Old Sesame Street Muppet Puppets

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I have ALL of those, except my Big Bird had cloth legs.

Big Bird was puppeteered through a hole in the back of his head and when you pushed down on a little trigger it caused his bottom bill to go up.

I wish all mine were in as good a condition as all those are!

I also still have the head to Roosevelt Franklin.

There were others not pictured here of The Count, Sherlock Hemlock, Prof. Hastings (?), and more.

Oh yes, Roosevelt Franklin was created around the same time that those early ones were, but a little later came the Count and don't forget the Anything Muppet, which I would love to have. A Herry Monster puppet was created too. Somewhere along the line, Guy Smiley, Sherlock Hemlock, and Prof. Hastings puppets were made, but I only know them from a pic on eBay and never saw them in any stores.

I think that some muppet puppets, or styles of them, may have been sold only in other countries. I heard that there was a Count with a rubber head that was never released in America; only the all-cloth version.

 

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When I was a kid, I owned the Cookie Monster, Oscar and Big Bird puppets (though I'd hardly consider the Big Bird doll a puppet. There was a small lever that barely moved his mouth). My best friend from the 3rd grade owned the Grover puppet, and my girlfriend's grandma once had the Bert puppet in her possession. Grover, Ernie, Bert and Big Bird were very, very hard puppets (Big Bird's face was a lethal weapon), but the other one's were very soft, and Cookie had a feature where you could stuff things into his mouth and through his body. I also owned an early Count puppet which came with a plastic arm wire. Pretty cool, except the toy makers didn't have a very good handle on his hair. He ultimately looked like he had a bad perm.

Cookie Monster's original box came with some cookies to be cut out and put in his mouth. Oscar's original box was shaped like part of a garbage can. All of the original boxes had a TV set drawn on the back where you could cut out the screen and put the puppet inside. Ernie and Bert also came with a plastic arm wire. Each wire had a small hook on one end and a large hook on the other. One would fit Bert and the other would fit Ernie (even though the Ernie on TV never had any wires).

 

[KermieBaby47]

GeeBee, checked out your site, and I gotta say, AWESOME COLLECTION!!! I still have a lot of those toys too, but don't have the display space to show 'em off. Now I really wanna go find all my Jurassic Park and He-Man stuff.

Oh yeah, I really like the little Internet tutorial thing. Funny.


Anthony

 

[superfan]

Creepy? How are they creepy? They are adorable!

I love them too, I do! I would LOVE to have that kind of collection! It's just that because of that classic early unfinished look to them translated to children's hand puppets makes for some interesting expressions!

 

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GeeBee, checked out your site, and I gotta say, AWESOME COLLECTION!!! I still have a lot of those toys too, but don't have the display space to show 'em off. Now I really wanna go find all my Jurassic Park and He-Man stuff.

Oh yeah, I really like the little Internet tutorial thing. Funny.


Anthony

Hi, Anthony

If you're talking about the web site I posted the link to, I wish I could take credit for it, but I can't. It was just a site I discovered while web surfing.

However, I do have a site dedicated to my own toy collection. Some Sesame Street toys are featured and even a couple of those Sesame Street hand puppets.

Here's the link:

http://www.angelfire.com/ab2/ablpph/index.html

 

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I checked out your site, Anthony. Great artwork! Wish I had that kind of talent! Cool!

 

[Lone Wolf]

I heard that there was a Count with a rubber head that was never released in America; only the all-cloth version.

Indeed there was. I remember seeing one when I was about nine at a "white elephant" sale at my school. I wanted to buy it so badly, but I knew that if I did I'd get a lot of flak from my parents and teasing from my friends for still being interested in Sesame Street products at nine years of age.

As for wether it was ever released in North America...I don't know. The one I saw may well have been an import.