Welcome to Toy Fair 2018. For Muppets fans, the word this is... maybe??
Sesame Street is always big, and this year, while there wasn't' a HUGE amount of new Sesame stuff, there were a few cool new things to look forward to this year.
Playskool has a new Tickle Me Elmo, Cookie Monster's Drop & Roll,
Elmo's On The Go Letters:
and re-branded small plush:
We hear they showed off even more at the off-site Hasbro showroom.
Identity Games is offering the same Elmo's World: Hide & Seek and Find It games they were last year.
Also like that last few years, Roomates has the same Sesame room decoration set.
In addition to the Sesame glasses Sun-Staches premiered last year,
they now have smaller Elmo and Cookie Monster versions for younger kids.
Bendon has array of color, activity and picture books:
Comic Images has a new line of small bodied, big headed Sesame plush:
Look for them in July.
Little Kids has some few additions to their Sesame line this year
including Elmo and Cookie Monster Bubble Wobblers:
And Giggle and Bubble Elmo, who like Bill the Bubble Guy, has bubbles that come out of his head:
Brio has two new Sesame games,
One for Matching:
And a "Spin Go Round!" game:
Perennial Sesame licensee Gund, expands their regular plush line,
with the addition of Julia, who makes the transition from limited edition exclusive to wide release.
They also have a few new smaller emoji based plush:
a few plush backpacks:
Small body-less beanbags:
And the big reveal this year, small blind boxed surprise plush:
Gund's non plush offerings include these cookie warming mugs:
After being out of the Henson arena for a few years, Pillow Pets is back with a new line of Sesame pets:
Kalan will continue to have a small line available at retailers like Five Below.
Leap Year is still in the development stage of their Sesame line and only had this image up:
We were told that their line of education through art toys will resemble these other types of toys they produce:
By far the biggest new Sesame items are coming from Green Toys. The have brand new partnership with Sesame to produce a line of eco-friendly toys made from recycled milk jug plastic.
The top line of gardening toys will be available in March:
The bottom row will be out in the fall:
Bonus points for including Elmo's dad, Louie!
You'll be able to pick these up at your local Whole Foods, Barnes & Noble, online, and at specialty retailers.
Moving on to the The Jim Henson Company,
Jazwares still has a line of Dinosaur Train toys and it looks like some of them may be getting a packaging refresh:
Meanwhile Super Impulse has dramatically scaled back their Fraggle Rock line to just the items 4 already available:
The Loyal Subjects who teased a deal last year to make blind box Dark Crystal and Labyrinth figures said those plans are now on hold.
As are McFarlane Toy's plans for Jen and Kira Dark Crystal figures. There only offering Labyrinth's Jareth who apparently has been selling well enough to get a repaint. Maybe next year.
On the other hand, The Coop has inked a deal to make all kinds of toys, key chains, mugs, and apparel for The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, and Fraggle Rock. We hear they may be Think Geek/Game Stop exclusives.
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| 2017's booth |
Wow sounds, like someone at Henson might have actually read our report from last year?!
Moving on.... Funko unveiled a new booth design this year,
and showed off their regular Fraggle line:
Funko is also continuing to sell their Labyrinth line, though Hoggle has been dropped, and for some reason their catalog lists it as "The Labyrinth." Poor Hoghead.
We also heard right from Brian Mariotti, the head of Funko, that something very cool is in the works as well.
Original Mystic sculptor, Tim Clark mentioned on Facebook that he spoke to the head of product development... and they're working on figures for the upcoming Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Netflix series!
Whether that's what Brian was hinting at or if they are, POP!, Action figures, or something else remains to be seen.
Our tour guide Hillary was the perfect person to show us all the new Funko offerings, I mean just look at her fancy footwear!
Which brings us to The Muppets, you remember them right? Their probably the whole reason you scrolled through this entire page. So what's on the way for our favorite theater troupe...
The answer: Not much.
Sun-Staches has their line of Muppet glasses, but is doesn't seem that there is much retailer interest as you don't see them very often.
Plans for an exclusive D23 Miss Piggy didn't happen last year due the product not getting approve in time. Maybe for the one in 2019.
The official word from Diamond Select Toys is... maybe?
The Muppet Minimates are official done, and while they didn't even show off series 4 of the action figures this year,
they are serious about figuring out a way to get them into consumers hands.
Possibly even a special release. We'll keep you posted.
Nano figs has their Disney line of meta figures. There are two different Animal's and a Kermit.
As we showed you previously, they also come in packs with other Disney characters.
As of now there a re no plans to add any additional Muppets to the line.
More bad news, in addition to their Sesame games Brio also makes the Disney Pictopia game. THey appearntly added a few new cards this year as well as updated the packaging - which removed The Muppets.
OK let's end this on a positive note. YES, FINALLY here's the news you came for!
Toy compamy Phatmojo recently inked a deal with Disney to create action figures based on the new DuckTales reboot (they'll be Target stores soon) and guess what licence Disney through into the deal...The Muppets!
They're looking into all kinds of toy and merchandising possibilities. So that's positive. To be clear, we aren't sure if this includes the new Muppet Babies series as well. Which is something I'm surprised I didn' t see any of.
oh well, there's always next year...
