Happy Lear Year from The Muppets!

The Muppets "leaped" at the change to wish everyone a Happy Leap Year!

Rare Muppet Clips Volume 2!

We're back with another batch of rare Muppet performances. 

Again, we do not own these clips, nor do we make any guarantees to how long they'll be available, so watch them while you can!

"Julie, Do Ya Love Me?" (The Julie Andrews Hour, 1973)
Rowlf and Julie perform "Julie, Do Ya Love Me?" on The Julie Andrews Hour. This clip originally aired February 17th, 1973.

Visual Thinking (The Tonight Show, 1974)
Kermit and Grump perform "Visual Thinking" on this 1974 episode of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. 

Big Bird's Dance (The Ed Sullivan Show)

Big Bird dances on The Ed Sullivan Show from December 14, 1969. Big Bird is performed by Daniel Seagren in this appearance and not Caroll Spinney.

What's My Line? - Big Bird & Caroll Spinney (1972)

Guest try to figure who who Big Bird is - this time performed by Caroll Spinney - who also appears, in this 1972 episode of What's My Line? 

If you like these be sure to check out Part 1.

If you find a rare Muppet clip and would like us to share it, please send us a link!

Now Available - Labyrinth: The Card Game!

River Horse Studios recently released Labyrinth: The Card Game.

Pit your skills against your friends and family in Labyrinth: The Card Game.

The tarot-size cards are beautifully illustrated by Ralph Horsley, based on beloved designs by Jim Henson and Brian Froud. Each player must choose carefully which cards to play every round – too weak and you will lose the trick, too strong and you will leave yourself open next round. You and your teammate must work together and anticipate each other’s needs in order to claim mastery over the Labyrinth!

 Inside the magnetic-clasp box you will find: 

• 80 beautiful tarot-sized cards with illustrations by Ralph Horsley.

• The base rules introduce a simple trick-taking game that can be played with all the family.  

• The advanced rules add ‘following suit’ to the mix, making it into a far more sophisticated game.

You can order Labyrinth: The Card Game from River Horse and Amazon.

Thrifting at Taylor's Treasure Chest with Cinema Sickness!

We teamed up with Cinema Sickness again. This time we check out Taylor's Treasure Chest in Hatboro, PA.

If you're in the Philly area, be sure to check out Taylor's Treasure Chest and if you enjoy movies, thrift stores, and toy hunting, be sure to check out Cinema Sickness' channel. 

Toy Fair 2020!

Welcome to our annual Toy Fair roundup. Once again we scoured New York's Javits Center to find all the Henson related items coming your way in 2020.

And.. to be extremely blunt it ain't much. While there are some very cool items on the way, the sheer lack of current Muppet love was extremely apparent. 

With that in mind let's get the bad news out of the way. Last year we told you about a bunch of cool items they were in development. This year, not so much.

Super Impulse scaled back their Fraggle Rock last year line but was still offering it, that is no longer the case, and they no longer have a license with the Henson Company. 

After the success of their Labyrinth Jareth figures, McFarlane Toys planned to make figures based on The Dark Crystal's Jen and Kira. They also now no longer have the license. 

The Coop told us they were working on a deal to make The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, and Fraggle Rock items, but apparently that fell through. 

2019 New Zealand Mint Muppet Coins

PhatMojo, who released the SDCC exclusive Constantine "Dark Kermit" plush a few years ago and had plans for another SDCC exclusive, also no longer has the Muppet license. For some reason it was tied in with their DuckTales reboot licence which they also no longer have.

While Funko does have some new Henson related Pop! on the way (more below) they didn't mention or show any new figures for The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance.

The New Zealand Mint has no plans for new Muppet items at this time, but they still have the licence. 

We didn't see Green Toys at the show this year nor Aquarius so we're not sure about their Sesame Street and Henson lines. 

OK on to the positives!

Sun-Staches continues to have Sesame Street and Muppet sunglasses, though no new characters were announced:

Little Kids has a few Sesame bubble products but once again didn't show off any new products:

With news that the Philadelphia Phillies are in the middle of a lawsuit with original Phillie Phanatic creator Bonnie Erickson, it was nice to know see that Super 7 and Funko still have classic Phanatic items, though depending on how the law suit goes, they might not be around much longer. 

Underwraps Kids has Splash & Bubbles child costumes, but did not bring them to the show this year and doesn't have any new additions to the line.

2019 Underwraps Kids Splash & Bubbles Costumes

Same story at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. They have a line of Splash & Bubbles books, but have no new additions at this time. 

Kid Robot has the same blind box Fraggle Rock figures and keychains as last year,

but are not offering the large Doozer vinyl figure they showed last year. There just wasn't enough retail interest. Maybe it will be released as a con exclusive, we'll see. They are also open to more Fraggle items, but nothing is in works as of yet.

2019 Doozer

In the extended Henson universe NECCA is offering figures based on the 1990's Ninja Turtle movies the Henson Creature Shop worked on: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze. 

Bright Time Toys has a line of large Sesame Street plush that will be available in specialty and department stores,for around $70 each.

Snuffy will be the chase figure. 

Speaking of Sesame Street plush, perennial Sesame licensee Gund unveiled a few new  plush.

Grover is getting big push this year,

Two new career Elmo plush- Firefight and Doctor.

The animated birthday Elmo sings Happy Birthday then blows out the cupcake's candle.

There's a new Abby Cadabby plush:

Bedtime Elmo features a working flashlight and his PJ's dots glow in the dark. 

Gund also has a new line called Fuzzy Palm Clips featuring Grover, Cookie Monster, and Elmo that look like pot scrubbers.

Kids Preferred has a line of Sesame Street plush books, but apparently they are the same as last year and there are no plans to expand. 

While Zen Monkey Studios is expanding their line of Sesame Street pins. 

They showed samples of their star series character pins, and told that a buddy line is on the way featuring Cookie Monster and Gonger and the Two Headed Monster.

Many of Zen Monkey new Sesame pins are already available on Amazon. 

Funko once again has some great Henson related items,

in fact our guide, and friend of blog, Hilary came prepared to show us around the booth wearing Statler and Waldorf shoes!

As part of their Ad icons line the Creature Shop produced Coca-Cola bear now has a Pop! figure,

 

but the big reveal was their  line of Dinosaurs POP! figures. 

The Sinclair family will be available in March, 

 and we hear there are more figures/ exclusive versions on the way.

Weta Workshop is continuing their line of high end The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance sculptures. 

While they didn't have any of the sculptures at the show, they said the Mystic Archer is on the way and unveiled the first look at their Chamberlain figure.

Just Play showed their currently available line of Muppet Babies toys.While no new figures, playsets, plush, or animated plush have been added to the line, individual packed PVC figures are heading out to Dollar Tree locations as an exclusive. 

 

Remember The Muppets? It didn't seem like most of the manufactures did. 

PSI Publishing has this Disney Shorts' Kermit. We first saw it a few years ago and it was only available in Mexico. The first wave is starting to become available in the US this year, and Kermit is planned the second wave, though they are still working on the deal. 

Our friends at Diamond Select still have the Legends Animal bust, and while no Muppet figures were on display we were they are planning something Muppety as a SDCC exclusive.  

By far the biggest surprise of the show was Chronicle Collectibles new line of Fraggle Rock, Labyrinth, and The Dark Crystal ornaments.

We were told they want add more characters each year similar to Hallmark's keepsake line. They would also like to include characters and ships from Farscape.

If you passed on Chronicle's statues over the price, you'll be happy to hear that these will cost around $19.99-29.99 each, except for the door knockers, which are actual metal and will arrive in a two-pack for $39.99. 

The sculpts are exactly the same as Chronicle's larger scale counterparts, so expect a lot of detail. Below are how they'll look on your tree.

We ran into a couple celebrity guests at the show including figurine creator Miss Mindy, whom we pitched an idea for a Miss Piggy Miss Mindy figure - which she loved, and drew a Kermit for us.

We also got to chat with The Toys That Time Forgot author Blake Wright. 

In the atrium, ebay had a display of retro toys that featured Tickle Me Elmo.

Lastly, our friends at ToughPigs sent over these photos from Hasbro's showroom across town.

This year they're celebrating the "Year of the Monster," with two new animated plush:

Peekaboo Cookie Monster,

and Rock & Rhyme Elmo:

Well that's going to go it for our look at Toy Fair 2020. The Henson Company and of course Sesame Street seem to have a decent amount of stuff on the way, but the folks at Disney are seriously dropping the ball with The Muppets.

We didn't take time after the show to check out any other NY spots for muppets this year, but we did see that Madison Square Garden was hosting a Sesame Street Live production!

Hopefully with the new Muppets Now  debuting to Disney+ this year, we'll see more Muppet Stuff.