Hey all...gotta ignore questions in that other thread. One multi-eyed monster is enough, even if we are dealing with Muppets. So anybody has a question they NEED to have answered do it here. The other threads are for me to enjoy as a Muppet fan and forum member, and sometimes respond to, not as Company Rep Boy. Decided to do that as Jen wants me to spend a little more time with her and not chasing down every question on every board.
Ken, does Palisades ever intend to ship to the UK from the new website shop?
Not at present. But we are thinking about it. It will take some time though, so don't expect it overnight. Different fulfillment and licensing issues than the club stuff.
To summarise myself cos i wrote loads, i asked if there was anything fans could do to help you get promotion for the figures - like writing to Henson and saying how cool the figures are and that it would be good to see Muppets mentioning them on TV so maybe you could get some promotional slots outa them. I also raised the question about voice chips specifically in the Mega line - whether you might have the budget to look into it again for the figures that sell at a premium price, and whether rather than licensing the old clips, whether you could use the new puppeteers or record voices fresh. Many people disagreed there saying it would be like putting Pepe in 25th anniversary packaging though i brought up the Muppets Racemania computer game where this had all been done already.
Letter writing always is good, cause it makes us look good and you can't beat that. The voice hips are a no-go. You'd be suprised what little extra margin there is in the Mega Muppet lines, and there are MOQ's on voice chips we can't meet with the limited runs. I wouldn't have a problem with new recordings or old clips, but either way it is too far out of our reach to do.
I'm always interested in the behind the scenes work on stuff. In the case of action figures, did JHC or Palisades originally create the idea of the figures?
We went to Henson with the idea to produce figures. They liked the stuff we had been doing and made the deal.
Where does the initial funding come from?
Not sure what this means...but after we sign the deal we basically spend all the money and pay them a fee to use their characters. Licensing is a one way street. That's why it is so lucrative for a company to have developed characters to brand and license. Extra cash with a lot less risk.
Will the Tuxedo figures have top hats like Kermit?
No. At least not Rowlf or the next two. Maybe others, just depends on what we decide to do with them.
i know Ken has mentioned that Beaker not having holes in his feet so he could at least fit on a stand was a mistake. my question is that if they stop selling the stand WITH the figs, will they stop putting peg-holes in the feet altogether?
All figures from here on out will have pegs, even if there are no bases. Beaker not having them was my mistake. I just forgot to do it.
How on Earth can you guys profit from the Muppet Labs?!? It's a HUGE playset, made with high-quality materials, lots of paint and plastic, tons of details and little parts and cool things, one of the slickest window boxes I've ever seen with lots of custom artwork and designs all over it, *AND* it comes with the awesome Beaker figure, and it's only $9 more than a single Tuxedo Kermit!
We make very little on them. The playsets have the thinnest of thin margins. That's why we have tended to put more choice characters in them to help get the volume to a point where it is better than a break even proposition. That's why we had to raise the price of the Kitchen. Playsets this detailed ain't cheap to produce. The tooling alone on the Kitchen would easily buy two cars, and I ain't talking Corolla's either. I'm talking cars that most of us will never drive.
Before their DC Comics license ends this year, Hasbro has some surprises left, one of which I'm looking forward to is their Crime Syndicate line. However, the real nuance of Hasbro's figures to be released in the fall of this year, is that the packages feature four-colored opening bubbles. The bubbles are glued to the blister card backing and can be opened to remove the figure or placed back inside, without ever ruining the bubble or the card. I wonder if it's worth investigating to see if this same method can be used with future Muppet figure releases from Palisades. Perhaps it's past the point for Series 2, but since Series 3 won't have the bases for each figure, it might work out after all.
I'm opposed to packages that open and close. It takes the whole joy out of having something mint in the box as part of a collection. If you can open and close it, you will never have that, and collector's, a lot of the time, dig the MOC section of their collections. Funny that type of packaging always labels itself as "collector friendly"...to me that doesn't make any sense. It is PLAYER friendly, but devalues the collectibility.
Does anyone know who will be in Series 5, as well as the playset?
Can't answer that yet. Still in flux. People are getting so cheesed with us for making changes to Series 3 and 4 that I am gonna hold off on letting the starch out of the noodle until I know for sure. At least to try to minimize the feelings that people have that we have "done" something to them by making a change to a line that wasn't even in tooling and officially solidified yet. Even then there may still be last minute changes. Heck, few knew Foxy Cleopatra was gone from the Austin Powers line until the figures were out on the shelf. Sometimes people forget that you have been seeing the entire process at the same time I do, not a normal occurance for customers. Usually things change a lot before the announcments are officially made.
Y'know I was just thinking, how cool would it be to have both Ken and Mike from Palisades do a Panel at Muppetfest.
Mike did two at the SDCC. I sat in the audience for both because I was too chicken to go up. But if we were asked by the promoters we'd probably do it and bring along some other Palisadians.
Has Rizzo replaced Janice in Wave Four, and why ?
Yes. We have a pretty good reason why and I can't really tell you what it is yet. But the rumors are true and Janice is coming in a future wave, probably 5.
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