Ask Ken at Palisades

[kansasteen14]

count,

sesame street unpaved is a really good book about the first 30 years of the show.it covers all the muppets and live actors.it also tell some other great stuff.I havent heard of it on audio though.

 

[bizarreblair]

grail,

Very interesting to hear your take on Luke Ski. Your honesty is refreshing. I must agree with most of what you said. To Luke's credit, his work has been getting consistently better. But, yes, he is a very "dedicated" self-promoter. Still, it's nice for me to see people who are passionate about making comedy music. Of course, passion does not account for general rudeness (Luke's behavior at InConJunction). Thanks for posting!

 

[ResidentLilly]

Aerosmith
Will Series 3 be shown at the SDCC?

Yes, fully painted and everything. And this will literally include the kitchen sink, cause the kitchen will be shown there too. Can't WAIT to see what people think of the kitchen...

grail
Do you guys use 2-ups for your figures, or do you make the original sculpts in the same scale as the finals? i was really surprised back in May when i found out Hasbro sculpts all the Star Wars figures at that 3-3/4" scale...i was always under the impression that if you wanted good detail you had to start bigger than you finished.

We started at 1.25 scale. Actually that was gonna be the actual size, but they were just too darn big. So we shrunk em...and now we sort of do them at that size on all the sculpts. However...as of Series 4 we have started sculpting at actual size.

beaker
does anybody know if there is an absolute chart for scale reference of Muppets?

I have a good one that Henson sent me...but I am not sure it it is a publicly distributed image.

Gorgon Heap
Surprised how? Will it [koozebane set] still look like the set from the show more or less? What does the one in your head look like?

It will be the same planet as the show...turned on its ear. Lots more detail and some suprises...as well as a LOT of Koozebanian residents! Well, actually, I guess it won't really look like the show...but so far the only set that really does is PIS...

grail
of course, that probably makes work more fun than anything else...
man i envy you guys...i'm gonna go take my calls and sulk now...

Don't. It is still work, dude. It has good days and bad. If you have heard my beeatch sessions about the factory you know it aint all sunny days. For Mike too...it's a difficult thing to do this. Yeah it's great, don't get me wrong, the only way I will stop doing it is if I die or am let go...but the grass is always greener, and it is still work! I think it would be safe to say we would ALL rather be kickin' it on some beach in the tropics 24-7...

 

[Gorgon Heap]

It will be the same planet as the show...turned on its ear. Lots more detail and some suprises...as well as a LOT of Koozebanian residents! Well, actually, I guess it won't really look like the show...but so far the only set that really does is PIS...

Well, as long as it's got a cratery surface, maybe some caves, and of course a sky with some planets (good heavens, don't forget the planets!) I think it will look good.

Hey, question: the 3 figs on your Extreme Wish List are Lips, Clifford and Pepe. Uncle Deadly is also kind of up there for you as well, isn't he? I remember that you expressed interest in making him as he looks very different from most of the Muppets.

Don't forget the Boppity and Gloat two-pack idea for down the line. I think at least some of us might like to have some of the generic characters as they added scale to the show and will allow us to do our own production numbers

I called my local TRU (and she said "You're looking for Muppet Babies, right?" "Muppet Show action figures." "Whatever." It had to happen sometime, gall dang it.) Gave them the SKU for Tux Kermit- active item, no pending shipments, no open orders in NY. Have I missed the window? They claim they haven't had it in store yet (the action figure guy said the same and he knows what's up), but it looks like it's not going to come, so I had to go to the last resort and get it from Amazon.com for very near twice the price. It was the only way, sadly. On the bright side, there are 366 Muppet Labs playsets in the warehouse and 60 are expected to go out in the next week or two. I'll be there bright and early, with bells on.

I was examining my figures last night and thinking about Thog, how he dances. I thought perhaps the way the legs are on the current figs that they could be put in that position, but no. The arms probably can, but the legs will be tricky. Thog kind of bends forward on one leg and lifts the other one (have you ever seen any footage with him?) It would be something to keep in mind if he ever gets on the table (of discussion, that is; if he gets on any other table that table is going to break!)

For the record, are there any other monsters besides Sweetums and Uncle Deadly that are covered by your contract? I know you haven't explicitly stated that Uncle Deadly IS under contract, but for the moment I will assume he is. I know you considered DogLion for a while and I think he'd probably not look very good as an all-PVC figure; too shaggy.

One last thing: you say your plans go through Series 14. Do you actually have 14 series' planned as of now?

David "Gorgon Heap" Ebersole

The long-winded one is off to bed.

 

[frogboy4]

The Count

I have been out of town so there was a delay in answering you questions.

The list you saw has been abandoned. The contents in it were compiled from numerous postings by Ken Lilly of Palisades. So much has been altered numerous times that I must have let the spelling slide, but "Marvin Suggs and the Muppephones" is most definitely a correct spelling. I don't know where you got this Marvin Sox thing, but I bet you his socks are yellow and pink.

Statler and Waldorf were bumped into the regular assortment of the series and Sweetums is slated to take his place with a pack-in Robin (because the frog is so small).

Also - one playset comes out per wave - except when a Deluxe Playset is released. The only such set actually reported is the Muppet Show theater. It is not really part of the wave, but does come out in the same business quarter and is why they were listed in the series.

I will be working on the official MC figures projections in place of my other posted list.

All this is really tentative so keep checking Muppet Central's official list.

 

[Stulz]

Darkness

Hey Ken, just rented the LEGEND DVD watched the director's cut w/ and w/o out commentary pretty interesting stuff and I was wondering when McFarlane would put out a Darkness figure in it's Movie Maniacs line.

So when IS it supposed to be out???

Talk about a kick-a** character in a so-so movie

Thanks

 

[Aerosmith]

Stulz Movie Maniacs 5 comes out around September and October.

 

[matleo]

Re: Muppet Questions

Originally posted by The Count
It looks like this is the most popular thread around to ask anyone about anything Muppet-related, so here are my current questions.
1 The "Beard vs. Lips" issue was settled, but ther's still some confusion. In the "Secrets of the Muppets" special wasn't Jerry Nelson under the muppet called Lips? Also, wasn't that muppet referred to as Beard?
2 What's the name of the other female pig from the Muppet Show, the one withe blonde curly hair?
3 Who's Uncle Deadly? Was he the one muppet who accompanied Vincent Price in the Haunted House sketch?
4 Just what's this Sesame Street "Unpaved" book I keep hearing about? Just what's included in the book? Is it available in audio form? That's all I can think of for now. Have a great summer.
The Count

hey Count,

To answer your questions...

1) yes, that's Beard that Jerry Nelson is doing in the Secrets of the Muppets. it's part of the Jim Henson Hour. No, it's not Lips. Lips was the trumpet player in the old Muppet Show, Great Muppet Cpare, X-mas Carol, Family, X-mas, Muppets atWDW and of course Zootanddingo's avatar.
2) the other female pig was Annie Sue played by Louise Gold.
3) Yes, Uncle Deadly is the guy form the Vincent Prise Episode.
4) The Unpaved book is a very good refernce book detailing the first 30 years of the show. I think someone already answered this one. You can probably find it on Amazon.

--Matt

 

[ResidentLilly]

Gorgon Heap
Hey, question: the 3 figs on your Extreme Wish List are Lips, Clifford and Pepe. Uncle Deadly is also kind of up there for you as well, isn't he?

Yeah he would be cool...

For the record, are there any other monsters besides Sweetums and Uncle Deadly that are covered by your contract?

Basically we can do just about anything these days if we negotiate it.

One last thing: you say your plans go through Series 14. Do you actually have 14 series' planned as of now?

Yeah...there is a rough outline going through three years worth of series through Series 14. Still a work in progress though...

 

[matleo]

hey Ken

I know you've said that for future waves you would consider even packing for the shipments but what about further down the road as you get into charaters who are even more obscure. Loe the example just provided, let's say you had a Series consisting of Clifford, Pepe, Lips and Uncle Deadly, do you think you'd still evenly pack or would you maybe shortchange Lips and Uncle Deadly cause less people know who they are? just curious.

--Matt