Update: Sesame Street tub toys mystery solved!

 

Sesame Street tub toys by Applause

This is the complete set of Sesame Street Tub toys made by Applause in 1997. It was a mystery to me if these were actually PVC figures, as stated on the Muppet Wiki website, or if they were instead larger sized hollow, squeezable tub toys. In September and October 2023 I managed to acquire all four figures in this set, so now I know for certain that they are not PVC figures and are in fact tub toys.

The above photo shows the tub toys next to standard sized Applause PVC figures for size comparison. As you can see the tub toys are quite huge compared to the figurines.

In my experience, these tub toy figures are harder to find, as they're not as common as most of the Sesame PVC figures are. I find that Applause Sesame toys that were made in the late 90's are often  harder to find as they seem to have been made in smaller quantities than the figures made in the 80's and early to mid 90's. 

See the Applause Sesame Street PVC Figures page of this blog for more info about these toys.

Applause Cookie Monster squeeze toy!

Cookie Monster squeeze toy by Applause, 1997

In the late 1990's Applause made an odd series of figures depicting Sesame characters on tire tubes. I have seen individual photos of these figures online but I am not certain what size they are, or if they are PVC figures or squeeze toys like this Cookie Monster figure. The above figure is made out of soft rubber and is hollow. It may not actually be a part of this figure set as the other three that I know of might be smaller sized PVC figures, but I'm including it until I confirm otherwise. Below I've shown this squeeze toy next to a standard sized Applause Cookie Monster PVC figure for size comparison. As you can see the squeeze toy is about twice the size of a PVC figure. I had never seen this Cookie Monster figure before until I saw it on eBay in Sept 2023 so I had to have it for my Sesame collection. It's just adorable, I really like the design and sculpting of this figure! Applause made so many cool Sesame toys! Other figures in the set include:

Ernie sitting in the middle of a yellow Rubber Duckie themed tire tube

Big Bird sitting on a blue inflatable raft holding a paddle on his left side

Elmo lying with his hands behind his head on a dark green tire tube, floating character

Cookie Monster (shown above)

Size comparison of the squeeze toy with a standard sized Applause PVC figure

Mystery Count PVC Figure!!!

I'm hoping that there is a Muppet fan out there who knows something about this Count PVC figure!!! Please help me solve this mystery!

This is a a very odd yet nicely made PVC figure of the Count which looks to be about 3 inches tall. I've never seen the Count wear a blue short sleeve outfit with brown shoes before! LOL He's also missing his teeth and goatee!!! It's unknown if this is a bootleg figure or an officially licensed one, when it was made, or what company made it. It's also possible that this Count figure is from a series of Sesame PVC figures that I don't yet know about. If so it would be awesome to see pictures of the complete set. If you have any info about this figure please get in touch with me!!! mikey@pythorcomics.ca 

Fans of Applause Sesame Street toys and collectables, this post is for you!!!

The Applause toy company started manufacturing Sesame Street toys and collectables in the mid 1980's taking over the production of plush toys from the Knickerbocker toy company. Of all the companies to make Sesame Street toys Applause is by far my favourite. There's just something about the design of their toys, the quality, and the assortment of collectables they made available that I really enjoy. Applause Sesame toys really bring out the fanatical Muppet geek in me, so I thought it would be fun to celebrate the Applause company with this post. Hope you enjoy this info as much as I do! -Mikey

Applause PVC figures

Sesame characters that Applause marketed

In all, 23 Sesame Street characters were merchandised by Applause:

Alice Snuffleupagus

Baby Natasha

Barkley the Dog

Bert

Betty Lou

Big Bird

Cookie Monster

Count

Elmo

Ernie

Grover / Super Grover

Grundgetta

Honkers

Little Bird (came attached to either Big Bird or Snuffy)

Oscar the Grouch

Prairie Dawn

Rosita

Slimey the Worm (came attached to Oscar)

Snuffleupagus / Snuffy

Telly

Twiddlebugs

Two-Headed Monster

Zoe

Applause made PVC figures of all these characters with the exception of Grundgetta and Telly who were only marketed as plush toys.

Big Bird's teddy bear Radar was also marketed as a plush toy by Applause. Ernie's toy Rubber Duckie was featured on several Ernie PVC figures. I'm not counting these two as "characters" as they are not Muppets.

 

Grundgetta and Telly plush toys by Applause

Two characters were only marketed as plush toys

Out of all of the above characters, Grundgetta and Telly are the only ones to have only been marketed as plush toys by Applause. The Grundgetta plush toy is my favourite of all the Applause Sesame plush. As of Dec 2023, this plush toy is still the only toy to have ever been made based on Grundgetta. I've seen a catalogue photo of a mini Grundgetta plush, but in all the years I've been collecting Muppets I have never seen this toy in the wild so I cannot confirm if it was ever produced. 

Applause made plush toys and a hand puppet of Telly, which are the first toys ever made of the character. Unfortunately, Applause did not make any other Sesame collectables based on these two characters. It would have been especially nice to have Applause PVC figures of Grundgetta and Telly as Applause did an exceptional job on their Sesame figures.

Grundgetta Grouch, photo from Muppet Wiki

In the 80's, Tara Toys made the first PVC figure of Telly but to date a PVC figure of Grundgetta has never been made by any company. She's my favourite female Sesame Street character so I find it quite unfortunate that there has been so little merchandise based on her. I also find it quite strange that she is no longer on the program as she was such a funny and interesting character.

Little Bird and Big Bird PVC figure

Three characters were only marketed as PVC figures

The only products based on Little Bird, Slimey the Worm, and Two Headed Monster were PVC figures. Little Bird came attached to three different PVC figures of Big Bird and one PVC figure of Snuffy. Slimey the Worm came attached to one PVC figure of Oscar the Grouch. I have yet to find an Applause plush toy of Oscar with a plush Slimey the Worm attached, which surprises me as it would have been such a simple thing to do.

The Two-Headed Monster was only available as a PVC figure that was attached to a coiled drinking straw. This was the very first toy to be based on the Two-Headed Monster. Had Applause made a plush toy of the Two-Headed Monster it would have been awesome! 

Finger puppets by Applause

Only 11 out of these 23 characters were made as finger puppets.

Applause made a total of 22 Sesame Street finger puppets which were based on only 11 characters. I've always really liked the Applause finger puppets collection. It's surprising to me that Applause didn't expand their finger puppet series with more Sesame characters, especially considering main characters like Zoe, Telly, and Snuffy were not included in the series, while duplicate versions of other characters were. Additionally, although a Grover finger puppet was made it's odd that a Super Grover finger puppet wasn't made as well considering how popular he was. Here are the 11 characters that were made as figure puppets:

Ernie, 3 variations: regular version, firefighter, and baseball outfit

Bert, 2 variations: regular version, and baseball outfit

Big Bird, 4 variations: regular version, postal carrier, western outfit, and baseball outfit

Cookie Monster, 2 variations: regular version, and western outfit

Oscar, 2 variations: regular version, and western outfit

Elmo, 3 variations: regular version, painter outfit, and baseball outfit

Betty Lou, 2 versions: regular version, and doctor outfit

Grover

Count

Alice Snuffleupagus

Prairie Dawn, in western outfit

Applause Sesame mugs

Only 7 out of these 23 characters were included in the popular series of Sesame mugs

Despite how popular they were, and still are to collectors, Applause only made 7 different Sesame character mugs, excluding characters such as Bert, the Count, and Snuffy from the series! I find it odd that Applause didn't make a second series of these mugs as they were so well received by Sesame street fans. Here are the only 7 characters that were included in the set:

Big Bird

Cookie Monster

Elmo

Ernie

Grover

Oscar

Zoe

Characters from the Applause era that were not marketed

Although applause was clearly interested in marketing a wider assortment of Sesame Street characters than the usual main six or so, there were many popular Sesame characters from the 80's and 90's that unfortunately were not marketed at all. Here are 14 of them:

Guy Smiley

Forgetful Jones and Clementine

Frazzle

Herry Monster

Hoots the Owl

Biff and Sully (the construction workers)

Magic Mumford

Sherlock Hemlock

Rodeo Rosie

Baby Bear

Bruno the Trashman (who carried Oscar around)

Yip Yip Martians

Out of these 14 characters only six have since been marketed as toys by other companies:

Guy Smiley

Herry Monster

Magic Mumford

Sherlock Hemlock

Baby Bear

Yip Yip Martians

Forgetful Jones

In regards to Forgetful Jones, it's quite bizarre that no toys were made based on the character. Although Applause made three different series of Sesame toys based on a Western theme, including a set of PVC figures, 5 inch bendy figures and finger puppets (shown below), unfortunately none of these sets included Sesame Street's resident cowboy Forgetful Jones. To date no Forgetful Jones toys of any kind have ever been made. I guess the folks at the toy companies just forgot! I always liked Forgetful Jones so it would have been cool to at least have a PVC figure based on him. 

Western themed finger puppet set by Applause

Guy Smiley, photo from Muppet Wiki

Out of the characters that Applause didn't merchandise, various other toy companies have made figures based on some of theme such as Guy Smiley, Herry Monster, Sherlock Hemlock, Magic Mumford and the Yip Yip Aliens, but the remaining five characters noted above, along with Forgetful Jones, have never been marketed as toys of any kind. 

A few items based on Guy Smiley have been made by other companies, including an electronic game, a video game, a Christmas ornament and several plush toys, however the fact that no company has ever made a PVC figure based on "everyone's favourite game show host" is in my view the biggest omission of them all! 

I find it interesting that there are still so many popular Sesame Street characters that have yet to be marketed, or that have only been marketed once or twice. There's still so much untapped potential when it comes to merchandising Sesame Street toys!!!

My Muppet collection! Ta-da!

Here's a tour of my Muppet collection... 

The first shelf has some games and puzzles, my collection of Kermits, Dark Crystal dolls, Tyco Sesame Beans collection, Dinosaurs figures, and Funko Pops of Dark Crystal and Labyrinth. On the left hangs a Muppet Show era kids apron with Kermit and Miss Piggy dancing.

On the next shelf is my collection of Animals and the Electric Mayhem Band items, some Sesame vintage plush toys including three Honkers (the orange one is hiding behind the side of the shelf), then there's the Fisher Price playset and figures, an Ernie cookie jar, and the complete Sesame Street Funko Pops collection. The three large Sesame figures are garden statues.

On the top shelf is the original Fisher Price Muppet Show collection as well as some PVC figures and a few other items, then there's the Muppet Babies and Fraggle Rock collections. I'm still missing the Mokey plush toy by Tomy. I keep missing out whenever I see it! I'll get one eventually! LOL The next shelf has my Sesame puppet collection including the Count and several of the Child Guidance puppets in boxes, as well as the finger puppets and a few other figures. The bottom section is Knickerbocker plush toys, Hasbro plush, and a few others. At the bottom are three bins of Muppet toys that I wasn't able to fit out on the shelves! LOL

In the other corner I have more Muppet Show character plush toys and figures, the rest of my Fraggle rock collection and a few Bear in the Big Blue House plush toys, even more Sesame plush toys which are mostly by Applause, and underneath Grundgetta and the Count toys are all of my Muppets records!

I also have two different sets of Ernie and Bert dolls and a vintage framed picture of them. The smaller series of figures in original boxes is by Knickerbocker from 1981, which includes the Big Bird and Cookie Monster figures. Both sets of these Ernie and Bert dolls are very hard to find!!! 

Last is my collection of Sesame Street action figures in original packages, along with my Sesame pvc figures (the top three rows are Applause figures, and the next two rows are mostly Tara Toys). At the bottom of the picture are two rows of finger puppets. Ta-da!