Showing posts with label Toys. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Toys. Show all posts

New Sesame Street Hasbro Toys Now Available

Way back in February, our friends over at ToughPigs took a visit to Toy Fair where they snapped some pictures of upcoming Sesame Street merchandise from Hasbro/Playskool. These new toys and plush dolls looked awesome and I for one couldn't wait for them to be released. Well... the first wave of Hasbro's collaboration with Sesame Street have hit store shelves recently and most of the stuff is fantastic. Below we break down most of the items currently available from Hasbro and include the price and where to find them!

Sesame Street Playset, $39.99
Available at Target and Toys R Us
Elmo and Oscar 2-Pack, $5.99
Available at Target and Toys R Us

Bert and Ernie 2-Pack, $5.99
Available at Target and Toys R Us
Telly and Cookie Monster 2-Pack, $5.99
Available at Target and Toys R Us
Sesame Street School Bus with Count von Count and Elmo, $14.99
Available at Target and Toys R Us
Oscar the Grouch's Garbage Truck with Oscar figure, $9.99
Available at Target and Toys R Us
Grover's Fire Truck with Fireman Grover figure, $9.99
Available at Target and Toys R Us
Sesame Street Mini Plush, $6.99 each
Available at Target and Toys R Us

Talking Ernie Plush, $19.99
Available at Target and Toys R Us

 Talking Abby Cadabby Plush, $19.99
Available at Target and Toys R Us

 Talking Big Bird Plush, $19.99
Available at Target and Toys R Us

 Talking Elmo Plush, $19.99
Available at Target and Toys R Us

 Count 'n Crunch Cookie Monster, $29.99
Available at Target and Toys R Us

Talking Super Grover Plush, $19.99
Available only at Target
There are also numerous random toys available and Sesame takes on Hasbro brands like Silly Swimmers, Play Doh, and others. Fortunately, this is just the first wave of Hasbro/Playskool Sesame Street products being released. Later we'll see more of the 2-pack figures including already-revealed figures of Big Bird, Abby Cadabby, Snuffy, Murray Monster, Zoe, and Super Grover.

Keep an eye on The Muppet Mindset for more updates on these exciting new Sesame products coming soon and now available from Hasbro!







The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier, ryguy102390@gmail.com

"?" with Jarrod Fairclough: What is the Best Sesame Street Toy? ANSWER!


Jarrod Fairclough Presents: "?"
Because Asking Questions Is A Good Way To Find Out Things
Question: What is the Best Sesame Street Toy?
 THE ANSWER! 

Jarrod Fairclough - Hello sports fans, and welcome to a very special edition of my little segment.  Why is it a special edition?  We’ll get to that.

This is of course the follow up to my question “What is the best Sesame Street toy?”, and I received a few answers from people around the Muppet fandom world.  So let’s just jump in shall we?

Out first answer comes from our good friend Joe Hennes from ToughPigs:
“The Pook-a-Looz are really great plush. I gave one to my nephew a few months after he was born, and it's pretty much the most adorable thing ever. I was going to give him Fozzie, because I think he's most adorable, but I ended up with Kermit because I had a vision of him dragging the Kermit around by his leg, and that was too cute to pass up."

I love it, and I do think the Pook-a-Looz are pretty adorable. And I do have great visions of my little niece-phew (thats a mixture of niece and nephew seeing as we won’t know the babies gender until it’s born) dragging around a little Muppet.

But let’s see our next answer, from the always wonderful Ryan Dosier:
"I, personally, love the Collect-a-Pal toys. They're tiny, but not so tiny to be swallowed or stuck in ears or other orifices, cheap, and fun. They're like little ball versions of the Sesame characters. They're quite stylistic and not exactly accurate representations of the characters... but how can you not love them? And, also, I know it's not really a toy... but you absolutely cannot beat The Monster at the End of This Book."

Ha, I love those little guys. Might need to jump on the internet and buy some... For my niece-phew. And for me...

Some quick answers from some blog readers:
Lucus – “Sesame Street Firehouse.  Big Bird and Grover as firefighters...  It came with Barkley, too!”
Sparkle – “Tickle Me Elmo”
Shane – “Sesame Street Beanie Babies”

And a nice long answer from frequent contributor Michael Wermuth, Jr.:
“I don't have any Sesame Street toys that have been produced in the past ten years, but I guess you can't go wrong with Tickle Me Elmo or any variation. Or those anniversary plush that came out a few years ago. I'd also recommend the Sesame Street Beans that came out in 1998, the Magic Talking Kermit, the finger puppets from the 1970s and 1980s, and the die-cast Sesame Street vehicles which I think were released by Playschool in the 1980s. Of course you'll probably have to try eBay or search flea markets and goodwill stores for those.

I think it'd be easier to pick out books and DVDs. You can't go wrong with The Monster at the End of the Book, and there is a book called the Sesame Street Treasury, which combines many books from the show's 40 year history (including How to Be a Grouch and The People in Your Neighborhood). When it comes to DVDs, I'd suggest Monster Hits, Silly Storytime, C is for Cookie Monster, Bert and Ernie's Word Play, A Celebration of Me Grover, or any of the anniversary DVDs.”

Some great answers there.  I love every single one of these ideas, and I’ve actually seen the big Treasury book around, so I might have to get that and put it away for a couple of years time.

So there we have it, some fantastic answers from fantastic people.  And a lovely little way to wrap up my segment "?"

Whoa, I hear you say.  Rewind that.  Play it again.  “...lovely way to wrap up my segment ‘?’”

Yes  That is why this is a special edition, my friends, for it is, at least for the foreseeable future, my final edition of this segment. Why? Let me tell you. When I began this post with the question about Oscar’s can, that was the only thing I could think to ask. I managed to come up with a few questions, but the vast majority I came up with were easily answerable with a bit of looking. And truth be told, I’m out of questions. So, I’ve decided to end it. But thank you to everyone who ever submitted or helped get answers for me.

Thanks to Joe Hennes from ToughPigs for getting me in contact with Joe Mathieu. Thanks to Joe Mathieu who was kind enough to give me a detailed answer in my first edition, and has since been very kind to me.  Thanks to Katy Perry for wearing scantily clad clothing. Thanks to Corey Edwards, the hopefully director of The Fraggle Rock Movie. Thanks to Jim Lewis for an answer about Pepe, and then of course a huge thanks to Bill Barretta for an answer on the same question. Thanks to the people here who put in their answers about kids toys. Thanks to Beau for his comments. Thanks to Artie Esposito – he knows why. Thanks to Paul McGinnis. Thanks to Emilio Delgado, who had written an answer for an unpublished edition about Maria and Luis’ last names. Thanks to Matt Vogel – he didn’t do anything for my segment, but the man is still responsible for getting me on the Sesame Street set back in 2008. And, of course, thanks to Ryan Dosier, a man so filled with Muppet fan-ism that it makes me jealous.

BUT NEVER FEAR, for I’m not disappearing. Just this segment is disappearing. It took me 18 months to get a ‘Frequent Contributor’ credit, and I’m not losing it anytime soon. I will be back, in some type of other format, doing some other type of segment. I need to talk to Ryan about some ideas.

But, before I really end this thing, you may recall in my very first answer about Oscar that I saw an episode where he was wearing a garbage can lid as a hat, but I missed out on getting a photo...

Well, guess what I managed to catch on TV the other day?


See ya, kids.
Jarrod Fairclough.







The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier

News Update: February 18, 2011


NEWS UPDATE: February 18, 2011

As we reported earlier this week, Elmo, Cookie Monster, and Telly appeared on Bravo's Top Chef on Wednesday night to judge a cookie making contest. (With no tongues? No way.) The whole episode has yet to surface online--which is fine, because the Sesame Street monsters only appeared in he first half of the show--but there is a great behind-the-scenes segment on Hulu, which you can see below!



Speaking of Elmo, our good friends on the team of Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey and Muppet Mindset correspondent Chase Beecher have informed us that the film will be screening at another film festival! This time at the SXSW (South By Southwest) Festival in Austin, Texas. No word yet on if Elmo or Kevin Clash will be in attendance, but you can find all the information about screening times and locations at SXSW's website and BeingElmo.com.

More exciting news from the world of Sesame comes in the form of a brand new Sesame Street video game, via our friends at ToughPigs.com, being produced for XBox 360 and compatible with its Kinect accessory. The game is tentatively titled "Once Upon a Monster" and features Elmo and Cookie Monster in a Where the Wild Things Are like world. The Kinect allows you to play games using your whole body, so the game is designed to improve youngster's motor skills and reaction times. The game will be available this fall and we'll keep you posted as new information surfaces!

Last Sunday, a group of fantastic Jim Henson Company puppets appeared on the Grammys with Cee Lo Green and Gwyneth Paltrow performing Cee Lo's hit "(Forget) You." In case you missed our coverage of it on Valentine's Day, here's another look at the wonderful appearance!



While we're on the subject of The Jim Henson Company, exciting news has surfaced about their partnering with Guillermo Del Toro in producing a new film based on the Pinocchio story. Apparently the Henson Company is designing puppets for the film. Once again, our good friends at ToughPigs have the scoop and some exclusive, awesome looking images for us to ogle.

You didn't think we'd be done with The Jim Henson Company that quickly, did you? Good. Because Jim Henson's Fantastic World opened this past Saturday in Peoria, Illinois and will run through May 21st. And, apparently, Jane Henson will be appearing in person on February 24th! Check out all the information about the exhibit at this local newspaper's website. Also... let us know if you'll be going to see Jane Henson on the 24th, because we think our own Ryan Dosier will be there!


In our grand tradition in mentioning ToughPigs far too many times in our News Updates, we've got another ToughPigs link in the form of their fantastic coverage of ToyFair 2011. They've got tons of pictures of upcoming Sesame Street and Fraggle Rock merchandise and a video of Elmo and Cookie Monster in person at ToyFair! How cool is that? Also... before you freak out, there isn't any new Muppet merchandise presented, and we're fairly certain that this is because Disney is holding off on a big marketing push for the Muppets until ComicCon in the summer where they can showcase merchandise closer to the film's release date. But we don't really know anything for sure, so please don't quote us on that, because, really, we know nothing and we just like to talk.

But, hands down the most exciting news of the week, in my humble opinion, is the thrilling announcement that The Muppets will be preceded in theaters by a brand new Toy Story short film! The Muppets and Pixar have always had a great respect and homage paying thing with each other--in fact, Disney even put The Muppets script through the Pixar brain trust--so this is pretty much the perfect partnership. I've hardly met any Muppet fans that aren't also Toy Story fans... so this is basically the best possible situation! I for one am extremely excited for this hugely awesome pairing. Kudos, Mouse House! Gotta love that synergy.

And, finally, I have to be unprofessional for a minute and make a shout out to Sean, my best friend in the world, who said he'd actually get around to checking out my website if I made a shout out to him in a post (I know how it sounds, but he really is a good friend). So... there it is and I've probably completely lost my credibility as a professional blogger (what professional--I don't get paid) by doing this... but hey, I've got to get him to see it somehow. Oh, and so I don't get in trouble... I'll also shout out to Peter, Hannjoo, Tiffany, Sam, and Mickey too.










The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier

"?" with Jarrod Fairclough: What is the Best Sesame Street Toy?


"?" with Jarrod Fairclough
"Because Asking Questions Is A Good Way To Find Out Things"
Question: What is the Best Sesame Street Toy Out There?

Jarrod Fairclough - My friends, I am excited. I’m excited for 2011. Why? Let me tell you. Firstly, the new Muppet movie will be out, albeit in America, it doesn’t look like it’ll be released here in Australia until 2012. Also, I’m making some great animations in my course this year, which I’m really excited for. But all of that, even the Muppet movie, pales in comparison to what will happen in the second half of the year...

I’m going to be an uncle for the very first time. My sister is currently pregnant, due in July, and I can’t wait to be an uncle. But I need some advice. And that leads to today’s question:

What is the best Sesame Street toy out there?

I’ve been put in charge of my niece's or nephew's Sesame experiences. It’s an honour I take pretty seriously, and I’ve already purchased a couple of things. One is a Big Bird bib I bought in New York when I was there last year. The other is called "Elmo Sit Me Up" seen here: http://dealsgoneinseconds.com.au/Babygoods/Sesame-Street-Elmo-Sit-Me-Up/prod_116.html

But I need some advice. And that advice is coming from my friends (and The British Correspondent) here at The Muppet Mindset, from some Sesame people, and, hopefully, from you. If you have any ideas of great Sesame toys, ones you’ve bought for your kids, cousins, nieces, nephews, all of those, or even for yourself, please drop me a line at jarrodmuppetmindset@gmail.com, or Ryan at ryguy102390@gmail.com and soon I’ll post the answers from everyone!

Until then, have a great day, I’m off to dance my cares away.

Cheers,
The soon to be Uncle Jarrod








The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier

Muppet Collections

Ryan Dosier - I've come to realize something, Muppet fans. Something that is painfully obvious to anyone and everyone who has ever been in or heard legends of my bedroom. No, not the boogey-man under my bed (I realized he was there a long time ago). I've realized, rather suddenly, that I have a butt-load of Muppet stuff.

I know what you're thinking, "Ryan, how can you not realize that you have a butt-load of Muppet stuff until now?" Well, it happened the other day when my Gonzo and Fozzie Pook-a-Looz arrived. After I finished gushing over how awesomely adorable they are, I went to display them on my shelves somewhere. I realized, quite quickly, actually, that I had nowhere to put them. Yes, my Muppet stuff quota had been pushed to its limit.

What is an obsessed Muppet fan to do in this situation? Redecorate? Downsize? Buy more shelves? While all of those would have been fantastic ideas, instead I have decided to photographically document each and every piece of Muppet stuff I have. For posterity's sake, of course (and because I've been wicked bored now that I don't have school breathing down my neck).

But it got me thinking, if I have such an impressive collection, I wonder what other folks have. So, here I am once again calling out to all you Muppet fans out there. I would love to showcase your collections, or any parts of your collections, on The Muppet Mindset in a new article series that I'm dubbing The Muppet Fan's Muppet Collection Chronicle. I want to see your stuff. I'll display some of your favorite pictures here on The Muppet Mindset and the rest will go on The Muppet Mindset's Photobucket account with a link on the post so that everyone can view your collection.

If you're interested in participating, send me an email (ryguy102390@gmail.com) to discuss and to just let me know you're planning to contribute. I sincerely hope we get to see a wide array of Muppet collections spanning The Muppets, Sesame Street, Fraggle Rock, or whatever else you wish to share.

Go forth and photograph, Muppet fans!













The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier

The ToughPigs Ugly Muppet Toy Pageant 2010: My Comments

A yearly tradition in the Muppet fan community is the always-awesome ToughPigs Ugly Muppet Toy Pageant. It is here that ugly Muppet toys from all over the world come together to be ridiculed by we, the obsessed fans. Yesterday our good friends at ToughPigs posted the results of the contest, complete with comments from the hilarious tough piggies themselves. So, in the spirit of harmony, cross-promotion, and a lack of a post for today, I present my comments and ratings for the Ugly Toys of 2010! (Yes, I do have permission from ToughPigs to be doing this.)

Remember that the toys are ranked on an ugliness scale from 1-5, with 1 being "Not very ugly at all" and 5 being "Good lord, someone get some kerosene and matches."

Barkley beanbag, Kellog's cereal giveaway. Submitted by Evan G.

"Hey, kids! Now you too can own everyone's favorite TV superstar: Space-Simulator Barkley! (Vomit not included.)" 2

Clown Cookie Monster. Submitted by Joe H.

Good lord. Does this scream, "Me no WANT to be clown! Multicolored jumpsuit WAY too tight!" to anyone else? 1

Red Fraggle puppet, Dr. Doozer line, 2009.

So THAT's what Muppets look like right after someone shoves a hand up there. 5
Miss Piggy bank, Sigma - late 70s. Submitted by Lara F.

I think the money-in-the-cleavage jokes insinuating Miss Piggy is employed as a voyeur are too easy... So instead I'll just say that the pig needs a tanning bed. 3
Zoe doll. Found on eBay.

They made merchandise of the Zoe puppet from Season 40! The horror! The HORROR!! 5
Knockoff Big Bird doll. Found on the web.

Alright, Bird, where'd ya get the meth from? Abby told you it was fairy dust, didn't she? 4

Mokey doll, Tomy, 1983. Submitted by Justin P.

So THIS is why Mokey has been excluded from DVD packaging!
 Magic Light Ernie, Tyco. Found on eBay.

Does his shirt say, "I <3 Dookie"? 2


Gonzo and Fozzie Pook-a-looz, 2010. Submitted by Mini Skunk.

Who would've ever thought we'd see the day when we could buy Muppet chokers? 1

Bert as a witch. Found on eBay.

Quick! Someone pour water on it! 3

Toccata doll from 1 Rue Sesame. Submitted by Scott H.

Is he a firefighter or an old lady on Easter? Bob, have you been mixing and matching items in the "People in Your Neighborhood" box again? 5
Piggy doll. Submitted by Joel S.

The only way this is distinguishable as Miss Piggy is that it has a dress on and a pig snout. 4
Elmo ornament, Kurt S. Adler, 2008. Submitted by Jes E.

Elmo loves crack! Does baby want to have some crack? Baby wants to ask Dorothy what crack is? Baby can't, Elmo sold Dorothy for more crack. 2


Red Fraggle figure. Submitted by Jog J.

See, kids, eat your bananas or your feet will swell larger then your head just like Red here! 4

Vinylmation Kermit pin. Submitted by Lara F.

It's cute in a cross-promotional, synergy-laden, corporate-icon promoting kind of way. 1

Rosita beanbag. Submitted by Nick H.

Rosita thought her wings could act as a parachute when she jumped from the plane... obviously not. 3

And there you have it, folks! The ToughPigs Ugly Toy Pageant 2010 entrants and my comments and ratings on them. Be sure to check by ToughPigs for the real Ugly Toy Pageant and read even more hysterical comments!

Special thanks to Ryan Roe and the rest of ToughPigs for letting me do this!











The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier