Fun-4-All may produce Sesame Street Action Figures

[MuppetQuilter]

There's nothing wrong with honesty. Forums are about mutual communication. ... *Opinions are welcome here.* I hope he comes back and addresses our issues. I also hope they rethink their stragegy for these. Early protos or not, I don't like the direction they are going. It appears to me that many people want to see these skew toward puppet accuracy rather than kid-toon style.

Yep-- opinions are welcome here. If we all agreed on everything it would be a pretty pointless forum.

The guy asked for our feedback. Some people are excited by the figures and some aren't-- that's cool and that's feedback.

Personally, I think they're right to try and find an approach to the SST figures that differs from the Palisades Muppet figures. (If they copied Palisades' approach we'd be accusing them of copying Palisades.) I think the prototypes we've seen need some work, but there's potential there. As an adult collector I prefer the Palisades approach, but as the parent of a preschooler I appreciate the direction Fun-4-All is going with these. Most of the SST merchandise out there is too babyish for my three year old (why are most SST toys aimed at 6-12 month olds???) I'm excited about being able to get her SST figures that will be a bit sturdier than the Palisades figures.

I'm wondering if Palisades didn't go after the SST license because they didn't want to have to compromise their style to fit the safety requirements for a toy for preschoolers.....

 

[jtatooine]

While they are at it let's do something that really needs to be fixed. Like the Looney Tunes BIA line. Let's boy cot them and use them for chew toys, not this line.

I think we've all heard and understand that you dislike the Looney Tunes line. The reason we aren't boycotting them is because they have nothing to do with this forum or palisades forum. They aren't a part of the discussion, but you keep comparing them.

If you want to bring them into the discussion so bad I think that they look fine. I think the accessories are neat. The quality is decent. The articulation looks alright and the sculpt is pretty good for a normally 2D character. And they have the right idea when they wrote "5+" on the packaging. Forget about everybody younger than that.

 

[frogboy4]

I will be getting Oscar no matter what. Unfortunately I will likely pass on Bert and Ernie (my other FAVORITES) unless they give them more realistic proportions. I'll probably pass on the others in wave one too. I do hope that series 2 shapes up better. If they play their cards right I just might get Big Bird. His realistic look is very important to me. I might get others depending on quality. Just have to see them. I aint holding my breath, but I'm not counting them out either.

I might just collect Oscar, or I could collect the few better pieces. Based on the prototypes so far, who are you guys getting?

 

[Drtooth]

I'm getting all I can afford affter collecting Muppets. But I am looking foward to Guy Smiely, etc. stuff you can't find anywhere else. That's pretty much all the Palisades quality I want. Obscure characters are quality enough for me, but the whole set would be great. Might pass on Zoe if she's made... might not..

>>If you want to bring them into the discussion so bad I think that they look fine. I think the accessories are neat. The quality is decent. The articulation looks alright and the sculpt is pretty good for a normally 2D character.<<

I'm basing this on the fact that they are inferior to the Sesame line and far far far inferior to the Muppet line. I mention them because Ken Lilly wanted to do both lines at one point, but couldn't because of licensing nightmares, and turndowns (as I can recall). I think they are alright, but hardly worth 12 bucks. more like 5 or 6. I think the company that made them before (name escapes me) did a much better job, especially making them based on specific shorts.

The thing I hate the most about the BIA line is the complete lack of characters. If there is one thing you can credit this line on, it's the fact that we have a wide range of characters to collect. If I can get these LT things on sale after I collect series 5, I may just get Daffy. I once again like the Bob Clampett stylizations on Bugs and Daffy, but I think the line could have been better, the figures could have been bigger, and they could have at least made Yosemitie Sam, Elmer Fudd, Nasty Conasta, And the Road runner and Coyote. they didn't. As bad as everyone thinks the sculpts are they took more care with this than Mattel did with LT BIA. I mean, even the Space Jam figures had a wider range of characters. I always wanted a dream pak of Wayne Knight and Foghorn Leghorn... It sucks the WB store wran out of business...

 

[jtatooine]

The thing I hate the most about the BIA line is the complete lack of characters. ...the figures could have been bigger, and they could have at least made Yosemitie Sam, Elmer Fudd, Nasty Conasta, And the Road runner and Coyote. they didn't.

Do you know if this is it? Just one series? I would want a Foghorn Leghorn if they're going all the way.

I think the size is just right. Maybe a hair larger, but figures are getting too big. Have you seen the South Park figures? I don't want anything to do with them. If they were 1/3 the size they'd still be too big.

 

[beaker]

Yo, whats this stylized argument crap? Obviously Fun$All cant be doing no microcosmic pin hole detail like Palisades can, I love the prototype pics...
its silly hearing these complaints, ya want bad Sesame likenesses? Go to the baby aisle of any toy store. FINALLY we will have non baby collector Sesame stuff, something Japanese fans have enjoyed for a few years now.

We need some retro based ones...how bout
season one commenoative Sesame figures? Toxic orange Oscar? Green grey Grover? Dufus Big Bird? Angry Bert? 1960's IBM computer munching Cookie monster? wheee!

Seriously, you guys NEED:

Pink and Blue Martian
Honkers and Dingers
Prairie Dawn
Snuffy(Ok, that may be a bit too big)
Barkeley
Zoe

...and there's already NewsReporter Kermit from Palisades! ^_^;;

Anyways, how cool is it that we will have a competing(or companion?) Sesame line? Only time before we get a Fraggle line!

 

[Fozzie Bear]

I'm still down on the likeness issues. I do like Super Grover, though! Who knows, I may only get the few ones I find keep the integrity of the original characters.

So, seeing that these are based on cartoons of the characters, what do you all think about the link I posted 2 or 3 pages back that showed some GOOD cartoon representations of the characters??

Bert's head on the protos is just too pointy!!

Besides that, by us debating what we like and don't like might get us the figures we really DO want. Maybe he isn't replying just yet, letting us do some posting a bit then will come back?? At any rate, I think that the harder we are on them the better the figures may turn out--especially if he/she takes this forum to SW and says, "Look, here's what your fans are saying and here's what they want! I would like to suggest we work in this direction." It worked for Palisades, and they have tons of positive feedback.

I was pee-in-my-pants excited about SS figures, I just wished they looked better! And, with time to spare and our discussion we have a chance to get more out of the work they produce.

I just don't see us settling for less if they can do better.

 

[Drtooth]

Yo, whats this stylized argument crap? Obviously Fun$All cant be doing no microcosmic pin hole detail like Palisades can, I love the prototype pics...
its silly hearing these complaints, ya want bad Sesame likenesses? Go to the baby aisle of any toy store. FINALLY we will have non baby collector Sesame stuff, something Japanese fans have enjoyed for a few years now.

Agree 100%. I mean, a lot of people here (and especially on the palisdaes board) are like the guy in the desert (or is that dessert... I'm a bad speller) who's dying of thirst and complains his warters too warm...

I mean, the first thing that poped into my mind is they aren't Sesame Babies, and the line up doesn't include Elmo yet.

The cartoony stylization for Cookie, Bert, Grover and Ernie... it doesn't totally matter. I mean, Cookie monster's looks fluxuate throughout the season (they use 3 dissimilarly colored puppets), and Ernie and Bert look pretty lifeless now a days (they over perfected them. bert looks great, but Ernie looks too much like a doll now. They had to overperfect him. I want to find out who was responsible for that)

Oscar is the only one that would be affected in the lineup so far. His fur is really matted and jagged, and I'd love to see that happening. But I can't tell since his head is partially obscurred in the photo.

I mean, down the line with more complicated characters like Guy Smiley, Big Bird, and God willing Forgetful Jones and Big Bad wolf, I'd like more Puppety looking ones. But reguardless, I'd love them!

I mean, the only other toys like collectors Item on the market today are imported Japanese Kubricks. beaker gave me a Grover. I can't find them anywhere, and even still, at 10 bucks a piece in a randomly assorted pack, I'd go broke trying to get the characters I want the most.'

I mean, sure, we are jaded by the classic 1980's-early 90's Applause PVC's, but after seeing Baby Elmo (redundant) and cookie monsters whose heads look like Nerf balls, seeing something like these are a godsend.

I mean, they aren't syupposed to have the same details as Torchered Souls, they're based on a classic kid's show.

If anything, there should be some more articulation, that's it with me...

 

[pdiresta]

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, I wasn't in the office yesterday.
I just want to let all you guys know: We definitely appreciate all your comments, negative and positive! The reason I decided to show you the earliest versions of the sculpts is because NOW is the time where we can make changes (they are still just clay). There have been no revision on these sculpts as of now. Nothing is perfect from the start...but we're working on it. I am personally very close to this line here at Fun-4-All, and believe me...I am way more critical on the line that you all could ever be. I have a list of revisions, and so does Sesame Work Shop a mile long. And now we have all your suggestions to take into account (that's why you guys are so important, and play a huge role in the evolution of the development of the toys). I promise you (the true collectors/fans-which I am a part of), I take your comments seriously. I really want the collector fans to be happy, yes you guys are a tough crowd to win over, but we're going to do our best to find a happy medium where we can please the collectors, parents, children, and the buyers (without them-the toys don't make it onto the shelves). Thanks for the comments!

 

[Drtooth]

Glad to see you back. What do you think of my list of suggestions, especially the letter stickers with Cookie?