Vintage Sesame Street Count Puppet from Canada

[VonCount]

Glad I could help out! I have to say that the puppet I have, when I was photographing it, I noticed that the tongue is on sideways! So it does have a felt tongue, probably original but a factory mistake. It's always fun to see those, I also have a Sesame Street book from the book club that is bound upside down. Now if we all could only find a monocle...

 

[VonCount]

By the way, I was interested to know how people are displaying their count (and or other puppets). I have been looking for some kind of glass dome or bell jar or even upside down vase to keep him from getting dusty/grimy but have not had much luck since his nose plus his ears make a wide diameter and that makes any large glass vessel very expensive. I thought I'd check here to see what others have done.

 

[Pino]

Yay.. i finally received my count von count puppet.. however it was repaired and not well.. I still miss the original hands as they used Roosenfelt franklin puppets'hands. My question is wheather there is some one who has the original hands or even a full puppet i can take over?

 

[D Cook]

I have the extremely rare circa 1973 plastic head Canadian Count puppet. I found this thread and hoping to learn more about him as there is very little information out there. I spoke to a dealer in Toronto who had one at his shop and had only seen one other for sale on ebay.

 

[Mikey's Muppet]

Hello Count puppet fans! Awesome discussion here, great info! I posted some thoughts about the newly discovered 1973 Questor Count puppet box on Mikey's Muppet Memorabilia Museum blog: http://mikeysmuppetmemorabiliamuseum.blogspot.ca/2016/04/the-1973-count-puppet-box.html
I'm quite a sceptic about that box! Keep up the awesome investigating! By my estimate, it seems that only about a dozen of these Count puppets have ever surfaced online since the late 1990's! Have you guys found the same? Also, thanks David and Jeff for keeping this discussion going over the years. Great work!

 

[VonCount]

Mikey,
I'm really impressed by your test photo to try to replicate the count in the box. Keep in mind though that this seller could have heavily photoshopped a box and has no intention of actually sending the end user the goods. I'm sure that happens on ebay, as unscrupulous as it seems. I know the box appears to have wear, but this user could have taken a photo of their (or any) Oscar box and photoshopped in a photo of the count. It would be interesting to see if any other boxes are for sale by the same seller with similar wrinkles or tears. Then again if they're truly photoshopping they could have taken a photo from anyone's listing.

 

[GroverBoy]

Also, thanks David and Jeff for keeping this discussion going over the years. Great work!

Thanks, Mikey - I've really enjoyed your blog over the years. Sorry I haven't posted more recently. Will do better in the future!

 

[Censored]

Hello Count puppet fans! Awesome discussion here, great info! I posted some thoughts about the newly discovered 1973 Questor Count puppet box on Mikey's Muppet Memorabilia Museum blog: http://mikeysmuppetmemorabiliamuseum.blogspot.ca/2016/04/the-1973-count-puppet-box.html
I'm quite a sceptic about that box! Keep up the awesome investigating! By my estimate, it seems that only about a dozen of these Count puppets have ever surfaced online since the late 1990's! Have you guys found the same? Also, thanks David and Jeff for keeping this discussion going over the years. Great work!

Also, not only is it the same child on the box of the Count puppet and Oscar puppet, but the pictures of the child seem to be IDENTICAL all the way down to creases on his shirt! You are definitely right to be skeptical!

 

[Pat Twist]

Hello! Big Muppet fan obviously, but I joined Muppet Central specifically for the purpose of trying to track down an elusive vintage rubber headed Count Von Count puppet.

If anyone feels like getting rid of theirs, I am prepared to pay handsomely. And I DO mean handsomely. Please feel free to contact me at pattwist@gmail.com

On a related note, this auction popped up on ebay yesterday (July 2) and was taken down a day later with no explanation. I had even bid on it. I have tried to contact the seller to ask "why" but have yet to hear back. Quite mysterious!

Pat

 

[Delsin Ross]

Well, well ... the questions are mostly answered! VONCOUNT, I much appreciate your leading me to that "comment" on Mikey's site explaining my COUNT puppet. So here's what happened and what is going on with my COUNT's slightly different paint job:

I bought him on eBay in December. He arrived and was is spectacular condition even having his cape still. But I noticed the face was painted a bit differently. Beautifully! But differently. After the puppet arrived I began emailing with the seller asking questions about how long she had had him, if she knew anything about where he'd come from, and if she had done any restoration work on him.

The seller gave me a detailed history of how this and several other puppets had come out of deep storage (thru her sister's boss) and they had basically never been played with, and there was NO restoration done to them other than mending two small tears in his cape. Since he was in lovely condition I accepted all this at face value, and started asking questions about if he might have been a very early example or a prototype.

Yesterday, new MCF member "Von Count" kindly helped solve the riddle when she forwarded me a link to a comment from a year ago on MIKEYS MUPPET MUSEUM when the same seller described getting some puppets from her sister's boss and having totally repainted the Count's face and given him a new felt tongue. Hmmmm...

I've been emailing with the seller last night and today - and she has apologized profusely for not disclosing the restoration on eBay and not telling me the truth in our post-auction emails. I'm still glad to have such a beautiful COUNT puppet, I just wish the seller hadbeen honest about the restoration work.

OK, all this said - we have still discovered one new thing about the rubber-head COUNT. There ARE two shirt variants: the ribbed style with the better black fabric and cuffs - and the more common t-shirt-fabric style shirt. VonCount, AnimalAttack, and I all have the earlier ribbed white fabric on our Count puppets.

I'm glad I hadn't sold my first rubber COUNT puppet when I got the fancy 2nd one - so now I have the super nice one with a repainted face, and a beat-up one with a factory face. So I have TWO Count Puppets! One, two ... TWO! Hahhahhah

Hi Groverboy! Very interested in your story. There are two questions I have aswell. I have recently obtained a count puppet and he has everything but a cape. Anyone owning a count with a cape please email me I have some questions about it. Please email me. Also do you have the information of the seller who did the restoration? I’m really trying to find out what paint she used. Thanks! Delsingross@gmail.com