This exhibit is a lot of fun...I only had an hour to see it last week, but that was plenty of time. I was mostly interested in the actual Muppets on display, and they included an Ernie and Bert; Rowlf; two Fraggles; the original Sir Linit (a commercial is looping nearby, which is great); replicas of Wilkins and Wontkins; Mahna Mahna and the Snowths; two of the big royal Muppets from the early TV specials; and a Kermit (not sure if it's a poser or a puppet). There is a lot of 2-D stuff that may or may not interest you, plus a small gift shop that includes some older merchandise contributed by the Henson family. There's no exhibit catalog but several free pamphlets of different types, and among them there are photos of all the Muppets on display. (Someone has everything posted on Flickr:
http://flickr.com/photos/nostri-imago/sets/72157607189566994/show/with/2886691378 )
I had only seen a few Muppets before--an Ernie at the Smithsonian that I barely remember, and a George the Janitor at MGM Studios in Disney World years ago--and I was mostly struck by the size of them...much bigger than I expected. Wilkins and Wontkins are huge! (Gigantic compared to the rubber toy ones, which they also have on display.) Ernie and Bert too. Even though I knew better, I guess I've thought of them in terms of the Questor puppets, including the famous silhouette photograph of Jim Henson sitting eye-to-eye in profile with the Bert. (It seems like all the other Muppeteer photos I have seen show the Muppets at the ends of raised arms.)
They had a Kermit replica in the gift shop, for $250, and the clerk said it was one of the last two of three they had originally. It was interesting to compare its size and features with the real Kermit that was in the next room, but still in view. The replica is smaller, and I don't get why the pupils couldn't have been more dead-on, but he held his own to be sure. The thing that most surprised me about all the real Muppets, especially as someone who has asked a million questions about the pupils on eBay Herry Monster puppets, is that their pupils are remarkably imperfect...hand cut, with little flaws and points that show they were cut with scissors rather than stamped into perfect circles like we all expect our toys' eyes to be. Will it make me a little less obsessive in future? I'm not sure yet!
I didn't buy anything in the gift shop...anything I wanted I already had, thought it might have been nice to finally buy the Kermit and always remember where I got him. What I did do, a little sheepishly, was visit the children's area (which was empty) and partake of the build-you-own-puppet attraction, which was a table covered with paper lunch bags and boxes of pom-poms and pre-cut piece of flat foam. I picked up a glue stick and put together a souvenir that will remind me not only of that wonderful historic exhibit but also of the magical creative energy I felt in its presence.
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