Fraggle Rock 1982 - 1989

Last updated: Sept 15, 2022

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Here is the local TV guide from the Ottawa Citizen newspaper, for the week of January 22 to 29, 1983, announcing the debut of Fraggle Rock on the CBC in Canada. Fraggle Rock was recorded at the CBC studios in Toronto, Ontario. Below is a page of the article.

The very first series of Fraggle Rock plush dolls was produced by the Tomy toy company in 1983. These are very oddly made plush toys. Shown above are Wembley and Red Fraggle. Below is Boober Fraggle, Gobo Fraggle and Uncle Traveling Matt, followed by Sprocket the Dog. I'm only missing Mokey Fraggle from this set. It seems that a lot of effort went into detailing these dolls to look like the Muppet versions, yet they are not proportioned very well. They have large feet and small heads, and the faces don't quite look like the character that the dolls represent. The clothing also has plastic flexible tubing which is a great detail, until one notices the ends of the tubes sticking out at the seams. This makes the finished doll somewhat crude looking. In some cases, the white plastic eyes on these dolls tend to yellow over time, as seen above on Wembley and below on Gobo.

Tomy Boober Fraggle doll.

Gobo Fraggle and Uncle Traveling Matt, with original hang tag.

In contrast to the crudeness of these dolls, some nice details were included such as the pockets on Gobo's vest and the pattern of Wembley's shirt. The fabric used for the arms and legs was an excellent match for the Muppet's antron fleece look, and the fur is also very Fragglish. Considering that Muppet fans already had the Fisher-Price Muppet Show dolls as their benchmark for comparison, these Tomy Fraggle dolls looked rather pathetic next to Kermit, Scooter, or Animal. However, at the time they were all that was available so Fraggle Rock fans had to take'em or leave'em. Below is the back view of Uncle Matt to show his plastic hat.

Sprocket the Dog was also included in the series. I'm missing his dog collar. Sprocket was made with wire inside his body to keep the doll standing up.

Here is a view of Sprocket's face which is a plastic shape covered with fabric. His nose is painted. This one has a small scratch on it.

Tomy also produced some wind up Doozers for this series that were a big hit with fans, though from my experience they were hard to find in the stores. This may be part of the reason why they are still very popular among Fraggle collectors and are quite costly. It makes me wonder why the wind up Doozers have yet to be reissued. About 30 of these wind up Doozer toys were used on at least one episode of Fraggle Rock. They are seen in the background during a musical number in the Doozer village. A photo of this scene was later used for the cover of a children's book "The Doozers of Fraggle Rock" shown below on this page.

Schleich, who made the very first Muppet Show PVC figures, also made Fraggle Rock PVC series in 1983. Shown above are Boober Fraggle, Junior Gorg, and Wembley Fraggle. In addition, Ma and Pa Gorg were included in this set along with Red, Gobo and Mokey. The Applause toy company made identical PVC figures of the Fraggles (they look just like the Schleich figures but are marked Applause) but they did not make the three Gorgs. The two Fraggle figures above are the Applause versions, rather than Schleich.

 This was the first Fraggle Rock Record. It was released in 1983 and includes 16 songs from the first season of the TV series. For some odd reason an illustration was used on the cover instead of a photo of the actual puppets.
Side 1:                              Side 2:
Fraggle Rock Theme         Catch the Tail by the Tiger
Follow Me                        Brave Boy, Jump Up
Convincing John                Muck and Goo
Doozer Knitting Song        Friendship Song
Do It On My Own            Fragle Rock Rock
Wembiln' Fool                  Beetle Song
Why?                               Easy is the Only Way To Go
Lost and Found                Our Melody

Here is the back of the album. A photo of each of the actual puppet characters are shown with a short character description next to them.

This is a hardcover children's book published in 1983 by Muppet Press/CBC Enterprises/Holt, Rinehart and Winston. There were several other books in this series but I only have this one.

This is a series of books originally published in 1984. They were later published in Canada in 1985 by CBC Enterprises/Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. Four books were included in the series. I'm just missing one of them: "A Fraggle Rock Party". The other three are shown here, above and below.

This is Mokey Fraggle from the second series of Fraggle Rock plush toys, made by Pedigree in 1984. The series included Red, Gobo, Wembley, Boober, Sprocket and Uncle Matt. These were only sold in the United Kingdom and were unknown to collectors in Canada or the United States until the mid to late 1990s.

Here is a children's Fraggle Rock sweater made in Canada by Club G.H. during the mid 1980s. The Muppet Central website says a line of similar children's clothing was made in 1984, so I am assuming that this sweater would be from the same line.

Here is the lunchbox I went to school with in grade two! This Fraggle Rock lunchbox was made in 1984 by Thermos. The bottom of the lunchbox says "Canadian Thermos Products Limited, Scarborough Ontario Canada".

In 1985 Marvel Comics produced a series of 8 Fraggle Rock comics under their "Star Comics" brand. Marvel also produced a series of Muppet Babies comic books at the same time, also under the "Star Comics" brand. Those comics are shown on the Muppet Babies page of this blog. For the Fraggle Rock series, I'm missing issue #7 but have all the rest. Issue # 1 and 2 are shown above. The stories used for this comic book series are taken from actual episodes of the TV show.

Issue # 3 and 4

Issue #5 and 6

Issue #8

In addition to the "Star Comics" version of the comic, which were sold at comic book shops, Marvel Comics published news stand editions that were sold in commercial stores. These editions had barcodes on the front in place of the star logo. In addition, the section showing the price of the comic as well as the price, was revised. Above are issue # 5 and 6 of the news stand editions. I have yet to double check to confirm, but in theory there would have been a news stand edition for each issue that was published. Therefore if you're the kind of collector who likes to have all the variations, there are actually two of each Fraggle Rock comic issue to collect! Yay! :) But wait, there's more!....

In Europe the comics were published in a larger magazine sized format. Above is the European version of issue 5 shown next to the North American version for size comparison. Therefore in theory, if all 8 issues were published in this larger format, then there are actually three variations of each issue to collect! Yay! :)

And now for some Fraggle Rock Book Club books! Yes, I was a member! :)

Below are 17 out of 20 books that were available from 1984 to 1986 through the Fraggle Rock book club. Originally they were published by the CBC in Canada in both soft and hard cover editions. The book club editions were all hardcover books that were published by Muppet Press/Henry Holt and Company. A similar series of book club books was also done for the Muppet Babies. According to the Muppet Central website I'm missing three books from this series:

Boober Fraggle's Giant Wish, 1984

Wembley and the Soggy Map, 1986

Wembley Fraggle and the Magic Stone, 1986

Here are all the others...

These last two books are the CBC editions.

They have a glossy cover and the books are slightly larger than the book club editions.

Here is a comparison in size between the hardcover CBC edition (left) and the book club edition (right).

CBC also published soft cover editions (left) shown compared with the hardcover book club edition (right).

Above is the child sized bag that was available in 1984 through the Fraggle Rock book club. The bag itself is dated 1985. This was one of two "free gifts" that were included when you joined the club. I've noticed that two different types of fabric were used for the handles, shown below.

The second "free gift" through the Fraggle Rock book club was this small 33 1/3 RPM  record. It has a paper sleeve with a photo of the puppets on the front. There are 4 songs, including, Side 1: Fraggle Rock Theme, Helping Hand, and Side 2: Time to Live As One, Workin'. All of these songs would later be included on the second Fraggle Rock album in 1986, shown below.

Here is the back view of the record sleeve which included the lyrics for each song.

In addition to the Fraggle Rock Books shown above, the CBC also published a series of Fraggle Rock colouring books. The one shown on the left above (with Uncle Matt on the cover) is from 1984, and the one on the right is from 1985. Below are the back covers showing the CBC logo.

Another of the colouring books published by CBC, with the back cover shown below.

This softcover storybook is from 1985 and was published by Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.

The third series of Fraggle Rock plush toys was made in 1985 by Hasbro. Shown here are Gobo, Wembley and a Doozer. Other characters in the collection include Red, Mokey, Boober, Uncle Matt and a Doozer with a moustache. I recall buying this Gobo doll new from the store. It came in a rather nicely illustrated box which I regret that I didn't keep. I found the others second hand.

here is a closer view of the Hasbro Doozer.

This is the second Fraggle Rock Record, released in 1986. As far as I know these were only two full-length records produced for Fraggle Rock. This record also has 16 songs. Again, an illustration was used on the cover instead of a photo of the actual puppets which I think is very strange considering how awesome and detailed the puppets were.

Side 1:                                      Side 2:
The Fraggle Rock Theme          Dum De Dum
Go With The Flow                    Rag Time Queen
Perfect Harmony                       I Seen Trouble
Without a Hat                           Dreaming of Someone
Music Box                                Pantry Chant
Here to There                           Helping Hand
Sail Away                                 Time to Live as One
Workin'                                    Closing Theme

Here is the back of the album. A small photo of the puppets is shown with a cut out photo of Junior Gorg and a Doozer.

In 1987 McDonalds offered this series of four Fraggle Rock vehicle toys which proved to be quite popular. Two different Doozer vehicles were also made in very limited quantity as part of the test marketing for this promotion. Some sources claim that these Fraggle cars are worth hundreds of dollars. I've seen them posted on ebay with very stupid asking prices. The notion that these four Fraggle cars are hard to find is just silly. The two Doozer cars are valuable due to how rare they are, but the four standard Fraggle cars were mass produced and are extremely common, so much so that they still turn up at thrift stores in 2021 and probably always will! Save your money folks, $2 each is generous for these!

Here are two of the inserts that came in the baggies with the toy cars.

I've noticed a variation for Mokey. The one shown above on the right has light pink painted hands and eyelids. The more common version on the left does not have painted hands and has darker pink eyelids.

A variation for Red Fraggle is small pupils or large pupils. 

Gobo PVC figure from McDonalds

In addition to the Fraggle cars McDonalds also produced two additional PVC figures which were given out to children under three years of age instead of the cars. Only Gobo Fraggle (shown above) and Red Fraggle were made as figurines, but they weren't promoted as much as the vehicles as fewer of the figurines were made. Therefore, the two PVC figures are slightly more challenging to find than the four Fraggle cars, though they are certainly not as rare as the Doozer cars.

 

It's too bad that McDonalds didn't just make a complete set of these Fraggle PVC figures, I like them better than the cars. The Fraggle cars were sold within a year of the popular McDonalds Muppet Babies PVC figures available in1986, which could be removed from each of their vehicles to be played with separately as a figurine. The Baby Piggy figure even came with a car, so the fact that the Fraggle characters were attached to their cars and couldn't be removed made the toys much less interesting to me, as though McDonalds was being cheep by not giving us actual figures. 

During the same decade, Garfield the Cat (1988) and Looney Tunes characters (1989) were also made by McDonalds in the same style as the Muppet Babies, as PVC figures that could be removed from their vehicles, which only made the Fraggle cars look even more pathetic to me. I really wanted to take those Fraggles out of their cars and play with them! 

Here is the large Fraggle Rock button pin that McDonalds staff wore in 1987.

Dakin made three Fraggle Rock puppets in 1988. Above is the Doozer. This one is missing his antenna. The hair also used to be much longer and fluffy. Gobo and Red Fraggle were also made for this series. The puppets were sold at Muppet Stuff stores. Unfortunately by 1988 the Fraggle Rock TV show had been cancelled and the popularity of the show was fading. These puppets are somewhat hard to find, and are among the last of the Fraggle Rock items to be marketed for quite sometime.

Photos and Text © Mike Artelle