Toy Fair 2016!

Welcome to our 2016 Toy Fair coverage!

There was actually a lot of surprses in store all around the Javits Center this year. Let's take a look at all the Muppets/Henson goodness coming soon!


Funko's 2016 Pop! line will consist of Sesame favorites Elmo, The Count, Grover (both not pictured), and a 6" Big Bird, as well the already available Ernie, Bert, Cookie Monster, Super Grover, Oscar, and 6" Snuffy.

While they coldly tell us who the convention exclusive is yet, they did say it would continue in the tradition of this year's flocked versions of Cookie and Snuffy. 

The real surprise at their booth was the announcement of a line of Dark Crystal Pop!

Last year the rumor was Dark Crystal ReAction figures, but with the Pop! line doing so well, I guess they decided to move them to the better selling series. The only prototypes shown were in the catalog, but they said we should see them by the end of year. 

Across the aisle was Diamond Select Toys, who we already know have a terrific line of Muppet action figures coming out in March!

As you can see, Kermit's pupils are too large, but that was a problem in the manufacturing. 

The recent issue with Scooter seems to be that the figure was photographed at a bad angle and that his glasses were pushed too far back. While that will still be the case withe the figure in the package, his glasses are movable so you can correct the problem if/when you tae him out.

While I still counter that Bean is too small, the sculpt itself is spot on and it;s great that;s he's included. 

They also had wave two on display for the first time. 

Bunsen and Beaker are look great, though Beakers shoulders are a bit too broad, while Bunsen's are too narrow. 

 

Animal will come with his drum kit, and I'm pretty sure his mouth will be movable as well. 

Statler and Waldorf, will finally come with their balcony. It may be broken up between the other figures in the wave however, as it may be too large to fit into the standard "select" size packaging. 

Speaking of the packing, they had the final packaging for Kermit, Robin, and Bean on display.

and you can see the side and back for the first time. 

Apparently Toys R Us will have scaled down versions of the figures with less accessories, while specially shops and comic stores will have the full arraignment of accessories. 

Each set of figures will be $24.99 with series 2 coming in May.

Diamond Select Toys also had a sample of their final packaging for the 1st wave of Muppet Mini-mates, 

as well as the prototypes for wave two!

Like wave one, this wave will have both a Toys R Us exclusive, AND a comic / specialty shop exclusive / variant.  

One will have Reporter Kermit and the variant will be Tux Kermit. 

A set of Pigs in Space figures (not shown) will be a Toys R Us exclusive as well. 

Series 2 will be in stores this May and just link series one, the two-packs will retail for $9.99.

And that's not all from Diamond. They also have a set of Muppet glassware on the way. 

The individual pint glasses feature the Pigs in Space, The Electric Mayhem, Muppet Labs and Muppet Show logos!

The Muppet Show logo is a little different from the one we were originally shown with all the ornate flourishes:

But that's because they were unable to get a quality image high enough for printing.  I personally like the early Muppet Show logo they chose a little better, and without all the flourishes the logo is larger and stands out more.

Not only are they going retro, but they're offering up a mug based on the current series as well. As well previously reported, there's a “Up Late with Miss Piggy” mug too!

The pint glasses will sell for $10.99, while the mug will be $15.99.

They will all be available in March from comic stores and sites like Entertainment Earth. 

Now that we'll be get a new set of Muppet drinkware, it's only natural that we have Muppet ice cubes to fill them with. Yes that's right, Muppet ice cubes are on the way!

Houseware maker Icup has a Muppet ice cube tray to make actual Muppet ice cubes.

As you can see the tray had space to make cube forms of Kermit, Miss Piggy, Gonzo, Fozzie, Animal, Rowlf, Dr. Teeth, and Floyd!

Yes, soon your teeth can bite down on a Dr. Teeth ice cube. Outta sight, man!

These will real for $9.99 starting in March. One of the places these will be available will be housewared.com

Sun Staches makes all kinds of funky glasses, usually with munchstaches attached. Recently they started making licensed glasses, like the ones seen below as well. 

When they told me they got the rights to make adult size Muppet glasses featuring Kermit, Piggy, and Animal I was like Holy...

While they didn't have any mock ups on display, they said they will be out in August and sell for $9.99 each. 
Perenial plush favorite Gund has a new logo and few new Sesame items for 2016. 

Nursery Rhyme Elmo was a Toy of Year nominee.

They were partially proud of their new occupational puppet line, especially since NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton was just pictured with their Officer Cookie Monster puppet:  

Be on the look out soon for shinny clip-on disco plush, 

Small Cookie and Elmo been bag bottomed plush,

and both large and small Ernie and Bert plush.

Gund's Sesame line is also capitalizing on two of the biggest trends we saw at the show. 
Super heroes:

With Super Elmo and Cookie Monster dolls (but not Super Grover in that style which seemed odd.) 

and small stackable plush: 

This was definitely the major new trend to emerge from the show this year. Disney started it with their "Tsum,Tsum" (Stack, Stack) line and now many other brands are making their own stackable plush lines as well. 

Little Kids expended their bubble maker Sesame offerings:

While Manhattan Toy has kept their downsized Fraggle Rock line to just 4 of the 5 Fraggles (sorry Mokey),in plush and puppet form, a Sprocket, plush (not shown) and a giant Red Fraggle. 

I'm still confused as to who the main target is for that giant Red, why no other characters were made that size, and why a Gorg wasn't made to make the scale of the other puppets/plush work!

Wonder Forge had a copy of their Disney Pictopia game on on display, and while it's been available for a while now, this is the first time we've gotten a look at  the Muppet cards inside. 

Madam Alexander is continuing to sell their line of Muppet plush and puppets. Unfortunately, they're not expanding it by adding any more characters at this time, but it's good to see that they're still actively promoting it though. 

Jawares has a new line of Dinosaur Train items in the works. All were in the prototype phase so no photos were allowed. 

Look for a large Buddy plush, as well as smaller plush of Buddy and a few of his friends, a plastic Buddy head puppet, and a whole new line of interactive figures and play sets similar, but smaller, then what TOMY released a few years ago. 

Colorforms didn't have a new Muppet coloform collection, but did display their vintage Muppet Babies set along with a few other classic titles to show off the history of the brand. 

Monogram International still has their Muppet lanyard and pins set in two different styles, with no plans to add anything additional at this time. 

After years of Kermit's pilled up, this year Ty seemed to actively hiding their Kermit "Beanie Buddy," He was on the bottom shelf in a very easy to miss place. 

Hers's a photo our friends at ToughPigs took of the display:

While checking out these Sesame mugs and water bottles, 

We ran into The Jim Henson Company's licensing associate who was working the floor promoting Dinosaur Train, Doozers, Labyrinth, Fraggle Rock, as well as the new series, Dot, and Splash.

Surprisingly, you'll notice The Dark Crystal isn't listed, especially since new Dark Crystal Pop! are on the way. Hopefully though this means more Henson characters will be popping up next year. 

We didn't see these, but DIS Kingdom discovered a new line of Disney collectibles called "Podz"at the Bluefin booth. 

We don't have any other info on them yet, or why Kermit is bathing in a cup of soup but look forward to finding out. 

For our UK friends, while we didn't go to any of the other internationally held toy shows, WhiteHouse Leasure let us know they will continue both their Muppet line of plush and mugs,

and their Dinosaur Train plush as well. 

While that's gonna wrap up our look at Toy Fair this year - No stops at either FAO or the Time's Square TRU this year, as unfortunately both retailers closed their flagship stores and haven't opened new ones yet -  Our friends at ToughPigs got a look at Hasbro's off-site showroom which had some new kid centric Sesame items. So do pop over there and check them out.