Sesame souvenirs

[fuzzygobo]

One of the many cool things of Sesame Street was since day one it was heavily merchandised, so we had a boatload of toys, records, and books to buy.

I'm a big record collector (at last count I have over a thousand), and two of my most cherished possessions are the first Sesame album, which I was lucky enough to have Susan (Loretta Long) autograph.

My second great treasure was the now-nearly-impossible-to-find Roosevelt Franklin LP. This turns up once in a blue moon on ebay, but I've always got outbid. (The last auction changed hands for about a hundred bucks!)
But I found my copy at a garage sale, and the lady was happy to let me take it off her hands for 25 cents. If only she knew what she was parting with.

So what treasures do you have? Did you find something recently or is there something you've kept all these years? Please share your happiness with the bunch

 

[fozziefan]

The best Sesame Street momento I have is my Big Bird Roadway. I used to play with it all the time. It has plastic track pieces that fit together to make a roadway. It came with a green metal Big Bird car, but you could buy additional cars to use with it. There was the Count's Car, Oscar's Garbage Truck, Ernie in the Bathtub, and a whole bunch of others. There was also a really cool plastic carrying case for the cars that looked like a taxi and had the characters on the front. The only problem is that my brother and sister played with it just as much as I did, so they assume that it's theirs. It's kind of become a joke now that we're all grown.

Katie (FozzieFan)

 

[ceecee]

The best Sesame Street momento I have is my Big Bird Roadway. I used to play with it all the time. It has plastic track pieces that fit together to make a roadway. It came with a green metal Big Bird car, but you could buy additional cars to use with it. There was the Count's Car, Oscar's Garbage Truck, Ernie in the Bathtub, and a whole bunch of others.

The cars were all metal? Because I have a metal Ernie in a bathtub with pink bubbles, and a similar car that has Bert in a "Pigeon Patrol" wagon. I found each of them separately at antique shops. I'm just wondering if they are from the Big Bird Roadway.

My most treasured piece of SS is my Ernie doll. I've had him ever since I can remember. His arm was torn by some of my mom's daycare kids (darn kids!), so I've always known him to have a sewn up arm.

 

[Mokeystar]

My most treasured Sesame item that I still have is a big Knickerbocker Grover that I got for my 6th birthday. He's a little worse for wear, having been with me for the past 28 years. As a child, I used to love brushing his fur out all smooth, and combing it down over his lower lip so it looked like he had a mustache. I'm surprised that after all the brushings I gave him, he still has fur left!
When I was a teenager, he became my bedroom's icon "Hippie Grover" who sat in a corner of my room while sporting John Lennon-type sunglasses, love beads, a bandana, and the like. I somehow managed to form his furry little hand into doing the peace sign at everyone who'd enter.

Nowdays, Grover is back to his original form, minus a little black that wore off his pupils over the years. He's still a favorite to snuggle with. My cats think so, too.

In addition to Grover, I still have quite a few other Sesame items that I saved from my childhood like records, books, magazines.....and a million happy memories.

 

[Censored]

There have been a lot of good Sesame Street toys and products throughout the years. I've already spoken about the cool Muppet puppets by Topper and the awesome Fisher Price Sesame Street sets. There was also a lot of great Colorform sets made by Sesame Street. My favorite is a very old one that I have of Ernie and Bert's apartment with stickers of Bert, Ernie, and Cookie Monster.

The Knickerbocker company seems to have made many Sesame Street toys, but my favorites were the Ernie and Bert rag dolls of the mid-seventies. Their faces were simply printed, but they seemed so cool to me. They were about 8 inches high. On the back of the box, they showed a picture of Ernie, Bert, and Betty Lou rag dolls, but I never saw Betty Lou in the stores. I believe those were the only three characters that Knickerbocker made in that particular style.

There were also some cool Sesame Street finger puppets. Some finger puppets were rubbery figured toys sold on a blister pack, but there were also paper finger puppets sold in booklets that were photo punch-outs from the show.