Other Henson Worlds 1990 - 2006

Last updated: Aug 14, 2024
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Dinosaurs (TV series) 1990

In 1990 the Jim Henson Creature Shop produced this sitcom style weekly show based on the Sinclair family, which included Earl and Fran as the father and mother dinosaurs, their teenage kids Robbie and Charlene, and Baby Sinclair. Fran's mother Ethyl was introduced later in the series. While most of the main characters were realized as full costumes worn by actors, Earl's boss was a very large puppet triceratops named B.P Richfield. He was an awesome puppet and the character that I enjoyed the most in the show! Ethyl and Baby Sinclair were also puppets.

The complete collection of Hasbro Dinosaurs action figures from 1991.

Earl Sinclair (the father)

Fran Sinclair (the Mother) 

Robbie Sinclair (the teenaged son)

 Charlene Sinclair (the teenaged daughter)

Baby Sinclair (the baby)

B.P. Richfield (Earl's Boss).

As the character was only shown on the TV show sitting behind his desk, this figure was the first time fans got to see what his legs, feet and tail looked like! I thought the puppet of B.P. Richfield was awesome and he was my favourite character on the show.

The back of the all the cards is the same

Around the same time that the Hasbro Dinosaurs figures were in the stores a series of "Sport Dinos" figures appeared in selected toys shops. Essentially these were bootleg Dinosaurs figures as they were all based on the Hasbro Robbie Dinosaur figure with minor sculpting modifications and changes to paint colour. There were at least three or four different figures in the series. I bought one just as an example. It's shown on the card next to the Robbie figure. The same card was used for each of the figures. Unfortunately a figure of Grandma Ethyl wasn't included in this series as it was produced during the first season before the character had been introduced on the TV show.

Here are the McDonald's "Dino-Motion" toys from 192. Each has a puppet like control that makes the figure do a specific action: Earl turns his head and moves his arm (I was going to say "swings his lunchbox" but that just sounds wrong!), Fran tilts side to side at the waist, Charlene lifts the phone to her ear and tilts her head towards it, Robbie spins at the waist to simulate playing the guitar, Baby tilts his head side to side and move both of his arms, and Ethyl wags her tail and moves her legs (which also sounds wrong!). I've shown the toys in the original baggies below.

 

These small figures of Fran and Charlene are from Subway restaurants, made in the early 1990's. All five family members were made. Below is a side view. They're made with hard plastic rather than PVC.

The bottoms of theses figures are rather odd as they look like they're supposed to be attached to something.

Baby Sinclair quickly became the star of the show. He was so popular that Hasbro made a large talking doll. It has a soft rubber head and a soft-sculpted body (similar to Cabbage Patch dolls). The same head was also used for a hand puppet, which is less common than this doll.

Here is the original box for the talking Baby Sinclair doll. The back view is shown below.

Here are some wrappers for the Dinosaurs collector cards from 1991. I'll post a photo of the actual cards eventually (once I find them!). I ended up getting quite a few of these cards and there was a mail away offer to get a special checklist, which I have, so I'll post a picture of that someday too! I also have a sticker book and sticker packages and a TV guide with Earl Sinclair on the cover.

 Here is the Milton Bradley "Gotta Love Me!" game based on the Dinosaurs TV show. It comes in a very large box and the game board is quite detailed with a 3D version of the Sinclair kitchen that was seen on the TV show. While most games simply have a flat game board, the popularity of this program at the time clearly warranted this extra effort from Milton Bradley, and they did a great job on this game.

 Here is the 3D game board with the four game markers (Earl, Fran, Robbie and Charlene). There is a spinner on top of the 3D fridge, and a special die. The game structions are shown here next to the fridge.

 This side view gives a better idea of how the kitchen set from the TV show was recreated as the 3D game board.

Here is another very large box. This is a 550 piece puzzle with a few special pieces in the shape of dinosaurs.

This is a 100 piece puzzle of Robbie Sinclair and Baby Sinclair made by Milton Bradley in the early 1990's.

Another item from the early 1990s, Kid's Choice/Centura Brands Inc. produced Dinosaurs bubble bath with "Rocka Berry Fragrance".

The Witches (Movie), 1990

Starburst Magazine, Vol 12 No 9, May 1990 showing Jim Henson's The Witches on the cover. 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze (Movie) 1991

In 1990 Jim Henson's Creature Shop did the animatronic costumes for the live action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. They followed this up in 1991 with a second film, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Secret of the Ooze. Here are some Playmates action figures based on this movie:

Movie Star Leo (blue mask) Movie Star Mike (orange mask)

Movie Star Don (purple mask) Movie Star Splinter. I'm missing Raphael (red mask)

Back of the cards for Movie Star Don and Movie Star Splinter

Tokka and Rahzar action figures

Super Shredder action figure. A Foot Soldier figure based on the movie was also made.

Here is the Diamond Sticker Book based on the movie.

Storyteller: Greek Myths (TV Show) 1992

Starburst Special, No 11, March 1992 showing Medusa from Jim Henson's Storyteller: Greek Myths series.

Flintstones (Movie) 1994

Jim Henson's Creature shop made the dinosaurs for the 1994 Flintstones movie. Most of the merchandizing was centered around the human characters, so I was glad to find this PVC figure of Dino. In the movie, Dino was a puppet in close up shots and animated in far shots.

  This mini Flintstones activity book was free inside a package of Kraft cheese slices. There were four books to collect. This one has several pictures of the different creature puppets that were made for the film.

I'm not sure if these Flintstone movie stickers are also from the Kraft cheese slices or from Post cereal boxes.

Indian in the Cupboard (Movie) 1995

This is a theatrically released film directed by Frank Oz, so I consider this toy as part of my Muppet collection. It's a small one piece figure of the titular Indian character. It came free with the VHS home video of the film along with a plastic key. 

The figure and key were packaged together in this small clear plastic box that fit along the top edge of the VHS video. The video and the small box were then shrink wrapped.

Pinocchio (Movie) 1996
The Jim Henson Creature Shop did an excellent Pinocchio movie in 1996. This is a 12" talking doll based on the film. The doll comes with a small poster of Jonathan Tayor Thomas who did the voice for Pinocchio and appeared at the end of the movie when Pinocchio becomes a real boy. A marionette was also made of Pinocchio, as well as a smaller 9" doll. Here is the front and back of the box for the 12" Pinocchio doll...

Here is the 9" doll next to the 12" doll.

The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss (TV Series) 1996 - 1998

Above is a toy hand puppet of the Cat in the Hat made in 1997 by Stellar Gifts based on the Jim Henson TV series. This puppet is 15.5 inches tall to the top of his head, 21 inches in all to the top of his hat. The head is stuffed so the mouth doesn't move. Aside from DVD's there wasn't a lot of merchandise based on this Henson Tv series, so I'm glad to have found this puppet! Attached to his arm is bird-like creature called a Whozit.

Bear in the Big Blue House (TV Series) 1997 - 2006

Here is a 13" plush Bear from "The Bear in the Big Blue House", made in 1998 by Mattel. This one has a hard plastic nose and was not sold as part of the 1999 series shown below. I think this was a stand alone item. There were many different versions of Bear plush toys produced throughout the 1990s and early 2000s.

These 7" plush toys of Tutter and Pop were made by Fisher-Price (Mattel) in 1999. Tutter is my favourite character from this show. Plush toys of Pip and Treelo were also made in this size.

These are the smaller 5" sized plush toys by Fisher-Price that were available at the same time as the larger plush toys shown above. This is Tutter and Treelo (a lemur). Bear was also available along with Ojo (a smaller bear) and Luna the Moon.

The smaller sized Fisher-Price/Mattel plush toys were later reissued around Christmas with each character holding a gift. Here is Tutter and Bear from that set. Treelo was also available.

This is the 1999 store display box for the smaller sized plush toys. It has two levels for displaying the toys.

Here is a children's book from 1999 titled "Where is Bear?", published by Random House.

This Bear figure is from Subway restaurants. It has a lever on the back to make his neck/head move up and down. Next to the figure is an unopened set of glow-in-the-dark stickers which I think may have come with one of the VHS videos or a book.

Here is a large 17 inch (12 inches sitting) fuzzy plush Bear that was sold at the Disney store in the late 1990's or early 2000s. Below is the side view to show the shape. The nose on this Bear is a vinyl-like fabric rather than plastic.

This box of Valentine cards was made by Carlton Cards. There is no date on the box. I bought this in the early 2000s. There are 34 cards and envelopes. Below is the back view.

Pan (Live Theatre) 2000

Here is "Entertainment Design" magazine from Aug 2000. The Jim Henson Creature Shop was involved in the design for "Pan", a live theatre production based on the story of Peter Pan. It was performed in Australia at Sydney's Capital Theatre. The magazine has several awesome photos of the puppets in production, including the crocodile, as well as some concept artwork.

Hoobs (TV Series) 2001

In 2001 the Jim Henson Company produced the Hoobs for European markets, which explains why the characters all have accents. It was later shown in North America however merchandise for the show was only sold in Europe. I managed to find this small Hoob plush toy on e-bay. This character is Groove Hoob. There are five Hoob characters on the show, and all were made for this plush toy series. Larger sized plush toys were also made.


Photos and text © Mike Artelle