Tuxedo Kermit: Sloppy-Painted Mess

[MaxGoof]

Since my local Toys R Us only alloted one peg for Muppets and claim they never received Tuxedo Kermit at all, I finally made the 40-minute drive to the next closest TRU to get me an exclusive Kermit. This Toys R Us was MUCH nicer--it has 6 pegs for Muppets, and had plenty of Bunsens and Dr. Teeths to go around. For some bizarre reason, the Tuxedo Kermits aren't with the rest of the Muppets. They're with the McFarlane figures on the total opposite side of the action figure "X". Odd.

Finally, after wandering around the TRU "Maze", I found 2 pegs filled with 6 Kermits apiece. With 12 Kermits, you'd think there'd be at least one perfect one, right? Wrong. In a line which contains a figure with more colors than any figure ever produced (Dr. Teeth) and which has the best paint jobs I've ever seen, Tuxedo Kermit seems to be extremely substandard. 7 of the Kermits had black from the tuxedo running onto the vest, and 4 of the 12 had the white of his eyes running noticably off of his eyes. The worst offender? One Kermit had a black splotch on his vest, a black spot on his CHIN (?!), and white eyes that ran into his forehead.

Finally, I found one Kermit that didn't have runny-eyes and had just a tiny bit of black running onto his vest. Happy to find one without those problems, I checked out and went home. As soon as I got home, I went to examine my beautiful Kermit before opening him... and noticed a big splotch of paint on his left arm white tuxedo cuff. I was so conerned with his head and chest, I totally missed checking the arms. Ugh.

I'm going to try to exchange this Kermit for a better one at a Toys R Us on a different side of town tomorrow. Hopefully there's aren't messed up. Maybe this was just a bad batch of Kermits--but if there's a lot of batches this screwed up for such a major exclusive, then the quality control people need to be shot.

 

[ResidentLilly]

Aw crap.

Well, it's still Saturday. Week's not over yet.

 

[MaxGoof]

Ack. Sorry to bring this to your attention, Ken... I know you're having an awful week as it is, but I wanna make sure that everyone on the board is VERY careful picking out their Tuxedo Kermit... I think I'm more thorough than anybody in looking for good paint jobs, and I still got a screwed up one...

Oh well.

 

[Luke]

Don't worry Ken, if it comes to it i've got contacts. I'll get you a job as Miss Piggy's bikini line waxer or something.

 

[Joe]

Re: Tuxedo Kermit: Sloppy-Painted Mess... =\

Originally posted by MaxGoof Since my local Toys R Us only alloted one peg for Muppets and claim they never received Tuxedo Kermit at all

the smaller TRU's havn't received their Tux Kermits yet(if they're actually getting them at all) I had to go a ways to get mine too, but it was worth it and the store only got 12.
(by the way, should the TRU tux kermits have "exclusive" stickers on them like the EB Piggy, or was it left off?)

and with only one peg of Muppets they probably have four or five cases still in the back(so if a certain figure isn't out on the shelf make them go look for it )

 

[scarecroe]

Do these kinds of problems happen with other lines of figures form other companies? There seem to be a lot of them (problems) with the Muppet line.

As for Toys R Us, the one in Peabody, MA still hasn't received ANY Muppet figs yet, let alone an exclusive Kermit.

 

[Muppet Labs]

Hello,

The TOYS R' US in North Attleboro, MA near the Emerald Square Mall has at least 8 Tuxedo Kermits as well as the entire line and down the road at Newbury Comics they also have all the other figures except Beaker.....I am not impressed with any of the figures except Bunsen but that is just my opinion.


Bye,

Todd

 

[Rufus]

Hey, that's where I got my Tux Kermit! Got tired of waiting for the TRU in Warwick, RI to get 'em.

- R -

 

[Muppet Labs]

Hello,

It seems that the Noth Attleboro store is starting to get their items in faster which usually wasn't the case but that is better for me as I live closer to that location but I am sure you wont have a problem returning your Kermit (Tuxedo) as they are pretty good on returns and exchanges and there are certainly enough of those Kermits at that store.....Hope you get a half-way decent one.....Bye!


Todd

 

[ResidentLilly]

scarecroe
Do these kinds of problems happen with other lines of figures form other companies?

I think so. And it also depends on how picky one chooses to be when buying. And not saying that's a bad thing...it's yer money, be as picky as you want. But all figure lines have their issues...it is a mass produced item after all. A few hundred Chinese making tens of thousands of pieces in a short period of time, no one person understanding the whole project. It's a hive mentality there. If I paint Bunsen's shoelace I don't, when I see a Kermit tuxedo with ****** eyes come my way get up and say "Yo look here...this is CRAP." It is not a proactive environment. One day I will walk you through the process...it's amazing the product looks as good as it does...for every company.

On clean painted figures, in mass production, you won't always get the lines you want. Example, Kermit's eyes. That's white against green, circular balls for eyes painted with a copper spray mask. Gonna be overspray on 99 out of 100 figures. Simpsons have the same issue...what against yellow, Circular balls for eyes...that equals overspray. I'm hard pressed to actually find one with perfect sprayed whites on the eyes. But I tend to not see the overspray as much or it does not matter as much to me because I sort of block it out. You won't find the same problem as that on, say, Teeth's eyes...flat surface, more mask control.

A paint drip or two...happens...unavoidable really. They actually have a stage in production called touch up because when you are painting thousands of figures a day you get drips and glops. The batch he was looking at might have slipped through that last stage...maybe the factory smelled their deadline approaching and decided to let it go. That is usually what happens when I see glops in a run...someone decided to make a deadline rather than fix some drops.

I don't worry as much about these types of posts as you might think. I hear them, I report them, but I look for mass reports of a similar problem or reports direct from retailers about a similar problem. So far there haven't been any. The biggest issue thus far has been Bunsen's glasses...I take the heat on that. Design flaw if you ask me. I didn't understand the character enough to know that people would lift the glasses thinking they SHOULD lift because the character does that. I won't make that mistake again. On all future figs with glasses I have already come up with a solution.

About a dozen or so people have had some issues here and on TP, but nothing serious that makes me question the line as a whole. For those cases I say "refund" like the dude in Breaking Away and that's what I recommend. Take your figure back and exchange it if you are not satisfied.

Believe me I have heard it both ways. I mentioned Crash Bandicoot in another post. I knew in 2 days there were major problems...it had a 50% defect rate, or more. So far the calculation of the reported issues of the problems still have not reached 1% against figures sold, and even if I add to that number assuming there are unreported problems it isn't even 2% and 2% is usually acceptable in mass production...when you get to 3 or 4 you start to REALLY look into a possible big problem, which usually is not a big problem but one you should keep your eye on. 5-6% is where you really panic. Beyond that start packing your bag for a sudden and lengthy trip to China.

I know it seems cold to put it like that, or like I don't care, but I do care...probably more than most which is why I am posting this at all at 1:25 am. But I guess I am trying to illustrate that things seem much more dynamic when posted in a group setting like this than they really are. Especially amonst the most passionate of fans or collectors. My job is to sort through all that and get as much from that as I can to make a generalized conclusion.

Ok, who wants my job?