My Concerns About Collecting the New Muppet Figures!

[bhg738]

Hi to all as I am a new member.

I felt I needed to register and start a thread to voice a concern I have.

I know this has been covered in other threads but felt I would like to know personal peoples opinions on my situation. I would also very much welcome a reply from Ken.

I would love to start collecting the new figures. My local store got them in and they are great - some of the best figures I have ever seen. My problem though is this I also have an obsession with complete collections.

Due to the exclusives (Luchbox Kermit, Dr Teeth etc) I have been put off completely from giving this line my business. I would love them but refuse to have an incomplete collection.

I understand and agree with many of you for reason why we should have them and why we should not but at the end of the day no matter what this kind of stuff turns people away.

Lets look at facts the Star Trek line pretty much died when they limited figures - even Playmates agreed it was the biggest mistake ever! Jakks have lost MANY customers from too many exclusives and people are now only collecting bits when there were so many people wanting all WWE figures.

I am really sorry to say that something I would love to buy has simply been ruined for me.

I would really appreciate any of your comments and feedback.

Best wishes to all!

 

[BlueFrackle]

Hey,

Welcome to Muppet Central !

Did you know that the Kermit is the same that is being sold excpet it is just inside a tin lunchbox ?

You can buy both the Kermit figure and the Lunchbox seperate.

The Dr.Teeth is also just a repainted version.

And if you wanted to be a Muppet completist, i got three words or ya !

Good Luck !

 

[bhg738]

Concerns!

Warrick,

Thanks for the reply - much appreciated!

As for being a Muppet completist as far as I see it there can only be 300 - 400 possible! It is a nice title to have but involves money and effort.

I know the Kermit and Dr Teeth figures are the same but I like the variations in packaging, paint job etc just not when they are made in low quantities!

 

[BlueFrackle]

Hey,

No problemo.

When you say 300 - 400, Are you refering to the Figures only ?

See ya

 

[radionate]

bhg738,

I saying this without any ill wishes, please do not take it wrong, it is your choice as to what you collect or not, but to pass up a line because you can't have them all!?!?!?! In this instance, I think that is totally stupid. But its your choice. I can see not collecting the line if the exclusives that were so hard to get were characters not available in the normal line (i.e. Mildred, Agnus, Pops, etc), but to pass up a line because you can't get a molded piece of plastic that fits around the Kermit you can pick up anywhere? I don't think thats in the true spirit of collecting. When you have a collection, it is for the sheer love of it. Yes the thrill of the hunt has something to do with it to, but at the end of the day it has to be because you really have some sort of connection to a certain trinket. Obviously there isn't a very strong bond for you for these toys.

 

[MM-III]

Ken has mentioned that starting with Series 3, the extremely limited exclusive a la WW dr. teeth will be no more. They will be offering fewer show exclusives over all too. But if they do offer another show exclusive, it will be in far bigger numbers than dr. teeth. Plus, if this new collector's club gets off the ground, it will be a cinch to get all those harder to get regional show exclusives. There will still be repaints of the band members but they will be short packed with the regular cases so that everyone has a pretty much equal chance at nabbing one.

email ken directly at residentlilly2@comcast.net and tell him that you want to collect everything! Give him your name and address and he'll compile it into a list. A lot of us have done this already and it looks promising that we'll be able to start a collector's club which will guarantee access to all the harder to get exclusives.

It's true, you're gonna have to spend some money to obtain the WW dr. teeth and the kermit lunch box... but that appears to be the only two you'll really have to hit the wallet for.

If that puts you off an entire line, well I think quite frankly you're missing the point of being a collector.

 

[bhg738]

Concerns

Thanks all for your replies.

Warrick - As far as numbers I was under the impression that the Kermit in a box & Dr Tetth were made in a quantity of something like 300/400 respectively.

radionate - I take no offence to anyone and really appreciate your reply. You are very correct that I am not the No 1 Muppet fan. Yes I love them but actually seeing how good they were made me want them. Normally I may have passed them up. I have bits of muppet merchandise. However when it comes to collecting something like a figure line I am aggresive in the fact that I love all changes etc. The only thing I will pass up is an error such as the same figure may have its accesories packaged in a different place etc. It is your kind of comments that are helping me to make my decision on buying them and you have helped but I am always due to my nature going to have in my mind there are ones I need!

MM-III - Again thanks for the reply. I just read the news from ken and it did make me feel a little better. I have also put my name down too for the exclusives should they offer them again. Your post also helps me realise what I am missing! As for the collecting side I just cant help it!

 

[radionate]

Thanks BHG738 for knowing that I wasn't attacking you personally. I have grown up collecting since I could walk. My parents let me start a collection for myself when they began taking me with them on "antiquing" weekends. I settled on Disney and Muppets, as since the time I was born I'd been enamored with then both. Since then I've also gone through comic books, trading cards, action figures, fast food premiums, and Christmas Ornaments. Some collections continue, others have been sold, and some others are just sitting in boxes. But my Muppets and Disney have been with me throughout.

I understand the drive of wanting them all, but that never turned me off from something that I appreciated or felt a tug toward. It always gave me something to look forward to - that somewhere, someone might not realize what they have, and I might stumble across it at the right time. That's the real thrill in collecting. Not opening up your wallet to shell out dough to some secondary market dealer that couldn't give a rats butt about what he's selling.

I hope you do decide to get the Muppets from Palisades. I for one haven't even found them yet. I live in Mississippi, which pretty much has about as many collectors in the entire state as Billy Bob from some little redneck Mississippi town has teeth in his head. I refuse to order them from offline, cause I hate dealing with the internet. But I might have to. In the meantime, I get excited calling up stores 60 and 70 miles away to find out if they have received the figures yet. That’s the real excitement.

And when I can hold a character that encompasses so many childhood memories in my hand, that's what makes it worth while.

 

[Dr Teeth]

I know how it goes as I am a completist also. I also feel that if I don't have every variation then my collection isn't complete. I was lucky to make a trade recently for the variant Dr. Teeth. So as of right now I am complete (or as soon as my Dr. Teeth figure arrives). I collect many different lines and I enjoy the thrill of the hunt for variants. In Mcfarlanes Sports Picks line there is one Jersey variant for EACH figure and there is only one variant per case. So to get a complete set of say MLB you would have to come across 8 cases with the different variants (which is VERY tough to do). So I have had to do many trades to get a complete set. Also when I started collecting Simpsons it took me a while to get a GITD Homer figure but to complete my collection I eventually bought one off of eBay for a huge amount of money. Star Wars has been my biggest challenge though just because of the sheer numbers of product out there and I don't get all of the variants in that line. I am only missing one figure and that is a Freeze Frame Weequay (he goes for $300+ on eBay!!).
Sorry to go on and on but I just wanted to let you know that I know how you feel about needing to have a complete collection. But this Muppet line is AWESOME!!! And hopefully there will be a Collectors Club soon so that we can get all of the regional exclusives. Ken is great and he is a collector himself so he is working on making all of the exclusives attainable. I would suggest giving this line a shot.

 

[bhg738]

Concerns!

radionate - Wow you might be my long lost twin! I too have collected anything and everything since I was a little nipper! Collecting does give you a good feeling and it is always great to look over your collections. I too have had to sell some of my collections or scale down as I was just getting too much stuff. I now collect Simpsons figures and WWE stuff. This is enough but even then takes so much room. I really love the Muppet figures and feel maybe I shoudl give them ago. My only other problem is what do I do when I see the new He-man figures! Oh nostalgia. I only hope that they dont reissue MASK - then I will need a lottery win!

Dr Teeth - Are you the standard issue or the repaint excusive. If you are the latter then I want you now!!!!! Its good to hear I am not the only mad person out there! Your advise is very good and well recieved - thank you. My only question is how are you able to collect so much? There is so much I want but really had to scale back out of lack of room and funding. I agree that it is so much fun finding the hard to get stuff. On a side note do you have the Kermit in teh lunch box or am I getting that full collection feeling going overtime? I might just give the line a chance and try to restrict myself!