Sideshow Bust & Site Update

[Janice & Mokey's Man]

Janice's guitar

Yep, and she also played it at least once on TMS. Take a gander at the "Dizzy Gillespie" episode from Season 4:

Janice from Dizzy

 

[Gonzo]

Dang she's a hottie.

 

[Janice & Mokey's Man]

Originally posted by Gonzo
Dang she's a hottie.

This is why you were the first dedication in the liner notes.

 

[HerryGrail]

They've gone back to the original Fozzie design from the 70's, and it looks pretty good to me except the sides of the head should taper inward down toward the mouth area. Now it's a straight diagonal line like the newer Fozzie.

 

[Luke]

I agree with everything thats been said, especially Fozzie looking bad, Janice not being quite right and the guitar color is a bad choice, and Statler & Waldorf do look pretty bad (although i notice they both have the same skin tone). I don't like the facial look of Link but they've done a good job overall. I am really impressed with Gonzo & Lew Zealand. I think they've done a bang up job there.

I just wouldn't pay $60 for any of these though knowing how small they really are compared to how big they look on the website. I hope they can find 5000 hardcore Muppet fans to buy these because they seem to be giving them away to all manner of websites in promotional efforts. It's a bit of a stupid license to have bought and not actually used properly in the anniversary years, if they would have been smarter with the release schedule these should have all been out last year.

 

[Super Scooter]

Man! Those busts just keep getting worse and worse! The first sereis looked so good, what's wrong with the newer ones???

 

[frogboy4]

That doesn't look like Fozzie from 70s to me. Just looks like they didn't have a top level person working on him.

Luke-

What other websites have they given the busts to? Do you know of several sites? I don't think MC (or even one or two more) would constitute all manner of websites. Just curious there.

I agree, the price point is terrible, and we have a right to express disappointment in these when they are that expenisve. $1000 for the set! I really think they should have tried to get fan input. The absence of Floyd in the mix just tells me they don't really care. I doubt he will ever be made. I'm sure they will move most of the more popular busts, but some (like Link) will be sitting in their warehouse for a long time.

I love the ones I have and will probably buy the whole set (series 2 is on the way). But I am really upset about some of these sculpts. We know that some hardcore fans will stay away from a $6.99 Rowlf figure because it's in a tuxedo.

 

[Luke]

Originally posted by frogboy4
What other websites have they given the busts to? Do you know of several sites? I don't think MC (or even one or two more) would constitute all manner of websites. Just curious there.

Jamie, you have kinda caught me with one hand up here babe - by all manner of websites, volume wise i may well have been exagerating, but i was kinda expressing my point on the sites or avenues they have chosen. As far as i know - there have been two on MC, one on some non-muppet collectables site, and one on 2momluvme, although i expect there's been a few more given away in offline promotions and compeitions we haven't heard about. Now giving them away on MC, now thats cool because it's the target fanbase etc etc, but i thought 2momluvme.com was a wierd choice for them to run a competition with. Don't get me wrong, it's a nice site and i know Kristen who runs it is a great person and good luck to her, but at the end of the day it's just pretty much one persons average looking site that sells a few Muppet collectables - admittedly it carries a banner advert for the line and is an affiliate, but does that mean everybody with a website gets a free bust ? If so i'll start web designing right now. I dunno, running a promotion there doesn't seem to do anything for the line, and it's not getting the busts seen in the right places - a competition in Toyfare or something might have been a better idea. It just looked even more to me that this company aren't exactly magic when it comes to promotion and that add's to the point that they aren't all that strong about doing any research or gauging fan opinion either. Just looks to me like they got a load of reference matierial from Henson and *loosely* followed it.

As for the price point - yeah it's very expensive but it's a limited run, specialist interest product so i guess it has to be. If they had any chance at shifting more than 5000 of these they would probably have made more and been able to sell them cheaper. I just guess they recognise the casual Muppet fan would run a million miles from spending this kind of money on a (tiny) ceramic bust or in fact most Muppet products so if the hardcore collectors want them, and want obscure kinda characters then they'll have to pay for them. Personally they don't turn me on, especially at such a small size when you can have a whole series of Palisades for the money.

 

[frogboy4]

I half agree with you here. I think the busts should be a lot cheaper, but series one is worth having. Just maybe not at that price. They really should be in the $30-40 range, not 50-65. People were complaining that $7 was too much for a fully articulated action figure.

Actually, the size of the busts is a wise choice for those trying to collect the entire series. Any bigger and they'd take over my room! I will collect them all, but most of them will be gifts from family. I have series 1-3 and 5 covered, so I'll probably only shell out cash for series 4.

It is rather strange that 2momluvme received a bust to give away. Very cool, though.

 

[Luke]

Yeah i agree with you, the size isn't bad especially when you take into account space, but the price should be at $30-$40 as you said. For $50-$60 i was expecting a much larger piece and i think a lot of other people were - thats my beef. As i said, maybe it's something to do with it being a 'limited edition' but i would think 5000 is about standard for something like this anyway. Maybe it costs tons more to sculpt this kind of matierial than action figures and playsets, or maybe they've just jacked up the price because they can - i have no idea but yeah i bet they would sell tons more at a slightly lower price point. They are lovely though on the whole, they'll make a fabulous and very cool looking collection once you've got them all together and displayed.

I couldn't believe people complained about $7.99 for an articulated action figure, especially one of Palisades quality when you compare it to Playmates stuff. In the UK we pay around $19 per figure, if i could get em for $7.99 i'd be a completist and then some !

Back talking about costs of Muppet products though - it kinda bugs me that Henson want this young hip audience to form yet a lot of the products have been at premium prices out of their reach - the fossil watches, busts, high priced DVD's produced in kid friendly pan & scan. While this stuff is nice it doesn't reach the target audience - the Palisades stuff is a good move but i really think they to sell licenses that put other high quality $15 and under Muppet products out there in the malls. The UK's pretty good because Henson seem to understand the British market MUCH better than in the USA for some reason. Here we can go into the Virgin Megastores and see all sizes of Plushes, mugs, t-shirts, the figures, posters all on one eyecatching display at the front of the store. In the U.S sounds like you guys have to go to Hot Topic for a T-shirt or notepad and can pick up a tin of sour sweets or a car air freshner if you're lucky. I guess the Muppets are still more popular and have a better image here but they need to try to emulate what they've done here, over there. Build up a large range of affordable high quality products and get them into the main mass retail outlets together so the Muppets actually have a large presence in stores - i bet if they'd done that the Palisades figures would still be in Toys R US !