Mikey's Muppet Memorabilia Museum

Mikey's Muppet Memorabilia Museum

Muppet Babies 1983 - 2003

Last updated: Sept 15, 2022
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Proving that continuity doesn't matter, the Muppet Babies contradicted the Muppet Movie storyline but they were too cute to complain about. First appearing in Miss Piggy's dream from the Muppets Take Manhattan, the Babies made the leap to TV in cartoon form and lived there for an impressive 8 seasons (100 episodes). Imagine being locked in a room and being forced to watch every episode! ....that would be awesome!

In 1984 Milton Bradley produced a series of four Muppet Babies 60 piece puzzles with photos of the puppet characters. Shown above is the Baby Kermit Puzzle, below is the Baby Fozzie puzzle. There is also a Baby Piggy puzzle and one of Piggy and Kermit on a swing. Milton Bradley followed this series with a set of puzzles based on the animated TV show.


This is a Muppet Babies Colorforms playset from 1984. The side of the box has a photo of several of the actual Muppet Babies puppets including Baby Animal. This is the first time that I ever saw the puppet version of the character in any Muppet merchandise or TV show, as Baby Animal wasn't in the baby scene from the Muppets Take Manhattan movie. It wasn't until 1987 that the actual Baby Animal puppet was seen in a TV show, The Muppet Family Christmas special. Baby Animal and the rest of the Babies puppets are also seen with Steve Martin in an issue of Muppet Magazine.

Here is a figural pin of Baby Kermit made by Avon in the mid 1980s. It was sold on a small record shaped bubble card with illustrations of the other characters. A Baby Piggy pin was also made in this set.

This is a complete set of Muppet Babies squeeze toys made in 1984 by Hasbro/Playskool.
These are one piece figures (the heads do not turn).



In 1984 and 1985 Hasbro also produced these "action figures" of the Muppet Babies. All of these figures have heads that turn, which is the only movable part on the figures. The bodies are molded in one position. Shown here is (L to R, top row) Baby Gonzo, Baby Piggy, Baby Kermit, Baby Fozzie (L to R, Bottom row) Baby Animal, Baby Rowlf, Baby Scooter and Baby Skeeter. All are marked 1984 except for Rowlf, Scooter and Skeeter which are marked 1985. Unfortunately the plastic that was used to make these figures tends to break down and "sweat" over time, becoming sticky to the touch. I've had this happen to Animal, Scooter and Skeeter. However, I had duplicates of Animal and one of them was okay, so it seems the condition of the plastic depends on the individual copies of the figures rather than being an issue with the production of specific characters. I find it interesting to note that later in 1990 Hasbro would produce the Jim Henson Dinosaurs TV show figures in the same style as these Muppet Babies figures, only with the turning joint at the character's waist rather than the neck.


I've noticed a colour variation for Baby Piggy and Baby Kermit. Piggy is obvious, with bright or lighter pink clothes and dark or light purple bow and gloves. The light pink Piggy has darker skin tone plastic but this might be a result of the plastic aging and becoming discoloured. The paint however wouldn't discolour in the same way. Below is Baby Kermit with a reddish tongue or a bright pink tongue. He also has a dark or light green collar. Again, the green skin tone is darker for one, which may have to do with the plastic ageing.



In 1985 Hasbro/Playskool produced a series of Muppet Babies plush toys. The 12 inch Baby Kermit and Piggy plush toys shown above were made in 1985, while Baby Fozzie and Rowlf, shown below, were added to the collection in 1986. I recall saving up to buy each one of these new from the store, one at a time, when I was around 11 or 12 years old. Unfortunately I didn't keep any of the boxes but I recall Kermit and Piggy's boxes just showed those two plush toys on the back, while Fozzie and Rowlf's boxes showed all four on the back. Smaller sized plush toys of Kermit and Piggy were also made. The small plush Baby Piggy was the same as this one only smaller, but the smaller Baby Kermit was dressed in a sailor outfit as seen in the movie.


In 1985 when the 12 inch plush toys were introduced Hasbro also offered smaller sized plush toys of Baby Kermit and Bay Piggy. Kermit is dressed in a sailors outfit, which is different from the 12 inch version, however both sized plush toys of Baby Piggy are dressed the same.

In 1986 Hasbro made a Jumbo sized Baby Kermit plush toy. As you can see it's quite huge! I've included the 12 inch Baby Kermit in the picture for size comparison. Jumbo Baby Kermit is 20 inches sitting. Hasbro was also producing Sesame Street plush toys at the same time and made a Jumbo Big Bird plush toy. I recall seeing both of them at the toy store next to each other on the same shelf. This Jumbo Baby Kermit was found at a thrift store in the mid 1990s. Even though this toy was mass produced, in my experience this jumbo Baby Kermit plush toy is super rare to find these days.

 Here is a full-length Muppet Babies record from 1985 with songs from the animated TV series.

Here is the back view. There were 11 songs included on the album, and the lyrics for each song were included on a sheet inside the album.

Side 1:                                                Side 2:
The Muppet Babies Theme                 Camilla
Merry-Go-Round                               Rocket to the Stars
Sleep Rockin'                                     Practise Makes Perfect
Dream For Your Inspiration                It's Up To You
Good Things Happen in the Dark        I Can't Help Being A Star
                                                          The Muppet Babies Theme (Reprise)


From 1985 to 1989 Marvel Comics published 26 issues of the Muppet Babies comic book as part of their Star Comics line. I have 16 issues which is more than half of the series, but there are still ten missing. Issue number 1 and 2 are shown above.

 Issues 3 and 4

Issue 5 and 6

Issue 7 and 8 

Issue 9 and 10

Issue 11 and 12

Issue 13 (I'm missing issues 14 through 20)

Issue 21 and 22 (I'm missing issue 23)

Issue 24 (I'm missing issue 25 and 26)

The two books shown above were published in 1986. They are from of a series of hard cover Muppet Babies "Weekly Reader" Book Club books sold by mail order from 1986 to 1988.  Three more books are shown below. The series was published jointly by Muppet Press and Marvel. Marvel also produced the Muppet Babies comic books series shown above. In my experience these books are somewhat hard to find as in all my years of collecting Muppets, including thrift store and flea market hunting, these five books are the only ones that I've ever found from the book club. I have confirmed that there are at least 18 books in the series, though there are likely 20 books in all. A similar series of mail order hard cover books based on the Fraggle Rock TV series was also produced in the 1980's.

The book on the left was published in 1987, the book on the right is from1986.

This book club book was published in 1988.


Here is a Muppet Babies "Super Shape Book" by Golden Books, 1982.


This Muppet Babies "Little Golden Book" was published in 1995.


This is a large button pin that staff at McDonalds restaurants wore in 1986. As these figures were so popular, this is the second time that the Muppet Babies PVC figures were sold, which explains why the button says "They're Back" at the top. Baby Animal was added to the collection at this point, and there are some small variations to the figures. For example, the figure of Baby Gonzo is wearing shoes in this series, while in the first series he does not have shoes.

Here are some smaller sized Muppet Babies plush toys of Baby Kermit and Baby Gonzo, about 7 inches tall, made by Dakin in the late 1980s...likely in 1988 along with the larger sized Muppet Babies plush by Dakin, shown below. In my experience the above 7 inch plush toys are considerably less common than the larger set of plush toys. This is the only Baby Gonzo doll that Dakin made, as the character was not included in the series of larger sized plush toys. To my knowledge this is the first Baby Gonzo plush toy ever made as Hasbro didn't include Baby Gonzo in any of their Muppet Babies plush collections. Miss Piggy was also made for this 7 inch series, though I have yet to see any other characters for this set.

These 12 inch and 10 inch plush toys of Baby Animal and Baby Rowlf were made by Dakin in 1988. They were sold exclusively through the Muppet Stuff franchise of stores. Below are side views.

This 12 inch Baby Animal plush toy has a silver baby bonnet hood to match his gloves and feet. The yellow tag says "Baby Animal Daredevil". The Muppet Wiki website has this Animal plush toy listed with the 7 inch plush set shown above (Kermit and Gonzo), however as I own one of these Baby Animal plush toys I can say with 100% certainty that it was in fact made as part of the 12 inch series. It is much larger than the 7 inch plush toys. Here is the Muppet Wiki page in question: http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Muppet_Babies_plush_(Dakin)

Baby Rowlf is 10 inches and looks like he's wearing a band leaders outfit. This one is missing the yellow hang tag which would have said what type of outfit it is. The hat is sewn to his head but is not stuffed.

Here is Baby Miss Piggy by Dakin from 1988. This is a 12 inch doll, measured from head to foot. It looks like she's supposed to be a ballerina.

This is the 1988 Baby Fozzie by Dakin which is also 12 inches tall. It looks like he's dressed as a clown with frilly cuffs on his neck, sleeves and legs.

In addition to plush toys, Dakin produced a series of hand puppets in 1988 that were sold exclusively at the Muppet Stuff stores. A set of Muppet Babies characters were included in the series along with Gobo and Red Fraggle, a Doozer, and the adult/regular versions of Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy and Gonzo. These Dakin puppets are harder to find than the Dakin plush toys. The Muppet Babies set included Baby Piggy (shown above), Baby Animal (shown below), and Baby Fozzie. I have yet to see a Baby Kermit puppet though it's likely that one was made.


This is a sticker from 1988 that was free inside General Mills cereal boxes.

Here is a program from the Muppet Babies Live show "Where's Animal?", 1988.

Here are some flyers from the Muppet Babies Live show. Below is the back view. The top one with the Dec 1988 date is for the Toronto show at the O'Keefe Centre, and the bottom flyer is for the Ottawa show at the Ottawa Civic Centre which was also in Dec 1988.


Here is the 1988 poster from Muppet Babies Live that was sold as a souvenir at the event. I also have some pendants in the shape of Baby Animal and Baby Gonzo. I'll add a picture of them here eventually. Pendants of Baby Kermit, Baby Fozzie, and Baby Piggy were also made.

These small 8 inch plush toys were made by Avon in 1988. They are made out of a towel like fabric and are intended to be bathtub toys.

These are very popular Muppet babies plush toys that were sold at McDonald's in 1988. Fozzie and Kermit's clothes are removable, while Baby Piggy's outfit is attached. Unfortunately there was a error during the production of the Baby Piggy dolls as her hair has been sewn on inside out (I opened this one up at the back to check, and the curls are in fact on the inside of the doll!). I suspect there are other Piggy dolls that have the hair attached correctly, but I have yet to find one.

Baby Fozzie is shown in the original bag with the hang tag still attached. McDonalds produced so many of these dolls that 25 years later they are still commonly found at thrift stores, which is where I found this one. However, they don't normally turn up in the original bags!

Here's a view of Baby Fozzie without his hat to show his eyes and ears better. The hat is made of felt, has some felt Holly leaves attached, and two holes for Fozzie's ears. Fozzie is the best plush toy from this series. He's very well made and the choice of fabric for his fur makes him a very soft and huggable toy.

This director Baby Kermit figure is 4.5 inches tall, made out of soft rubber and is hollow. The smaller Baby Kermit figure shown on the right with the sailor outfit is 2.5 inches tall, and also a soft rubber, hollow toy but it's made with softer rubber than the director Baby Kermit. Both are dated 1989 on the bottom however I don't know what company made them.


(I have yet to post the photo for this item!)

These two Muppet Babies figures have no markings at all. They look like they belong in a playset or game of some kind. It's a mystery to me what company made them, though they are likely from the 1980's when most of  the Muppet Babies merchandise was being produced.

Applause produced several PVC figures of the Muppet Babies in the late 1980's. Above is the Baby Gonzo figure from the Circus series. (Photo submitted by Andy)
More Muppet Babies PVC figures can be seen at the Muppet Wiki Website.


These plush toys were made by Direct Connect/Amerawell Products. The two in the stripped shirts were produced in 1989 and the Piggy on the far left was made in 1991. These are all 9 inches tall.


Muppet Babies "Funforms" from 1989. This is a set of 8 pictures that you make using numbered stickers as the puzzle pieces. Muppets Funforms based on the Muppet Show characters were also available at the same time as these. This was made by Lee Publications, the same company that made the Muppet Babies Magic Pen colouring book shown below. I'm missing the magic pen that came with the book. There's no date on the book but it was likely made in 1989 with the Funforms.



Although they haven't been on TV since the late1990's, after a long absence from main stream culture Muppet Babies are slowly making a comeback, at least in regards to memorabilia. In 2003 this Mini Puzzle was produced by Bendon Publishing International along with a series of four colouring books. Two of them are shown below. The other two each have Baby Piggy and Baby Fozzie on the covers.




Photos and Text © Mike Artelle

3 comments:

  1. hi I was wondering if you can help me out ive searched everywhere online to get some better info on this can you tell me if im corect or anything you may know about this thanks

    Vintage 1988 Muppet Babies Baby Kermit Ringmaster W/tags 12" Plush Muppets

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    1. Hello Unknown mystery person :) Without a photo it's hard to say for sure one way or the other. My guess is that you have the Dakin Baby Kermit plush toy. The Muppet Wiki website has a photo of that toy which is dressed as a ringmaster, and sound to me like what you are describing. Here is the link: http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Muppet_Babies_plush_(Dakin)

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  2. Sometime in the 1980s one of the baby diaper brands (I think it was Huggies) had a promotion where you could send off for one of the muppet baby plush dolls. You had to send in the proof of purchases/UPC from a set number of diaper purchases along with $x amount of dollars. I sent off for the sitting Miss Piggy plushy in pale pink outfit you show as the the seventh photo in your post. I have saved her all these years and she is still in great condition. I only wish I had kept the original box. I have always been a fan of the Muppets, and especially Miss Piggy. Thanks for the all the information on Muppet collectibles!

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