Last Updated: Oct 20, 2023
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In 2000 the Children's Television Workshop was bought out and became Sesame Workshop. Therefore all of the following figures were made after the transition in ownership which marked the end of the CTW era.
Readers Digest, made between 1998 and 2001
Baby Natasha and Zoe from the Reader's Digest Sesame Street PVC figure series.
I've shown them next to an Applause figure of Zoe for size comparison.
According to the Muppet Wiki website, during the late 1990's Readers Digest offered a monthly book series of Sesame Street children's books. Each book came with a different Sesame PVC figure. These figures are very well sculpted and are somewhat larger than typical PVC figures. They are made out of the usual flexible PVC plastic.
The series included:
Big Bird standing with head turned to the left, right arm raised out to the side held up high, left arm held out forwards held lower than right arm, legs separate (space between legs), heels of feet look to be touching slightly (not certain if they are attached or separate)
Cookie Monster standing with legs together (no space), left hand held out, cookie in right hand flat against tummy, head tilted slightly to the right, mouth wide open
Ernie standing with legs together, finger of right hand touching his bottom lip, left hand held out waving, head tilted slightly to the right, mouth wide open
Bert standing with legs together (no space), hands on hips, elbows bent
Oscar the Grouch in his trash can, left hand on his cheek, lid of can on his head, right hand holding edge of can, mouth open
Grover standing with legs slightly separate, heels touching, right arm held out to side horizontally, left hand on his tummy, head tilted very slightly to the left, mouth open
Elmo standing with legs and heels separate (not touching, space between legs), waving with his right hand, left hand hanging down by side of his body positioned to be tilted/reaching back (not hanging straight downwards), mouth open
Zoe (shown above)
Telly standing, legs together (no spaces), head tilted slightly to the right, mouth open, both hand over his tummy, yet sculpted separately (not flat)
Baby Bear standing with legs together (no space between them), arms held out to his sides, head tilted to the left, mouth is open
Baby Natasha (shown above)
Little Black Puppy (a character created the book series) standing on all fours, smiling with tongue hanging out, dark grey fur, black ears
Fisher-Price/Mattel, 2001
Bakery Crafts, made between 1990 and 2011
Elmo in a race car by Bakery Crafts, 2010
This Elmo is half of a PVC figure which is attached to the plastic car.
Figures with Musical Instruments
Muppet Wiki notes that Bakery Crafts produced three Sesame PVC figures as cake toppers: Big Bird with cymbals, Cookie Monster with a drum, and Elmo with a horn. These are very similar to the second set of Sesame cake toppers made buy Wilton, but each of those characters have different instruments and are standing on a white base. For the Bakery Crafts set, the base for each figure is the same colour plastic as the character.
Unfortunately no production date for either the Wilton or Bakery Craft set was provided on Muppet Wiki. As such, the Bakery Craft figures could have been made between 1990 and 2011. My understanding is that Wilton had the license for Sesame cake topper figures in the 1980's, though I am not certain if this continued into the 1990's. My guess would be that the second Wilton series of figures with the musical instruments was done in the 1990's, but just to be cautious I would date the Bakery Craft figures as possibly beginning in 1990.
See Saw Figure
In 2011, Bakery Crafts made a very detailed See Saw toy as a cake topper, which has figures of Abby Cadabby and Elmo attached to the See Saw (so the toy is technically one figure as it is all one piece). The toy is marked 2011 on the base. This would indicate that the first three figures mentioned above would not have been made after 2011 as they are more simplistic in design than the See Saw figures.
Additional Figures and Vehicles
In addition to the above figures, Bakery Crafts made other Sesame cake toppers in the form of separate PVC figures or toy vehicles with a PVC figure attached. Two of the vehicles were made in 2010, as such it seems likely that the other items, if confirmed, would be from around the same time. Those that I have noticed include:
PVC Figures
Elmo wearing green and grey airplane goggles on the top of his head, waving with left hand, arm is straight out to the side, right arm flat against body, legs together, no spaces (to be confirmed if it was made by Bakery Crafts, as the ebay listing said it was but did not have a photo of markings)
Cookie Monster and Elmo set includes a PVC figure of Cookie Monster holding the handle of a wagon that Elmo is sitting in. The Cookie Monster figure is separate from the wagon with his hand sculpted in the position to hold the handle. Elmo is attached to the wagon.
Vehicles with attached PVC figure
Big Bird in an orange tow truck with yellow wheels, seatbelt strap across shoulder, white bumper and base to truck, marked 2010
Elmo in a blue car with yellow wheels, white bumper and base to car, marked 2010
Note: These two toy cars are very similar to toy cars made by Tyco in 1993.
Elmo in a green racecar (shown above)
Cookie Monster in a red racecar
Universal Studios Japan, made between 2003 and 2022
According to Muppet Wiki, Sesame Street characters have been featured at the Universal Studios Japan theme park since April 2003. At some point between then and 2022 a series of Sesame Street figures were sold at the park. All of the figures are attached to a base that says "Universal Studios Japan". The set includes:
Big Bird sitting on a short stool reading a book with a green cover, on a green base
Cookie Monster standing on his right leg stepping over the Sesame Street sign logo with his left foot in the air, left hand raised, right hand flat against his body, on a green base
Elmo waving with right hand held above his head, heels touching with a space between legs, on a yellow base
Elmo wearing two lays around his neck, standing with his weight on his right leg, his left leg to the side as though he is bowing, arms raised out to his sides, head tilted to the left, on a yellow base
Elmo, this is toy car of a taxi with a smaller figure of Elmo coming through the roof
Hasbro / Milton Bradley, 2004
These PVC figures are the game pieces that game with the Sesame Street "Chutes and Ladders" board game.
Elmo, Big Bird, Cookie Monster, and Zoe
Above is a Hasbro / Milton Bradley "Chutes and Ladders" board game made in 2004. Below is a look at the game itself...
The game includes four game pieces which are awesome PVC figures of Elmo, Big Bird, Cookie Monster and Zoe. The four characters are also pictured as illustrations on the spinner card.
The game board is also illustrated with the four game piece characters along with additional Sesame characters. I find it interesting that Ernie, Big Bird and Oscar each only appear twice on this game board despite being the star characters of the show (and one of the game pieces), while Bert, Zoe and Cookie Monster each appear six times, and Elmo appears the most often out of all the characters 16 times! Just a tad too much Elmo for my liking! The Count, my favourite Sesame character, doesn't appear at all!!! Sucks! :( Still, it's a very fun game to play.
Vee Corporation/Colin Company, 2004 - 2016
This boxed set of eight PVC figures was sold through the Sesame Street Live touring shows beginning in 2004. The set shown above is from 2008. The Sesame Street Live 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 figure that was previously manufactured by Applause. At quick glance these figures appear to be the same figures as the originals, but a closer look reveals that they are in fact entirely new sculpts. In fact, the entire boxed set is based on a similar boxed set released by Applause in 2000.
The box shown above was marked 2008, however it seems that a new batch of these figures were produced every two years as I have seen several copies of figures from this set which are marked with different dates on the base, including 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014 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 if they are simply the distributor, or if they did both.
Here are four of the eight figures out of the box. As you can see, the Ernie and Elmo figures are much smaller than Grover, who is taller than Big Bird, as the figures are not in scale with each other. This specific Ernie figure is marked 2008, Elmo and Big Bird are marked 2004.
Above are two identical Vee Corporation Super Grover figures however they are both marked in black on the base with different dates. The one on the left is marked 2008 and the one on the right is marked 2010.
Comparisons to Applause figures:
Above left: Super Grover, 1980's by Applause
Above right: Super Grover marked 2010, by Vee Corporation/Colin Company
Side view shows the different positions of the capes.
I've added more photos comparing the two figures in a separate post.
Above left: Big Bird from the box set released in 2000 by Applause
Above right: Big Bird marked 2004, by Vee Corporation/Colin Company
Side view of Big Bird figures
This view from above shows how the Applause figure (left) has the head turned slightly to the left, while the Sesame Street Live figure is looking straight ahead.
Sesame Street Play Town, by Learning Curve, 2007
Elmo, Ernie and Cookie Monster "Play Town" figures next to a PVC Super Grover figure for size comparison.
These figures are painted wooden shapes with hard plastic molded pieces attached. I find them to be very odd as why bother making them out of wood if you are going to add molded plastic to it? In any case, there are eight figures in the series which were sold in sets of two. I've shown the Super Grover PVC figure next to them for size comparison.
Ernie and Bert
Big Bird and Cookie Monster
Elmo and Grover
Abby and Oscar
Sesame Place, 2007
In 2007 the Sesame Place theme park marketed an exclusive series of six Sesame figures. Cookie Monster was not included in the set which is quite unusual.
Big Bird wearing swimming shorts
Ernie standing with legs together, no space between legs, arms out to sides, left arm raised up
Bert standing with legs together, no space between legs, both arms bent with hands on hips
Elmo wearing swimming shorts and sandals
Oscar the Grouch with "Sesame Place" written on the front of the trash can
Count Von Count with right arm raised, legs and heels of feet are together, no space between legs
Beverly Hills, 2007
The six figures in this series were sold individually on bubble cards.
Big Bird, sitting on a stool reading a green book
Ernie, holding Rubber Duckie with both hands to his left side
Bert, holding up a painting of a bird in his right hand, his left hand flat against his tummy holding a pencil
Cookie Monster, holding a yellow cookie jar with red letters with both hands up to his left shoulder
Elmo holding a fish bowl shape to his left with illustration of a fish on it
Zoe wearing ballerina outfit, arms out to sides, right arm raised
Fisher-Price/Mattel, 2008 - 2010
Toy Island, 2010
These were sold individually on buddle cards
Big Bird, sitting, head turned to the right, waiving with left hand, legs bent and separate, left knee pointing upwards, right knee horizontal to the side, figure is to scale (as seen on TV) with the other two Muppets in this set
Cookie Monster light blue, left hand behind back, waiving with right hand with arm out to side, legs together
Elmo both arms hugging his tummy flat against figure, legs together, leaning slightly to his left
Big Bird, sitting, head turned to the right, waiving with left hand, legs bent and separate, left knee pointing upwards, right knee horizontal to the side, figure is to scale (as seen on TV) with the other two Muppets in this set
Cookie Monster light blue, left hand behind back, waiving with right hand with arm out to side, legs together
Elmo both arms hugging his tummy flat against figure, legs together, leaning slightly to his left
Hasbro/Playskool, 2010 - 2018
Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Elmo and Zoe by Hasbro/Playskool
Two boxed sets of Sesame Street figures including: (top row, L to R) Zoe, Big Bird, Bert, Ernie, Super Grover, (Bottom row) Elmo, Grover, Cookie Monster, Snuffy, and Oscar the Grouch
What I find more interesting than the figures in this collection are these two boxed sets produced by Hasbro in 2018. The boxes are designed to look like 123 Sesame Street and Hooper's Store using the illustrations from the original 1970's Sesame Street Little People playset, made by Fisher-Price (which is now owned by Mattel). I've shown the 1970's Fisher-Price playset on another page on this blog. I'm not sure how Hasbro was able to do this since they are using another companies artwork? I doubt Hasbro would pay Mattel to use the illustration, but perhaps they did? Or perhaps they found a loophole for using this specific artwork and exploited it? Maybe the copyright for the artwork expired? I'm just guessing as I really have know idea how this is possible. Whatever the case is, this is some very shrewd marketing on the part of Hasbro. I honestly don't care about these figures, I just bought these two boxed sets for the boxes!
The illustration on the side of the box showing Luis in his fix it shop and the boy
in the window above are taken directly from the 1970's Fisher-Price playset.
The Illustration on the side of the box of Oscar's can and the doors above
are taken directly from the 1970's Fisher Price playset.
These two Elmo figures look like they are the same but they were each made very differently. The one on the left is hollow and very light, made with a hard plastic. It's marked 2013. The one on the right is heavier and solid, and made with a PVC type of plastic, marked 2010 with an octagon shaped hole in the base (shown below). Therefore it is likely that several of the figures in this series can be found in both of these formats, while other figures may have been made in only one of these two formats.
Medicom, 2017
This is a really impressively sculpted and rendered set of Sesame figures. They were sold individually on bubble cards. I'm not aware if these were distributed in North America, to my knowledge they were mainly sold online. This is the same company that made the Sesame Street Kubricks figures (which are listed on the Sesame Street Action Figures page of this blog.
Series 1
Big Bird (5.7 inches)
Oscar the Grouch, green version
Ernie
Bert
Elmo
Cookie Monster
Series 2
Grover
The Count
Abby Caddaby
Oscar the Grouch, orange version
Cookie Monster and Elmo hugging
HeadStart, 2017
HeadStart is an Australian toy company that produced a series of nine "blind box" Sesame Street figures in 2017. The figures were sold in solid pouches so that collectors could not see which character they would be getting. This forced collectors to buy duplicate figures until they managed to find all of characters in the set. This is the only series from Headstart in which the figures are sculpted to look normal rather than stylized. The set includes
Big Bird
Cookie Monster
Ernie with Rubber Duckie
Bert
Oscar the Grouch
Elmo
Elmo, limited edition glitter variant
Abby Cadabby
Super Grover, posed in a flying position
In 2018 the company released a boxed set of the eight figures (without glitter Elmo) which undoubtedly went over well with collectors who had painstakingly collected all of them in "blind box" packaging, while wasting their money on doubles of figures that they don't need. Strange bit of marketing there, in my humble opinion!
Sesame Street Ooshies, 2018
Another "blind box" series by Headstart. This is a series pencil topper figures which are short, stylized, cartoon-like depictions of the Sesame gang.
Big Bird
Elmo
Elmo, furry/flocked variant
Elmo, hologram/opaque variant
Elmo with doll
Elmo with doll, hologram/opaque variant
Grover
Super Grover
Cookie Monster, no cookie
Cookie Monster holding cookie
Oscar the Grouch
Snuffleupagus
Ernie
Bert
Abby Cadabby
Count
Two Pack Figures, 2020
Headstart offered another series of Sesame figures, this time the characters are made to look child-like. This list is incomplete.
Cookie Monster and Abby Cadabby
Comansi, 2018
The Muppet Wiki site lists this series as being made by a Portuguese company, but doesn't clarify if the figures were only sold there, or if they were distributed internationally including within North America. Characters in the set include:
Grover
Ernie
Bert
Cookie Monster
Elmo
Just Play, 2023
This are hard plastic figures that were sold at dollar stores. Figures are packaged individually on bubble cards.
Big Bird, Cookie Monster and Oscar the Grouch by Just Play
Elmo and Abby Cadabby
Although there have been numerous Abby Cadabby figures made since her debut in 2006 this is the first one that I've added to my collection. It's too bad that there isn't a PVC figure of Gonnigan as I really like that character. They should have introduced puppet versions of both him and Blogg on Sesame Street.
Pop Mart, 2023
So far at least three different series with 13 Sesame Street figures in each set has been made as part of the Sesame Street Pop Mart collection. To my knowledge these are only sold in Japan but I could be mistaken. They're also available on eBay but they're quite expensive. I've certainly never seen these figures in stores here in Ottawa, Ontario Canada. These figures are sold as "blind box" figures, so you don't know what figure you are getting until you buy it and open the package. Below are the checklist images that were released online. I don't know what order these three sets were released in, so I'm just listing them in random order.
Hello my dear collector friend, I am Alejandro Cabriales, I live in Mexico and looking for information about the Plaza Sesamo collection I found your Blog, I want to thank you very much for all your effort to explain, really that your collection is great, I am in search and Rescue of the Sesame Street figures and Playskool carts that are my favorites and Tyco matchbox, I have some of the pieces that you need in photos for your forum and I would be happy to send them to you, I am attaching my collection so far from Sesame Street. I am 20 years old and I study a bachelor's degree, but these figures make me feel like a child: D
ReplyDeleteHello Alejandro, good to hear from you. Unfortunately, everything that I know about the figures you are looking for is already posted so I don't have any additional info to tell you. Perhaps the Muppet Wiki website might have more info there? If you want to send photos, please send them to Mikey@pythorcomics.ca Many thanks, all the best! :)
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