The Lunchbox Bunch # 6: Jim Henson Creations

Today our friend Krazy Joe and Dave Perillo of Megapodtastic, take a look at the Pigs in Space and Fraggle Rock metal lunch boxes!

Can You Tell Me How to Get to 63rd St!

This Wednesday, May 1st, New York City will rename the intersection of West 63rd Street and Broadway "Sesame Street"!

The event is similar to a renaming the city bestowed upon our favorite street for the show's 40th anniversary, though we hear this time the change will be permanent!

The renaming ceremony is open to the public and will take place at 10am at, what will soon be formally called, West 63rd Street and Broadway.

So the next time someone asks you how to get to Sesame Street, you can say Broadway between 62nd and 64th street!

Sesame Street's Device Free Dinner!

Sesame Street teamed up with Common Sense Media to celebrate the importance of a #DeviceFreeDinner!

Check the video below, and remember to put your devices away during dinner (even if you're catching up on Muppet Stuff!). 

Be on the lookout as the PSA will be distributed to a variety of networks including NBC, Fox, Comcast Xfinity, Charter, Cox, National Geographic, NCM, PBS, Univision, Telemundo, HITN, and Xfinity Latino.

Celebrate Muppet Stuff's 7th Birthday with Muppet Cakes!

Today is our little blog's birthday. To celebrate we take a look at some Henson themed birthday cakes. 

Our first cake became a viral sensation earlier this year when Carrie Underwood shared it on social Media. 

Underwood's son Isaiah is apparently a huge Muppets Most Wanted fan and for his 4th birthday she had a Constantine topped cake made for him. 

Add a zero, and for Janine Good's 40th, she received this Fraggle Rock inspired cake:

Also recently turning 40, was Luke Tonkin who had this Muppet Show cake made for his birthday celebration. 

This next cake features the Muppet Babies toys from new Disney reboot:

 And while not birthday specific cakes, once we saw these Dark Crystal and Labyrinth wedding cakes by Little Cherry Cake Company, we had to include them. 

Finally, some lucky 10 year old got a cake of Animal popping out of a drum!

Today we're not 4, not 40, nor 10, but 7.

We hope you've enjoyed reading Muppet Stuff as much as we've enjoyed writing it.

So here's to 7 years of Muppet Stuff and many more to come!

Love the Fur You're In!

Random House has new Sesame Street self help book "Love the Fur You're In: Monster Wit & Wisdom from Sesame Street."

The book features new message coupled with classic illustrations from the past 50 years of Sesame books.

Below is the official description:

Brought to you by Sesame Street and illustrated with 50 years of art from Sesame Street children's books, this is a wise and funny guide to life that's just right for fans of all ages, especially those who grew up with Sesame Street!
Written with great heart and great humor, this hardcover book contains advice for being true to one's self and living life with a Sesame Street perspective--finding that sunny day! Inside you'll find treasures like: "Get out in the rain and dance!" "Don't hide your light under a trashcan lid." "Be someone's Super Grover!"--and much, much more.

The rich, full-color art showcases classic characters such as Big Bird, Grover, Oscar, Ernie, Bert, Elmo, Cookie Monster, the Count--as well as Prairie Dawn, Betty Lou, Biff and Sully, Sherlock Hemlock, Guy Smiley, and others.
The illustrations offer a look back across five decades of Sesame Street book art and give readers the opportunity to remember or discover a wide range of nostalgic art styles that took Sesame Street beyond television--and into the hands of generations of young book lovers.

Celebrate the 50th anniversary of Sesame Street--a truly iconic part of our culture and an indelible part of growing up--with this gem of a book!

Check out a few pages below:

 

You can see more pages from "Love the Fur You're In" here. It can ordered from Amazon
and is available wherever books are sold today! 

Happy Earth Day!

In 1991, the Muppets made a series of PSA's for National Wildlife. 

The compilation below includes :60, :30 & :10 second versions of "Frog Ad Agency" and "Rats At Home" from the Make Earth Day Every Day campaign.

Hoppy Easter!

Sesame Street heads to Game of Thrones and Westworld!

Remember when Sesame Street first announced their deal with HBO and people joked about Sesame characters turning up on HBO's more adult programing and nice versa?

Well now it actually happened, sort of.

Check out Elmo helping Game of Thrones' Lannisters,

and Cookie Monster helping Westworld's androids learn respect!

Bring on the Sesame Street Sex in City, Entourage, Dream On and Arli$$ crossovers!

The Great Philadelphia Comic Con 2019!

I had the pleasure of attending The Great Philadelphia Comic Con, which isn't quite in Philly, but it still great, last weekend. 

I scoured the show floor to find as much Muppet and Henson related items as possible. 

Along with a few Muppet POP!s, here's what I found:

One dealer had a lithograph print of The Great Muppet Caper poster:

As well as  many Brian Fraud prints:

There weren't many Muppet toys, but there was this Sam Eagle/Sam Arrow Palisades action figure:

Our friends at Alternate Dimension Toys had a fresh case of Kidrobot's Fraggle Rock mystery figures:

This being a comic con, there were a few Henson related comics, mainly newer issues of Achaia's Labyrinth and Dark Crystal titles.

Hower, BJ Wanlund spotted this graded copy of Muppet Babies #10 that's apparently such a rarity in this condition that the seller was asking $300 for it!

There were also a few Muppet celebrity guests at the show!

Muppet Show guest Alice Cooper was at the show signing autographs and taking photos with fans. 

Though he's no stranger to working with puppets, it was certainly odd to see Alice and Bear featured so closely together on the photo schedule:

Friends of blog Noel MacNeal and Jim Martin were on hand to talk about their time working with Jim Henson and the Muppets. 

Noel brought a smaller scale puppet replica of Bear:

Who even FaceTimed with a young fan who couldn't make it to the show:

Mike Lopez of Increditainment, Noel, Bear, and Bear

Jim is making the rounds at cons to help raise funds to restore The Great Space Coaster.

He has a few Great Space Coaster postcards and patches:

As well as a selection of his cast and crew jackets for sale:

Including this wonderful Sesame Street 25th anniversary jacket:

Our friend Joe sat down with Jim to talk about his efforts to save The Great Space Coaster:

For details on how you can help, follow the official Great Space Coaster Facebook page and website.  

Throughout the weeknd, Noel and Jim also participated in activities for kids and hosted a late Friday afternoon panel,

which quickly evolved into having pretty much everyone in the audience come up on stage to share their experiences and stories about their love for puppetry and The Muppets.

You can watch the madness unfold below thanks to our friends at Increditainment who brought Noel and Jim to the show. You may even spot a familiar face!

Thanks again to Like Lopes and Michael Grassia at Increditainment and The Great Philadelphia Comic Con!

Sesame Workshop Announces Nationwide Road Trip to Celebrate Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary!

Sesame Workshop today announced that the Sesame Street Muppets will embark on a nationwide road trip to celebrate the iconic program’s 50th anniversary. 

The 10-city trip will bring together community partners, celebrities, elected officials, and families to highlight the many ways that Sesame Street—and the nonprofit organization behind it—helps kids everywhere grow smarter, stronger, and kinder.

Stops on the road trip will unfold over three days, culminating in free Sesame Street festivals where families in each city can enjoy live performances and kid-friendly activities.  Sesame Street’s production crew will also travel to each city, filming a new segment that will capture what local kids love about their communities. The segment will be part of Sesame Street’s 50th season, premiering in November on HBO. While in town, Big Bird, Elmo, and friends will visit local landmarks and community organizations.

“This summer’s road trip will demonstrate the power of media to engage and teach – something Sesame Workshop has focused on from the very beginning,” said Steve Youngwood, Sesame Workshop’s President of Media and Education and Chief Operating Officer. “As we celebrate our decades of impact and look ahead to the next 50 years, Sesame Street’s timeless lessons remain the same: Everyone, no matter who they are or where they are from, is equally deserving of respect, opportunity, and joy.”

Fans and families can celebrate Sesame Street at community festivals in the following cities:

• New York, NY: Saturday, June 1st
• Washington, DC: Saturday, June 8th
• Pittsburgh, PA: Saturday, June 15th
• Detroit, MI: Saturday, June 22nd
• Chicago, IL: Saturday, June 29th
• Dallas, TX: Saturday, July 6th
• Kansas City, MO: Saturday, July 13th
• Denver, CO: Saturday, July 20th
• Seattle, WA: Saturday, July 27th
• Los Angeles, CA: Saturday, August 3rd

Sesame Workshop has even partnered with navigation app Waze to tell you how to get to each Sesame Street event!

Details about the events – including locations and participating local personalities – will be released throughout the spring.

First Look: Jim Henson's The Storyteller: Sirens #2!

Check out the first few pages of Jim Henson's The Storyteller: Sirens #2.

Main Cover: Cory Godbey 

Variant cover: Chan Chau

JIM HENSON’S THE STORYTELLER: SIRENS #2, from cartoonist Chan Chau, introduces readers to the goddess Nuwa, a shapeshifting snake deity who traveled the world at its creation when the earth and trees and air were perfect and brand new. While Nuwa had the whole world at her disposal, able to scale mountains and visit oceans whenever she pleased, she found herself overtaken by loneliness. And so began the creation of animals and people, and the start of human life and love.

Jim Henson's The Storyteller: Sirens #2 hits comic shops May 8th.