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Friday, May 8, 2020

It's Super Grover!!!

"Presenting the further adventures of everybody's favourite hero, the man who is faster than lightning, stronger than steel, smarter than a speeding bullet! It's Super Grover!"

...and I'm cute too!!!

In the early to mid 1980's Applause made the very first Super Grover PVC figure, shown above left. Roughly two decades later in 2004 a very similar PVC figure was produced bt the Vee Corporation, marked 2004 on the base. This figure was then reissued several times, at least every second year until 2016. The figure shown above right is marked 2010 on the base. The above two figures are so much alike that I didn't notice this variation until recently (in April 2020). Once I found out about this interesting variation, I had to have one for my collection. Below are additional images comparing the two figures.







In 2000 Applause reissued their Super Grover figure for this ten figure boxed set. To my knowledge all of the figures are new original figures to this set with the exception of Super Grover. 

Update, April 2021:


I found another picture online of a boxed set of eight PVC figures that was sold through the Sesame Street Live touring shows in 2008. The shows are produced and operated by the Vee Corporation. What's so remarkable about this set is that each figure is a new sculpt based on a previously produced figure, all of which were included in the Applause box set from 2000, as shown above. 

At a quick glance these figures appear to be the same figures as the originals, but a closer looks reveals that they are in fact entirely new sculpts. The Applause Super Grover figure from the 1980's is one of the figures to have been copied as a new sculpt. The box that the Sesame Street Live figures are sold in was marked 2008, however I have seen the new Super Grover sculpt marked on the base with 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2015,  and 2016. The box also lists the full address for Colin Company in Minneapolis, MN USA. I'm not certain if this company manufactured these figures, or was simply the distributor, or if they did both.