D23 Muppet Mayhem!

D23, the official Disney Fan Club is hosting a "celebrational muppetational" week of "Muppet Mayhem."

With so many milestones to celebrate this year, from 25th anniversary of Muppet Treasure Island and the 30th anniversary of Dinosaurs, to The Muppet Show arriving on Disney+, it takes a whole week of Muppet mayhem to express our excitement!

First, join D23 on Tuesday February 16 as they celebrating the 25th anniversary of Muppet Treasure Island with a two-part “Cabin Fever” Watch Party!

At 3 p.m. EST/12 p.m. PST Set sail with a special look behind the “seas” with a panel of some of the swashbuckling crew that brought this high-seas adventure to the big screen! Join Director Brian Henson, Puppeteers Dave Goelz and Bill Barretta, Jim Hawkins actor Kevin Bishop, and host Leigh Slaughter, Vice President of Muppets Studio, as they share stories about bringing Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic pirate tale to the screen in the most Muppetational way!

Watch Here: D23.com | Facebook.com/DisneyD23 | YouTube.com/DisneyD23

Then drop anchor to Disney+ and Twitter as D23 and some of your favorite Muppets live tweet along with Muppet Treasure Island. We’ll uncover some buried gems as fans everywhere watch together!

HOW TO JOIN:

Watch Party at 7 p.m. EST/4 p.m. PST

Twitter.com/DisneyD23

Join the conversation & follow along using: #D23MuppetMayhem

Then on Thursday February 18th D23 is hosting the premiere of "A Muppetational Legacy with D23"

It’s time to play the music and light the lights as D23: The Official Disney Fan Club takes us on a celebrational Muppetational journey looking at the legacy of The Muppets with those that know them best.

Host Leigh Slaughter (Vice President, Muppets Studio) is joined by legendary Bill Barretta (Puppeteer, Pepe, Rowlf, Swedish Chef), Dave Goelz (Puppeteer, Gonzo, Bunsen Honeydew, Waldorf), Kevin Bishop (actor, Jim Hawkins), and Brian Henson (Puppeteer, Director, Producer, Chairman of The Jim Henson Company) for a fun, wide-ranging conversation that looks back at Disney Legend Jim Henson and the long and successful collaboration between The Muppets and Disney.

"A Muppetational Legacy with D23" will premiere Thursday, February 18, 2021, at 7pm EST

Where to watch:

D23.com
Facebook.com/DisneyD23
YouTube.com/DisneyD23

D23 Inside the Disney podcast will have a Muppet episode Thursday, February 18, as well. You can find the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and TuneIn.

But that's not all, to further celebrate these milestones D23 is giving fans an opportunity to “dress up right.”

BoxLunch has an exclusive discount for D23 members in honor of Muppet Mayhem. February 11, 2021 - February 20, 2021, D23 members can get 30 percent off online orders by entering the promo code: D2330 when shopping at BoxLunch.com.

Items include this Disney The Muppets Dr. Teeth Band T-Shirt: 

Support your favorite Muppets band with this tee featuring Dr. Teeth and all of the Electric Mayhem: Floyd Pepper, Zoot, Janice, and, of course, Animal. BoxLunch will provide the T-shirt, and you can provide the psychedelic bus. 

And Disney The Muppets Kermit The Frog Lying Down Pose White Zip Around Wallet:

This handy wallet, which happens to be made from vegan leather, offers a convenient place to hold your phone and other essentials—and we would argue that Kermit’s smiling face makes this an essential in and of itself. Keep Kermit close at hand whenever you’re on the go.

D23 highlights these and a few more items, but head over to BunchLunch for many more. 

"Muppet Mayhem" continues for D23 Gold Members with two exclusive Muppet Treasure Island pins, created in stunning gold enamel exclusively for D23 by Disney artist Sofi Ouhri.

Featuring Kermit as the dashing Captain Smollett and Fozzie as Squire Trelawney (and Mr. Bimbo!), these D23 Gold Member-exclusive pins chart a course across the “big blue wet thing”! 

Each pin is a limited edition of 1,500, will be available exclusively to D23 Gold Members on shopDisney.com at 7 a.m. PT on February 15, 2021.

Each pin is sold separately for $12.99 each. 1 pin of each style per membership.

D23's "Muppet Mayhem" week culminates with the launch of The Muppet Show of Disney+ February 19th!

Final Packaging For DST “Best Of” The Muppets Figures!

The final packaging and accessories for Diamond Select Toys “Best of" The Muppets action figures has been revealed. 

Kermit and Miss Piggy: 
Which also includes Robin and Foo-Foo. 

Fozzie and Gonzo:
Which also includes Camilla

Rowlf and Scooter: 

Bunsen and Beaker:

Swedish Chef:

Statler & Waldorf are also part of this "Best of" series, though their new packaging has not been revealed.

You can also get them in two bundles.

These paired down sets feature less accessories and don't contain other figures such as Crazy Harry, Mahna-Mahna, or Bean Bunny that were included in the original releases. 

The above links will take you to Big Bad Toy Store, and they are also available at Hot Topic and Amazon.

Creative Teams Announced for The Storyteller: Tricksters!

BOOM! Studios announced not only a new Storyteller comic, Tricksters, but the creative teams behind the 4 issue mini-series as well. 

JIM HENSON’S THE STORYTELLER: TRICKSTERS, a comic book series based on the Emmy Award-winning classic television show, Jim Henson’s The Storyteller, presenting several extraordinary folk tales of legendary tricksters from the four corners of the world. Each issue will feature a new creative team, with the first issue, by writer Jonathan Rivera (Cave Carson Has a Cybernetic Eye), artist Jade Zhang, and letterer Jim Campbell, featuring the most famous trickster of all—Anansi.

Every issue will feature main cover art by artist Peach Momoko and variant cover art by artist Dani Pendergast.

Fans of this fantastical series can also look forward to even more stories about their favorite tricksters of legend with the second issue, written by The New York Times bestselling YA author Jordan Ifueko (Raybearer) and illustrated by rising star artist Erin Kubo, featuring a teen Yoruba village girl who matches wits against the great god of mischief, Eshu.

The third issue, written by poet and Hugo Award-winning author Amal El-Mohtar (This is How You Lose the Time War) and illustrated by cartoonist Isa Hanssen, about the legendary fox Reynard and his scheme to get rich quick.

The fourth issue by cartoonist Robin Kaplan (The City on the Other Side) and illustrator and comics artist A.L. Kaplan featuring gods Loki and Thor as they crash the wedding of the century!

Probably not this Thor & Loki

The Storyteller: Tricksters will be available for sale on March 17, 2021 at local comic book shops (use comicshoplocator.com to find the nearest one) or at the BOOM! Studios webstore.

Digital copies can be purchased from content providers, including comiXology, iBooks, Google Play, and Madefire.

DoorDash Delivers to Sesame Street!

As we mentioned last week DoorDash has teamed up with Sesame Street for a series of ads starring Daveed Diggs and furry friends. 

The "super" ad "Kicked off" Sunday during the "big game."

In addition to the preview spot we showed you last week,

DoorDash also released some of the other spots as well:

DoorDash not only pledged to donate up to $1 million from every order placed on February 7th and 8th to Sesame Workshop they already hit their goal. 

Tour The Muppet Stuff Museum With The Baretta Brothers!

Last night I was honored to appear on The Baretta Brothers vodcast to show off our Muppet collection along with A1 star Mark Read. 

In case you missed it (it's not like there was this SUPER sporting event on TV) or want to watch it again and again, you can see the entire episode below.

Episode 42 of The Barretta Brothers. 

Guest: Mark Read, and Chris Stulz.

Hosted by award-winning author/illustrator of children's books, Gene Barretta and producer, writer, director, and performer for the Muppets, Bill Barretta.

You can watch more Muppet fun with The Baretta Brothers on their youtube channel and at TheBarrettaBrothers.com

Muppet Stuff Video: Thrifting Finds and Zolocon 2020!

Take a look at some Muppet thrifting finds and what we picked up at last year's Zolocon toy show. 

This year Zolocon will be held JULY 17th - 18Th 2021 at The Fuge in Warminster, PA.

Coincidently, we’ll be showing off items from our collection as part of a LIVE Super Bowl PRE-GAME SHOW with the Barretta Bros.

Tune in this Sunday at 5pm EST / 2pm PST on thebarrettabrothers.com and their Youtube channel.

Be sure to check our YouTube channel for other videos. 

Henson "Comes Over to" New Dr. Seuss Series!

The Jim Henson Company is developing a new series based on the Dr. Seuss book Come Over to My House that they hope will re-engage children socially long after the pandemic lockdown.

Come Over to My House will be a live-action unscripted series for kids 5-8 based on Dr. Seuss' 1966 children’s picture book of the same name.

While the book tells the story of an American boy who travels around the world and is introduced to the homes and customs of kids in different countries, the Henson series will re-cast the lead as a puppet (tentatively named Katie) and be filmed documentary-style with real kids in their real homes.

Having previously collaborated with the Suess estate for The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss, this time the Henson Company wanted to reimagine another book together—but one that didn’t feature Seuss’ familiar characters and feels grounded in reality.

To achieve this, Halle Stanford, president of television at Henson, hired documentary filmmaker Tiffanie Hsu to direct the series. 

Though “These aren’t the classic Cat in the Hat fantasy characters, we hope to capture the joy of an unfettered, unstructured day of play between a kid and a puppet.”

Elmo in Sesame Workshop's International Rescue Committee 

“Because we’ll be using real kids and loose scripts, and we won’t be shooting on sets, I went into the doc world to find a creator" she said. 

Though no release date has been set, Stanford plans to pitch the series in early spring. Despite the fact that unscripted content tends not to travel as well as animation, which is easier to dub, she’s confident broadcasters will be interested in the stories and drawn to the production’s potential speed to market.

“We’re hoping for 20 half hours, and if we set it up with the right partners, the show will come out at a time when kids and families across the globe will need to re-embrace connection as we start to come out of the pandemic."

Sesame Workshop's International Rescue Committee 

The series will also have a small crew and Stanford expects production could begin as early as this summer and be delivered quickly to networks that need content.

She says the biggest challenge will be figuring out where the show can shoot, and how it can be done safely if filming begins this year."

Come Over to My House sounds very much like Sesame Workshop's International Rescue Committee project and their recent 50th Anniversary road trip videos, but as an internationally released show. 

We'll keep you posted as we learn more about this latest Henson series.