commercials so i feel food promotion will come after if there is any

 

[frogboy4]

Well it's not a bad thing at all. Mcfarlane pretty much created the modern adult collector figures based on R rated films, cult movies, M video games, etc. DC Direct, NECA and a couple others are still keeping the flame alive at Toys R Us, but basically the concept is to have insanely detailed large scale figures for an older market which I can't see appealing to a lot of kids.

I think there's definitely a market for simplified, smoother pvc toys or ones with limited detail and articulation, but I don't agree with your choice of words. Adjective trouble. I'm hoping that you misspoke when you referred to Palisades' stunning work as "grotesque" (i.e. odd, unnatural in shape, appearance, character, fantastically ugly, absurd or bizarre) in detail or any other way. I understand what you're getting at, but you don't have to insult one artform when voicing your preference to another. That's all I'm saying.

Getting back to the point. I do think a scaled-down line of Muppet figures would have had an increased profit margin and that's probably how Disney will proceed in the area of the Muppets figural-form future. I just hope the likenesses turn out better than the Star Wars line. They didn't quite pull off the quality of their concept art.

I see the Muppets as more than nostalgic or trendy Tchotchkies to push product. I see the characters and the brand as touchstones of evergreen quality and Disney's trying to grow that. I have great respect for the Muppets product history and this groundwork being lain for their future. There are probably going to be some bumps along the way, but as far as I'm concerned they're doing a pretty good job.

 

[Drtooth]

it HELPS to have sources when u run a disney fan site....i have ALL the DK (Ducktales pez) and The Phineas & ferb ones been out for around 2 months now i bought mine at the Dollar Tree, agent P is my fav of the 3. seems to me that the PEZ.com site is always slow on updating things!

Yeah, the Pez site is a total improvement over what it used to be, but they still are very slow to update things. And they don't even have a coming soon section. So when I find out about these things for the most part it's when I'm in the super markets or convenience stores. They don't even mention the removable Cars topped Pez on the site at all.

Well it's not a bad thing at all. Mcfarlane pretty much created the modern adult collector figures based on R rated films, cult movies, M video games, etc. DC Direct, NECA and a couple others are still keeping the flame alive at Toys R Us, but basically the concept is to have insanely detailed large scale figures for an older market which I can't see appealing to a lot of kids.

I tell yah... that 2000 era adult collectors toy lines stuff just collapsed on its own at some point. McFarline used to do some great stuff... like their Beatles Yellow Submarine line... but when they did the things I actually view as grotesque (those HIDEOUS Twisted Wizard of Oz/Fairy Tales/Santa Claus lines for example), they completely lost all my respect. Someone did get me the Hong Kong Phooey scene statue thing, and I'm too afraid to open it because it looks like it would break like a twig. But some of the lines I saw back then... I just didn't see the appeal, and I constantly saw them just sit there through markdown after markdown.

Now everyone collects overpriced blind box figures that cost the exact same as the large overly sculpted things from 5 years ago.

Getting back to the point. I do think a scaled-down line of Muppet figures would have had an increased profit margin and that's probably how Disney will proceed in the area of the Muppets figural-form future.

That's all we're missing, and my only source of disappointment. You see some of these Disney figure collections, and they're great. The Chicken Little one was a work of art. I mean some had questionable paintjobs here and there... but imagine a slightly scaled down Muppet line that's completely kid friendly but collector's friendly as well. Ever see the deluxe Lion King PVC set? That's what they should be going for. Even outside the Disney store... they had blister packaged Smurf figures that flew off the shelves after the movie hit. Something like that. Even something like Hasbro's Sesame Street line without the Super Deformation.

I think I get the problem now. Disney has a hard time with adult collectors, like someone else said earlier, and Disney wants to wait and see how the movie does before it does any kiddy stuff. Still, the plush toys are doing quite well... that should be a good enough reason to make more stuff when the film comes out on DVD.

 

[Frogpuppeteer]

so this is Disney Store Kermit and Disney World Fozzie...i think they go well together

and for those who want to see this is Disney World current Kermit and Disney Store Kermit, i actually like the Disney Store one alot Better

also Mini Nanco Pepe and New Pepe