Sesame Street 1980 - 1989

Last updated: Sept 12, 2024

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In 1980 Playskool produced the "Busy Poppin' Pals" toddler toy. Close all the doors and then use the button, switch, lever, nob or dial to unlock one door at a time. This will make the characters pop out. The figures on this toy are very nicely made, unfortunately they can't be removed to display on their own.

In 1981 Knickerbocker/Ganz Bros. made variations of their popular Bert and Ernie dolls in which the characters are wearing pajamas. I only have the Bert doll, shown above. These pajama version dolls are far less common than the original dolls. Unfortunately this doll has a seam on his left arm that has come undone.

 

Here are two Sesame Street place mats from a set that was produced in 1981. I'm not sure how many different ones there were in this set, but I assume there were at least four, as was the case in 1982, shown below. I only have these two from the 1981 set. The back of the place mats have activities to do. The manufacturer info says "Playtime Placemats, B of A Inc." and "made in the USA".

Shown above and below are a set of four Sesame Street place mats that were made in 1982. Once again, the back of the place mats have activities to do. These were made by the same company as the 1981 set.

Here's a funny toy! This is the Cookie Shape Muncher, made in 1982 by Hasbro. It's a game for matching shapes to the holes inside of Cookie Monster's mouth. Unfortunately I don't have the shape pieces, just Cookie's head. I've shown it next to a PVC figure for size comparison.

You open Cookie's mouth, put the shapes in and they slide out the back of his head.

The back of Cookie's head where the pieces come out.

Here is a larger sized, hard plastic Cookie Monster pull toy made by Hasbro/Playskool in 1982. As the toy is pulled forward Cookie Monster's arm moves up and down to eat his cookie, and his legs peddle the bike. Below is a view showing the back of the toy with the sticker that says Cookie Monster. Unfortunately the colour of the blue plastic was damaged on this one. I had it stored in a cardboard box for quite awhile and when I took it out of storage several of the toys that I had in the box including this one were colour damaged in this way. It's supposed to be the same colour as the Cookie head above. Both toys were released by Hasbro at the same time in 1982. 

In 1983 Hasbro produced these three 8 inch sized Sesame Street plush toys. The characters, Big Bird, Cookie Monster, and Oscar, are all wearing T-shirts with their names on them. Of all the smaller sized Sesame plush toys from the 70's and 80s these are the most commonly found. I had always thought these plush toys were made by Knickerbocker as they look so much like the smaller sized Knickerbocker plush toys from the 1970's, but they are in fact made by Hasbro. 

The three examples that I have are in mint condition, yet only Cookie Monster has a manufacturers tag sewn into a seam at the back. The other two do not show any signs of a tag having been cut off, so it seems they were sold without any manufacturer or copyright info. The tag on Cookie Monster says Playskool and has a copyright date of 1983. These were sold up until at least 1988 as the Cookie Monster from this set is seen in the window display of the Toronto Muppet Stuff store in my 1988 photo shown here.

I've noticed a variation for Big Bird's eyes. The original toys have a painted blue line on the eyelid, and the later version has the blue line as a a raised, sculpted edge around the eyelid. This is another reason why I thought these were made by Knickerbocker, as the eyes with the painted blue line are made the same as those used for Knickerbocker's Big Bird plush toys.

Continuing with Hasbro plush toys, here's a set of three 9 inch Honkers made by Hasbro in 1983. When the doll's nose is squeezed the toy really honks. The Honkers were introduced on the TV show during the 1980s, so I believe this is the first time the Honkers were made as plush toys.

This is an 11 inch plush Baby Ernie made by Hasbro/Playskool in 1983. It's made in the same style as the popular Knickerbocker Bert and Ernie plush toys from the 1970s, which Hasbro continued to produce in the 1980s.

 

Here are the Hasbro Sesame Babies from 1984. The series included Big Bird (if he's a baby wouldn't that be Little Bird?), Grover, Oscar the Grouch, and missing from my photo, Cookie Monster. The bonnets and diapers for these dolls were separate removable clothes which are often missing. This Big Bird is missing the bonnet. Each of the diapers has the character's name printed on it.

The Sesame Babies came into existence after the 1983 Muppets Take Manhattan movie spawned the Muppet Babies craze that lasted through to the early 1990's. The film portrayed the Muppet Show characters as babies for the first time, followed by a Muppet Babies animated series. See the Muppet Babies page of this blog for more info.

Since the Muppet Babies became so popular, the Sesame Street characters were quickly marketed in baby form, as seen with these plush toys. Disney's Mickey Mouse characters were also quick to follow the babies trend and competed with the Muppets for a share of the "baby" market in retail stores during the 1980's.

This is a music box made by Fisher-Price. There is no date on it however according to Muppet Wiki it was made in 1984. When the larger knob on the TV set is wound the music box plays the popular Sesame Street song "People in Your Neighborhood", as the illustrated paper scenery scrolls to the left.

The back of the toy is just plain green, with a Big Bird illustrated decal on the right side.

The left side of the toy has the lyrics of the song in English and French. Below I've shown the complete illustrated scenery cycle.

This activity and colouring book was published by Merrigold Press in 1986. It has punch out stickers that you wet the back like a stamp in order to stick on place on the appropriate pages. This particular copy was never used so the sticker sheets are all still intact. There are six activity books in this series: ABC, 123, Read, Write, Math and the one shown above, Colors & Shapes.

  

Here is the "Sesame Street Get Ready: Words" card game with a set of 30 large illustrated cards. Each card is dated 1978 but this set was made in 1986, produced by Golden. The cover of the box was illustrated by Tom Brandon and the cards were illustrated by Tom Cooke. Unfortunately this box is torn at the top.

Here is another item produced by Golden in 1986, a Sesame Street puzzle made out of thick card board. It's titled "The Shapes on Sesame Street" and has eight puzzle shapes that can be removed to reveal the name of the shape underneath. This one is missing the square piece above Oscar. 

In 1986 Hasbro took over the production of the 20 inch Talking Big Bird which Child Guidance/CBS had been producing in the early 1980s. This toy was a variation of Child Guidance's "Stuffed Big Bird Puppet" that had first been produced by Educational Toys Inc in the early 1970s (the very first Big Bird plush toy to have ever been made). The Hasbro talking Big Bird that I have is broken, so I don't know what Big Bird says. At the same time that Hasbro made this Talking Big Bird in 1986 they introduced the smaller 15" non-talking version, shown above.

Here is the jumbo sized (or giant sized) plush Big Bird made by Hasbro/Playskool in 1986. It is 30 inches tall, head to foot, or 18 inches sitting.

This, without questions, is my favourite Big Bird plush toy. There will never be another Big Bird plush toy better than this one! I bought this in the mid to late 1980s at Toy City, Westgate Mall here in Ottawa. I recall that, as a kid, I had wanted this very, very badly and saved up my money forever to buy it. Eventually when I had enough I went with my Mom to the store to buy it. It was the happiest day of my life! :) As a kid, I used to ride around on my BMX bicycle with Big Bird sitting on the handlebars. People thought I was a bit nuts, and they were right. :)

Here is the side view to show the shape of the toy and his tail.

What I especially liked about this Big Bird was how Hasbro made the mouth. It looks just like a Muppet style mouth, which is awesome! Unfortunately, Sesame Street plush toys often don't have this type of detail. While this toy was in stores, Hasbro also had the license for Muppet Babies toys. I recall that the jumbo sized Baby Kermit plush toy was displayed next to this Big Bird on the toy store shelf. Many years later after I bought this Big Bird I found the Baby Kermit at a thrift store. A picture of it is on the Muppet Babies page of this blog.

Hasbro also made a jumbo sized plush Ernie in 1985 which, oddly enough, was slightly bigger than their jumbo Big Bird plush toy. Here they are side by side, unfortunately Big Bird's neck tends to bend after a while due to the stuffing becoming condensed, so the head doesn't stay up the way it used to. Ernie is 27 inches tall from head to foot, 18 inches sitting. I've include the Ernie PVC figure in the photo for size comparison. A jumbo plush Cookie Monster was also released as part of this series, but I have yet to find one for my collection.

Here's a bird's eye view of the jumbo Ernie laying on the floor to show his legs and shoes better. He has actual shoe laces that can be tied or untied. There must have been an error making these as the fabric for the back of his arms has the stripe facing the wrong way. His arms actually look a little bit on the skinny side. Another oddity about this plush toy is that Ernie's nose is a hard plastic ball covered with fabric. Unfortunately, a matching jumbo Bert plush toy was not made.

Also in 1986, Hasbro/Playskool produced a series of plush Sesame Street mouth puppets that were more or less the right scale for the jumbo plush Big Bird toy, shown above. These puppets were sold in open style boxes. Two styles of box were made, some boxes say "Sesame Pals" on them, while others simply say that the toy is a puppet. The original five puppets to be released were Ernie, Oscar (shown above), Grover (shown below), Cookie Monster and Bert. 

With the exception of Grover, all of these have the opening for controlling the puppet at the waist area on the back of the puppet, as shown below. Ernie's puppet opening is under the back of his shirt, Oscar's is where his fur meets the trash can. Big Bird (shown below) was added to the series later on. Big Bird and Grover are controlled through the back of the head (shown below). These were all very well made and popular toys in their time. Unfortunately my examples of Ernie and Oscar are in very rough shape. Ernie's pants show fading from light damage.

Here are the Big Bird and Grover puppets made by Hasbro/Playskool in the late 1980's. These puppets were controlled through an opening in the back of the head. A version of this Grover puppet with darker blue fur was also made, but I find that this one looks better.

This is a wooden tray puzzle that does not have a date on it. It may have been made in the late 1970s, however I think it is more likely from the early to mid 1980s as it is made by Hasbro/Playskool. Below is a view of the puzzle with the pieces removed.

On the topic of puzzles, in the mid 1980s Milton Bradley continued to produce Sesame Street puzzles with unique shaped puzzle pieces (see the Sesame Street 1970-1979 page for more). This puzzle is from 1985 and shows Big Bird with Little Bird.

 This is Ernie, Betty Lou and Bert on a 1985 puzzle with unique shaped pieces.

 This is Big Bird and Cookie Monster on a 1985 puzzle with unique shaped pieces.

This is a jumbo sized puzzle in a large box from 1988 showing Big Bird, Ernie, Bert Oscar and Elmo. It has large pieces that are shaped like standard puzzle pieces. From this point on all boxed puzzles are made with standard shaped puzzle pieces.

Here is a rare Sesame Park 50 piece puzzle with the Canadian Sesame Street Muppets, Dodie (a green skinned elderly woman who likes flying around in her airplane), Louie the Otter (a French and English speaking character), and Basil Bear (who learns how to speak French from his friend Louie). The copyright info on the side of the box says "© 1988 Children's Television Workshop, Sesame Street Muppet Characters © 1988 Muppets Inc." The longer side of the box has the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) logo next to English and French text "Les Entreprises Radio-Canada, CBC Enterprises, Montreal, Quebec, H3C 3A8". Therefore, when this puzzle was made the program was simply called "Canadian Sesame Street", and later in the 1990s it changed to "Sesame Park". There is a maple leaf logo on the front of the box in the top left corner that says "Sesame Street Canada".

The picture of this puzzle is a rather crudely rendered illustration and I find it to be a very bizarre choice for a puzzle. The characters and scenery are drawn with a black marker and then the picture is painted. In my opinion the arrangement of the characters is also poorly done as they are all bunched together in the middle of the picture, and their poses aren't very interesting. Basil the Bear is the only one whose face can be seen as the other two are looking away, which doesn't do much to promote the characters. This leaves me wondering if the CBC actually got a kid to do the drawing, or if they were just too cheap to license an actual photograph of the puppets from one of their own shows! How nice it would have been to have a Sesame Park puzzle showing the actual puppets. However, in a way the illustration sort of adds to the uniqueness of this hard to find Muppet collectable. Below is a view of the puzzle pieces, which are large-sized.

This Milton Bradley puzzle is from 1989 and shows Betty Lou, Ernie, Bert, Elmo and Cookie Monster.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s the Applause toy company held the license to produce Sesame Street toys, many of which were sold through the franchise of Muppet Stuff stores. Along with several series of finger puppets they made a VERY extensive series of PVC figures, plush toys, hand puppets, and mouth puppets. Here is the Elmo puppet that I bought in 1990. The tag has a 20th anniversary logo on it and a copyright date of 1988. With this series of puppets, Applause was essentially continuing the series begun by Hasbro/Playskool as the puppets are made the same size and the Elmo puppets is controlled the same way, through the back of the head (shown below). The body is stuffed, which is the same as Hasbro's Big Bird and Grover puppets. I believe this is the very first Elmo puppet to be marketed, as the character was still relatively new around this time.

Additional info about Applause Sesame Street toys!

While Applause was marketing their Sesame Street puppets, they also offered a wide selection of Sesame plush toys. This is a plush toy of Snuffleupagus which has a doll joint at the neck so that his head can be turned. An identical looking hand puppet of Snuffleupagus was also made with the opening underneath through his belly. It's hard to tell the Snuffy plush toy and the puppet apart just from looking at them as they were so similar. A variation of this plush toy was made with light brown fur which I think looks quite odd as the character is supposed to have dark brown fur. A plush toy and puppet of Alice Snuffleupagus was also made.

Above is the Applause Count doll from 1988. I've shown a side view so that you can see the plastic monocle. A front view is also shown below. My friend Duane bought this for me at a Flea Market in California in 2013! It's in great shape complete with original hangtags  The tag shows a logo for Sesame Street's 20th anniversary, same as the Elmo puppet above. Several variations of this Count doll were made with very noticeable product changes. Both a mouth puppet and a hand puppet version of this doll was also made. The mouth puppet is shown below. That's one! One very awesome Count doll! Ah! Ah! Ah!

Above is the Applause Count mouth puppet that I bought from the Muppet Stuff store that used to be at Bayshore Shopping Centre, in Ottawa, ON. Being the Muppet freak that I am, I was a regular customer! (The above Elmo and Grover puppets were purchased at the same store.) The tag that came with this Count puppet has a copyright date of 1988, but the puppet was still being sold in 1990, which is when I bought this one. As with the Count doll from 1988, shown above, I've seen a few earlier variations of this puppet, but I like this 1990 version the best. The Count is also my favourite Sesame character. 

It's difficult to see in the photo but there is a plastic circle "monocle" attached next to his left eye, the same as the above Count doll. The opening for the puppet is at the bottom where his bum would have been, unlike the other Sesame puppets that Applause and Hasbro/Playskool were making at the time, which have the opening on the puppet's back or at the back of the head. I suspect the cape made it impractical to have the opening on his back. 

The body of this puppet also has some stuffing in it so that it's similar to a doll and can sit up on it's own. I absolutely love this puppet! One! One very awesome Count puppet! Ah! Ah! Ah! KABOOM! (Remember how Old School Sesame Street always had the thunder and lightning after the Count counted things? I miss that! LOL)

Here is a closer look at the hag tags for the Count puppet and Elmo puppet.



In addition to the awesome series of Sesame Street mouth puppets, shown above, Applause also made a not-so-awesome series of hand puppets with stuffed heads (non-moving mouths) which don't have any legs. Here is the ugly Big Bird puppet from this collection. The other characters don't look as bad as this one. I've seen puppets of Bert, Ernie, Cookie Monster, Oscar and Grover for this series. 

So just to clarify, there are THREE SETS of Applause Sesame Street puppets. One set which are mouth puppets, and two sets which are hand puppets that do not have moving mouths. One set of the hand puppets have legs and the other set does not.

Here is a very soft and squishy 11 inch Cookie Monster plush toy that was made by Applause. Unfortunately the tag attached on the bottom of the toy doesn't have a date, but it's likely from the late 1988s or early 1990s. The apron is removable and says "Cookies make me happy". As if we didn't know that already! :) I just love how soft and squishy this specific Cookie Monster plush toy is, it's awesome!!! I could squish him all day long! Squish! Squish! Squish! LOL Ah, squishy Muppets, what's not to love?!!! :)

This is a 13 inch plush Big Bird plush (9 inches sitting) with the original hang tag and plastic candy cane. It was made by Hasbro/Playskool in 1988. His hat is tacked on at the sides of his head but is otherwise removable. A similar plush Big Bird without the Santa suit was also produced at the same time. I put this guy out with my Christmas decorations every year. He sits on the back of my sofa. It wouldn't be Christmas in my house without Big Bird Santa!

I suspect that nobody will be surprised to see this in my collection. This is a very, very, very, very commonly found Ernie cookie jar. It doesn't have a date, makers marks, or any copyright info on it. During the 1980s this cookie jar was available through craft supply shops or pottery supply shops as a craft kit that you could bake in a kiln and paint yourself. Therefore, every one of these is hand painted by novice or semi-professional painters, which is why every time you see one it is painted differently from the last one you saw. There is a general colour scheme to follow, but in many cases people used their imaginations to paint Ernie however they wished, which accounts for some of the bizarre variations you might come across. It's also very likely that due to the popularity of the character, some folks painted these by the dozen on a home-made production line for sale at craft fairs, and so on, using more or less the same colours. In any case, the true origin of this cookie jar is a mystery to me! Regardless of how common they are, if you can find one that is painted well it makes for a nice (and inexpensive) addition to a Muppet collection. Personally, I think these cookie jars are awesome. I keep this one on the counter in the kitchen! Below, I've shown the cookie jar with the lid off.

Here is an 8 inch tall Oscar the Grouch Weeble Wobble style toy made by Lewco in 1988. It's from a game called" Don't tip the trash can" in which plastic pieces are placed on the lid of Oscar's can. Here is the Muppet Wiki page about the toy which includes an image of the original box: http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Don%27t_Tip_the_Trash_Can

Here is an Ernie pillow doll that I found second hand in the 1990's. I don't have any manufacturing information, though the sewing and filling of the doll was a home made project. These types of pillow-style dolls have long been sold at fabric stores, which often carry bolts of fabric with illustrations of characters (licensed characters, Santa Claus, manger scene characters, etc.) printed on sheets of fabric that is sold by the meter. You would then cut out the shapes along the guidelines, sew the pillow together and then stuff it to make your own doll. Other than Ernie's pal Bert, I've never seen any other Sesame Street characters in this style so I don't know how many dolls were included in the series. I suspect the fabric for these pillow dolls was made in the 1980's, though it's possible that it's from the late 1970's or very early 1990's.

Here is a pack of Sesame Street invitations made by Party Plus/Granger Balloons Inc. Unfortunately there is no date anywhere on the package. I suspect they're from the mid to late 1980's but they could also be from the very early 1990's. As Elmo is not featured it seems more likely to be from the 1980s.

Photos and text © Mike Artelle, 1997, 2021