40th Anniversary FP 1-2-3 SST Playset

[minor muppetz]

It's a shame they couldn't have made two-packs contain one well-known character and one obscure character. Kids would want the characters they know, and we would want the obscures.

Packs could be like this:

• Big Bird and Little Bird (or Shivers the Penguin)
• Oscar the Grouch and Bruno (or Grundgetta)
• Ernie and Guy Smiley
• Bert and Harvey Kneeslapper
• Cookie Monster and Herry Monster
• Grover and Mr. Johnson
• Telly Monster and Sherlock Hemlock
• Murray Monster and Roosevelt Franklin
• Elmo and Simon Soundman
• Zoe and Betty Lou
• Prairie Dawn and Don Music
• The Count and The Amazing Mumford
• Rosita and Hoots the Owl
• Abby Cadabby and Sam the Robot

 

[D'Snowth]

Is Shivers the name of that penguin Joey plays?

 

[minor muppetz]

Is Shivers the name of that penguin Joey plays?

I don't think so, though I heard something about an episode from a few years ago having a penguin named Shivers, though it's likely a different penguin.

The Shivers I am referring to is a character so obscure that even us hardcore fans don't have any footage or memories of him. There's a Muppet Wiki page for him, and it was started when somebody saw an article on Caroll Spinney from the early 1980s, which mentioned Shivers when listing Spinney's characters. Nobody knew who Shivers was, but then oen fan saw Spinney in person and asked about the character, and it was said that Shivers was a penguin character designed to sit on Big Bird's lap, and Spinney performed both at the same time (much like how Spinney performed Oscar and Bruno at the same time). It would be great to see how that was pulled off, whether Spinney could actually have an arm out from the bottom of the top half of Big Bird and into the Shivers puppet, or if an extra Big Bird was built, with an opening near the bottom and another hole in the back of Shivers' head.

I hope that something with Shivers turns up on the 40th anniversary set. And if not, hopefully a clip will show up at sesamestreet.org. Or maybe a picture will appear in the 40th anniversary book.

 

[frogboy4]

Those are all great ideas. Sesame Street: Share & Spare PVC 2-Packs Mini Figures.

I really think Sesame should think of creating a new exclusive line of PVCs in those sorts of 2 packs and keep moving forward. When they've used up the main characters repeat them in costumes and pack them with another more obscure character. With PVCs they can cheaply make all-ages collectibles to be sold anywhere at a 3.99 - 9.99 price point with no dust collectors left on the shelves. If those ever got successful enough they could use the packaging to advertise a different line of more articulated figures and or playsets. There's a way to solidly do this and build something potentially lucrative.

And break out of the old clip art and spring for some new definitive sculpts in classic poses to start off the next 40 years of Sesame Street. Creating those would aid in much more usable art for the archives.

Still, why would SW latch onto an idea when slapping Elmo in a fire engine sells without a quality strategy? There is such an industry at their fingertips!

 

[Drtooth]

Those PVCs should work nicely for that playset. Personally, I would have created the set with an extended line of PVC characters to go with them. It's an easy way to get characters included with 2 or 3 packs. I don't like seeing Ernie without Bert. Just think of a three pack including Abby, Sherlock Hemlock and Herry. or Elmo, Roosevelt Franklin and Guy Smiley.

That sounds like a wonderful idea and something they SHOULD be doing. But the less romantic truth is half of these figures in the PVC sets have already been released (if not all of them)...

The Ernie was part of a low cost PVC series that sold a couple years ago for a buck each- also at Target. And I'm sure that the Grover was already available as an Easter set.

And, as I said earlier, nothing about that playset, as good as it looks, justifies a 40 dollar price tag. I'm sorry... but it doesn't. Even the Palisades, well sculpted playsets didn't cost that much at retail. Someone has to tell Fisher Price we're in the middle of a...I dunno... recession? I doubt they will sell unless they drastically cut the price in half. I feel they could have still made a profit on it charging roughly half that. I'd expect it to retail for up to 25 bucks or so. But 40 is outrageous. But hey... anyone who follows Mattel as I do will know they are fooling themselves with those high prices. Their action figures aren't worth 10 bucks, and usually end up on clearance or even dollar store liquidation (that's how I got all the One Piece action Figures).

 

[SSLFan]

It's a shame they couldn't have made two-packs contain one well-known character and one obscure character. Kids would want the characters they know, and we would want the obscures.



Packs could be like this:

• Big Bird and Little Bird (or Shivers the Penguin)
• Oscar the Grouch and Bruno (or Grundgetta)
• Ernie and Guy Smiley
• Bert and Harvey Kneeslapper
• Cookie Monster and Herry Monster
• Grover and Mr. Johnson
• Telly Monster and Sherlock Hemlock
• Murray Monster and Roosevelt Franklin
• Elmo and Simon Soundman
• Zoe and Betty Lou
• Prairie Dawn and Don Music
• The Count and The Amazing Mumford
• Rosita and Hoots the Owl
• Abby Cadabby and Sam the Robot

Nice listing. Could you include others like Roxie Marie, Barkley, and Natasha?

It would probably behoove me to get an Abby figurine for my scale as well.

Aw heck, here's a list of some of the characters I'd like to have figurines of for the scale...

• Abby
• Baby Bear
• Count
• Prairie Dawn
• Rosita
• Snuffy
• Telly

I diffanately agree with you on that. Those have to be some of hardest figurines of SS characters to find. They only one I have on that list is a Baby Bear figurine, which came with the PVC set Tyco produced in the 90's (though I'm unsure whether I got the whole set or just that one figurine,strange). I would love to get all the figures Tyco released in that set, espicially Telly, Prairie, Count, Snuffy, Two-Headed monster, and Honker. And the textures on those look fabulous.


So far the only ones I have to date are

• Big Bird (from the SSL playset I brought)
• Elmo ( SSL playset)
• Bert (SSL playset)
• Ernie (SSL playset)
• 2 Zoe's (SSL playset, Tyco)
• Cookie Monster (SSL playset)
• Oscar ( SSL playset)
• 2 Super Grovers ( SSL playset, X-mas orniment)
• Baby Bear (Tyco)

and for what it's worth, I have a Count and Prairie from the 35th anniversary chess set. But I'd REALLY like to get some 'official' figurines of these characters.

 

[D'Snowth]

It seems to be that for every beanie Tyco made in the 90s, Fisher Price made a PVC of them; the packages the PVCs came in had collectable trading cards on the back, and the cards had the exact same factoids as the beanies had on their tags.

 

[CoOKiE]

i skimmed really quickly... not sure if anyone covered the Cookine Monster and Elmo 2 pack pvcs... its the same elmo that comes with the 123 sesame playset. ALSO... theres a school bus that fits these pvcs, and it comes with... the same elmo... and supergrover. In the front window theres a group shot.. i dont recall who was din it other then a honker driving.

I believe that these pvcs gave been re used so many times... except big bird.

ANOTHER THING

(seems to be) Newer PVCs of Big bird (sitting), Elmo, and Eookie monster are in the front of Target stores. You'll also find the same characters ink Stamps

 

[bjd624]

i bought the 123 playset for my son for xmas/his 2nd bday and it looks awsome... also picked up the bus... and the 2 packs (cookie & same elmo [now i have 4 of these elmos] and the other pack super grover [got 2 of these] & oscar...


also i saw the tlakin oscar doll it looked cool....

 

[D'Snowth]

Sorry to bump this thread, but I thought it'd be a good idea to show the timeline of the different SST playsets that have been released over the years...

• Fisher-Price 1974
• Illico (1980s)
• Tyco (1980s)
• Fisher-Price (2009)

The more I think about it, I think the Tyco set was a cheap knock-off of the Illico set... or maybe the otherway around... I'm not sure...