Muppet Puppets at FAO

[Drtooth]

Seems like the Eyes have it...

The problem with this puppet is that it uses completely round eyes, when animals are a little flatter/further in his face.

Not to mention the fact that his eyebrows always cover his eyes to an extent, not exist entirely behind the eye, like how the puppet was made. Other than those eyes/eyebrow issues, it basically looks like every Animal plush I've ever seen and there isn't too much wrong there.

It's all in the buggy eyes. They work wonders for Beaker, but don't work at all on Animal.

 

[Kermieuk]

Animal looks ok. As always with all animal plushes even the fisher price puppet they always forget that animal has lower eye lids it would make all the difference if he had them!
Chris

 

[frogboy4]

We're not likely to get anything like the Fisher Price Animal these days due to expense, methods and wide variety of materials used in that model, but they can give us a better Animal than this. It's definitely how they treat the eyes here. Igel's version wasn't perfect but it did the character justice:

 

[Slackbot]

Are you sure that's Animal? I can see Marvin Suggs bopping him on the head.

 

[frogboy4]

Are you sure that's Animal? I can see Marvin Suggs bopping him on the head.

Aw, it actually looks much better than that. We're going to get some dumbing-down of the character - especially in the hair/fur department. Nothing can replicate ostrich feathers. Other than that, this is a very close version that can be kept on budget with approved materials.The Fisher Price woven mohair method is no longer evident in modern toys, so the Muppephone-look is always going to be present...it just doesn't have to look like this Gund version.

It would be nice to see medium-end versions of the Muppet puppets with ostrich feathers like the Whatnots have, but that presents an expense and quality control issue that wouldn't likely get Disney's approval. They tend to favor uniformity over likeness.

I'm impressed by Beaker and Fozzie. I do wonder why they've hidden Kermit from view.

 

[Drtooth]

Aw, it actually looks much better than that. We're going to get some dumbing-down of the character - especially in the hair/fur department. Nothing can replicate ostrich feathers. Other than that, this is a very close version that can be kept on budget with approved materials.The Fisher Price woven mohair method is no longer evident in modern toys, so the Muppephone-look is always going to be present...it just doesn't have to look like this Gund version.

The lollipopping of Animal is something we've seen quite a lot over the years, but it's something we're used to. It is quite hard to get Animal's mangled fur quality and precise head shape in a plush toy... but they eyes are another thing

If his expression was more like this 3 minutes of effort right here:

you'll notice the eyes are a tiny bit more distanced, the shape of the eyes had also been changed slightly. It seems Gund had some left over Elmo eyes and used those. That's the only problem I see... Maybe the eye brows are a bit too big, but that's kinda what a common Animal Plush looks like.

 

[ZeppoAndFriends]

Are you sure that's Animal? I can see Marvin Suggs bopping him on the head.

It's a Muppaphone inflicted with the curse of the Were-Animal!

 

[frogboy4]

Okay, here's my take on it. The first tweak is something that could be accomplished under the same manufacturing process. Just different, flat-faced eyes and some fur management. The third revision here is what I think could be accomplished using the same materials, but such detail could translate into a slightly higher price point.

 

[rowlfy662]

know that is the way it should look the original big odd eyes is odd and the orginal with its pink fur the evil diease every animal toy gets. so i want you revision frogboy

 

[Walter]

Wow, That revisioned puppet is perfect Frogboy4! now that you've done that, you should send it in to GUND!.. Toy companies sometimes listen.. back when Toy Story 3 came out, they released a Barbie and Ken movie set..except Ken looked nothing like the one in the movie..so they rereleased the set weeks later with the updated "Correct" face after fan backlash