I WANT MORE LEGO MUPPET MINIFIGURES!!!!!!!!!

 

Here is the entire set of 12 Muppets minifigures!!! Front row, L to R: Sweetish Chef, Rowlf the Dog, Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Gonzo with Camilla the Chicken. Back row, L to R: Bunsen, Beeker, Animal, Janice, Waldorf, and Statler.

In May 2022, Lego released a series of 12 Muppets "minifigures" that were hugely popular. They caused quite a stir among both Muppet and Lego fans who frantically collected the complete series, myself included. As such the figures did not last in stores for very long and sold out very quickly. By the end of the summer in 2022 they were no longer available. 

With such a successful and popular product you would think that Lego would have been quick to market a second series of Muppet figures but unfortunately this has yet to happen! I hope this changes because not only do I absolutely love these little guys, but the collection is still incomplete!!!!!! We need the rest of the Electric mayhem band, Scooter, Sam the Eagle, and so many others!

I'm very surprised that Lego didn't release a second series of these figures, and I'm also surprised they didn't release a Muppet Show Theater playset as it seemed like everyone who collected these figures wanted one. Clearly the Lego folks are missing out on a golden opportunity. I hope they at least make a playset set based on the Muppet Show arches so that we can display the figures in it, that would be so cool! There are several other Muppet Show themed playsets that I would want as well. Personally, I'd love to collect Lego mini figures of all the odd background Muppet monsters and supporting characters!

Therefore, below is my crazy, extremely long and detailed list of ideas for Muppet Lego figures and playsets which I spent way too much time on! ...but I would love to have every one of these! Hopefully someone at Lego reads this and gets inspired! :)

Mikey's wish list for Lego Muppets series 2!!!

1. Scooter with clipboard

2. Dr. Teeth with keyboard

3. Floyd with bass guitar

4. Zoot with saxophone

5. Lips with trumpet

6. Sam the Eagle

7. Sweetums with Robin the Frog (Robin is a one piece figure similar to Camilla)

8. Muppet Newsman

9. Captain Link Hogthrob in Pigs in Space outfit

10. Dr. Julius Strangepork, Pigs in Space outfit

11. Miss Piggy, Pigs in Space outfit

12. Reporter Kermit with microphone

Mikey's wish list for Lego Muppets series 3!!!

1. The Great Gonzo (red cape, silver shorts, white tank top) with partially eaten rubber tire

2. Miss Piggy in black jacket with spotted collar, with Foo Foo (one piece figure)

3. Kermit with director's chair, wearing beret and scarf, with acoustic megaphone

4. Walter wearing a Kermit shirt, with Pepe (Pepe is a one piece figure)

5. Uncle Deadly and Rizzo (Rizzo is a one piece figure)

6. Clifford wearing sunglasses with Bean Bunny (Bean is a one piece figure)

7. Marvin Suggs with his Muppaphone

8. Mahna Mahna

9. Snowth

10. Gorgon Heap (with horns and teeth, no ears)

11. Lew Zealand with fish and bucket

12. Beauregard

Plus more ideas:

• Muppet Theatre Stage Proscenium with Statler and Waldorf's booth, and figures of  Kermit in his purple suit from season 1, Trombone Lady in purple suit (from opening theme), Droop, and Timmy Monster
• Muppet Show Theatre Arches, set fits into theatre playset or stands by itself, comes with figures of Thog, and Crazy Harry
• Muppet Theatre Backstage set with Pops, Gaffer the Cat (one piece figure), large and small Javas (one piece figures), Mildred Huxtetter, and George the Janitor 
• Muppet Bus with Dr. Teeth (different outfit), Animal in chains (different outfit)
• Pig in Space bridge set with two figures of crew pigs and Gonzo as Dearth Nadir
• Veterinarian's Hospital with Rowlf as Dr. Bob, Nurse Piggy, Nurse Janice and Screaming Thing as their patient
• Miss Piggy and the Biker Pigs
• Miss Piggy and the Viking Pigs
• Rowlf in a tuxedo with a grand piano
• Sam the Eagle wearing Uncle Sam style outfit with podium and American flag themed backdrop
• The Great Gonzo (yellow outfit from Muppets Take Manhattan) on waterskies with boat filled with chickens 
• The Flying Zucchini Brothers three Muppet figures with their canon
• Bobby Benson and his Baby Band
• Memorable Muppet Skits set including an upright piano with several chickens, Zelda Rose with her Owl on it's perch, Behemoth with Shakey Sanchez, and some Clodhoppers
• Bear on Patrol set with Fozzie and Link in police outfits, Banananose Moldenado, and Bullets Barker
• Lubbock Lou and his Jughuggers jug band including Lubock Lou, Bubba, Zeke, Slim Wilson, Lou, and Gramps
• Pack of various Muppet Monsters such as Doglion, Luncheon Counter Monster, Sunny Day Monster, Mean Mama, Lenny Lizard, Blue Frackle, Green Frackle, Jade Green Frackle
• Pack of various Muppet Animals such as Sopwith Camel, Muppet Alligator, Guongo Ape, Muppet Tiger, etc.
• Pack of various Muppet Birds such as Muppet Penguins, Fletcher, Betsy Bird, Rooster, etc.
• Pack of various Spooky Muppets such as Mulch, Ghosts, and the Vile Bunch
• Pack of various Muppet supporting characters such as Mutations monsters, Wayne and Wanda, JP Grosse (Scooter's Uncle), Muppet King, Muppet Queen, Muppet Royal Servant
• Pack of Season 1 Muppets in purple suits such as Gonzo, Floyd, Zoot, Janice, Lips, and Nigel the Band leader
• Muppets Take Manhattan figure set with Rizzo as a waiter, Tatooey, Chester, Masterson, and Yolanda (Muppet rats are each one piece figures), business frogs Gil, Bil and Jil, Miss Piggy with permed hair wearing blue suit jacket, red skirt and roller skates, Kermit dressed for fancy restaurant with moustache and wide brimmed hat
• Jim Henson Hour studio with Jim Henson, White Lion, Digit, Leon, Flash with saxophone, Zondra, and the four Muppets known as the Extremes
• Muppets Most Wanted Helicopter and Muppet ladder (various Muppets) and Constantine wearing black cloak
• Assorted Muppets with Walter in his blue suit, Pepe in ballerina outfit, Kermit in disco outfit, Piggy in a summer dress with wide brimmed hat, Emily Bear (Fozzie's Mom), Koozebanian male and female aliens, Koozebanian Phoob, Great Gonzo in pink outfit, etc.

My humble thoughts about the cancelation of the Muppets Mayhem TV series.

The Electric Mayhem Band: Animal, Dr. teeth, Janice, Floyd Pepper, and Zoot.

In my humble opinion as an obsessed Muppet fanatic, the Muppets Mayhem TV series was by far the best Muppet production to be made since the Muppet Show ended. No contest!!! I just loved, loved, loved this series! It captured the spirit of the Muppets perfectly!

It is far beyond incredibly stupid that Disney is refusing to produce a second season of this perfect, dream-come-true Muppet TV show. What a dumb-ass, lame-o, idiotic, stupefying, brain-numbing, nitwitted, boneheaded, imbecilic, muttonheaded, ignorant and moronic decision!!! Really, really, really dumb!!! So dumb one has to wonder if the folks calling the shots at Disney even give a s**t about the Muppets at all? 

How out of touch with your fan base to you have to be to cancel such an excellent TV series? This program is simply perfect!!! Everybody loves this show! I haven't heard any significant criticism about it. Not one peep! The show even won a 2023 Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's or Family Viewing Series. I don't know what standard the Disney folks are basing their concept of a successful TV show on, but they have clearly set the bar impossibly high to reach. This leaves me with only one conclusion... Disney executives are idiots!!! Total looooooooosers!!!! 

I find the cancelation of Muppets Mayhem concludes any speculation, we now know for certain that the Muppets are forever doomed in the hands of Disney. Sad but true Muppet fans! :(

-Mikey Artelle

Creator of Mikey's Muppet Memorabilia Museum and Muppet fan since 1973

...and there's also Lips who, if he were here, would probably add to the above something like... 

Muhhuh mubba a muff humma momo uh immle humm is mumble humma, eh humff!!!

Well said! You tell 'em Lips!

New Muppets Funko Pops!!!

It's been six years since the Funko toy company produced any Pop! figures based on the Muppets. The last one was the Superhero Kermit that was exclusively available at the Emerald City Comic Con in 2017, and limited to a production run of 3000. Today there are several of them listed on e-bay with an asking price of over $100 each. 

In late 2023 just in time for Christmas, Funko released a set of five characters from The Muppet Christmas Carol, including Kermit as Bob Cratchit with Robin as Tiny Tim, Miss Piggy as Mrs. Cratchit, Fozzie as Fozziwig, Gonzo as Charles Dickens with Rizzo, and a non-Muppet human character, Scrooge. There was also a two pack box set of Statler and Waldorf as the Marley Brothers. I'll add a photo of these shortly.

In early 2024 Funko released Baby Animal from the Muppets Mayhem TV series (above, top), and a Hot Topic excusive two pack set of Kermit and Constantine based on the movie Muppets Most Wanted. Curiously the movie title does not appear anywhere on the box. In any case, these are all very cool Muppet Funko Pop! figures which I could not pass up! 

A closer view of Baby Animal

Odd numbering for these new figures!

I'm very curious to know why Baby Animal was numbered 1492 as he's from a new series, Muppets Mayhem, so technically he should be number 1 from this series. However the better option would have been number 12, as Superhero Kermit was numbered 11 to continue the Muppets series. So it would have made sense for Baby Animal to be number 12 in the Muppets series. The Muppets Christmas Carol series should also have been numbered as part of the Muppets collection, but instead they were numbered as part of the Movies collection. That at least makes some sense unlike Baby Animal which seems to have been given a random number. Could it be a numbering error? 

Muppet Funko Pop! wish list!

It would be awesome if Funko released figures of the remaining Electric Mayhem band members as only Animal and Dr. Teeth were included in the original Muppets Funko Pops series. So if they made Floyd, Janice, Zoot and Lips we would have the whole band.

It would also be cool if they made Scooter, Rowlf, Bunsen, Beaker, a regular version of Statler and Waldorf, the Muppet Newsman, Sweetums, the Pigs in Space crew (Captain Link, Dr. Strangepork and Miss Piggy in their Pigs in Space outfits), Kermit in his reporter outfit, the Great Gonzo with Camilla the Chicken, Uncle Deadly with Pepe, and Pops with Gaffer the Cat (a Pop! of Pops!). That would be awesome, as it would bring the Muppets collection up to number 31 if we count Baby Animal as number 12!

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!!!