Ask Ken at Palisades

[The Count]

Seeing as how this is the #1 thread to ask away about all things Muppets action figures, I'll ask away. Bought the S3 regular Zoot figure earlier this afternoon at Plaza Carolina's SunCoast store. This was a great relief for me after two botched attempts to trade my repaint for the regular figure with Uncleduke. So you know, it was the mail who loused up both deliveries and not Uncleduke himself. No, the guy's great for doing business with. Well, here are my questions. After asking my mom to describe the figure to see if it was well painted before purchasing, she noted the following.
1 The pants' left hip was a lighter color than the rest of Zoot's pants. She said that this might be due to a sort of reflective effect created by the store's lights and the figure's plastic bubble.
2 There's a small point on the figure's nose where she could detect the base color rather than the nose's real color overall.
Should I return the figure to a store closer to my home after calling to see if they have more of the S3 regular Zoot figure in stock?
Should I open up the figure itself?
Or should I open up the figure and ask my brother to touch the paint colors himself?
Please answer quickly, cause I rully want to display Zoot in his place of honor along with the rest of the Muppet gang who currently make up my prized collection. Thanks for your help and promptness with this matter, and have a good night.

 

[Misfit Toy]

Count, I'm seeing less and less Zoot figures around so I think they're actually drying up. It doesn't sound very bad at all, none of the figures are absolutely perfect. I think you should just keep it and have fun with it, because if the only thing wrong with it is paint ops, then you're lucky!

My Scooter had two right arms and I kept it anyways because I can't find anymore. I guess it just depends on exactly how picky you are.

 

[BaudGirl]

Hey Ken, I was just curious, since the figures are shipped over from China, is there any reason to fear contamination? This SARS thing has me a little freaked out. So should I boil my Muppet or do you think they should be ok by the time they get to me from China and all points and people in between.


P.S. I was kidding about the boiling thing. I'd just swathe them in Bactine and display them in a hemetically sealed case, never to be opened or touched.

 

[The Count]

Thanks for the tip Misfit Toy. The lighter pants color was a reflective type effect in the store so that problem's solved. As for the nose's pinprint speck of discoloration, guess I'll open up the figure and have either my family retouch that little point. Or maybe I'll have my friend Joel, an arts student/drama major and fellow figure collector take a look at it. Maybe he'll be able to touch up that small pinpoint on Zoot's nose with proper paints and paint sealer.

You know, I was thinking the same thing about this Chinese pulmonary flu. Ken, the guys at the CDC said that if you didn't have any rully pressing flights to China or Singapore that you should skip it. Besides, you can always give the factory their instructions via E-mail conversations. Just looking out for the health of the one man who's made these figures a reality.

 

[ResidentLilly]

Here's a weird thing. One week prior to my last trip to China I had a really weird feeling and a sense of anxiety about going. I packed my bags and then the day before the flight the feeling was SO strong I had to act on it.

Couldn't put my finger on it, but something was wrong with me going there. We assessed the trip and decided to cancel it..ultimately deciding it was better served for me to be there later.

While I would have been in China the US went to war with Iraq and the SARS virus broke out in SouthEast Asia. Weird.

Anyway...I am not worried about the packaging being contaminated. The factory will take steps to make sure that doesn't happen and so do all the people checking the goods before they leave the country.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

Wowee. That's something I never thought of, and am glad as heck that they are taking the measures to keep us safe, even though there have been some strains between the 2 countries the past couple of years.

 

[Luke]

Reminds me of that episode from the Simpsons where Homer orders something from China and the people packaging it cough some virus into the box - he's goes mad or something, can't remember the whole storyline.

 

[Chad Kermit]

Hey Ken,

The new Muppet section of the Palisades website looks amazing. I don't know of another site that is so complete in showing product and its packaging in multiple images. And the texture on the pigs looks great. They don't look doll perfect like Morgan Fairchild anymore but more like their porcine Muppet selves. You had mentioned earlier that did the new more perfect Piggy make up for the Series one Piggy. And to that I reply, what Series One Piggy?

Chad Kermit

 

[WiGgY]

You don't remember series 1 Piggy? She had her hair up in the regular line and her hair down as an EB Exclusive. Link and Strangepork look cool with the texture, but the true test will be Piggy. All Piggy stuff thus far has had smooth non-muppet skin. It will be interesting to see how she looks all muppeted up.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

Originally posted by WiGgY
It will be interesting to see how she looks all muppeted up.

Like my non-existent hair-do?