matleo's annual toy fair trip

hey gang,

can't ttype too much abou this as I'm on a borrowed computer but I have been at toy fair both yesterday and today and will be there tommorow and will have news to share whenI get back tommorow night. can't say much nonow cause like I said I'm on a borrowed server anddon't want to take too much time, BUT I will say I got the chance to see the Fraggle stuff, talked to a rep there and directed him here, saw the ever-ebullient Mr. Allen aka Travis aka Trav aka ElecMayhem aka the guy who used to work for Palisades doing Muppets and now works for MR doing Muppets and to my delight I also ran into one Mr. Craig Shemin who was nice enough to stop andchat for a moment about a few things.

I'll go into more details (as muchas I can) tommorow night and I'm reading the Fraggle thread now to see if I can go back with a few questions tommorow. Look for a post from me here around 10 tommorow night.

talk to you all later.

--Matt

Awesome. Can't wait! Maybe you should try to get some sleep though, LOL!

Did you see the muppets/star Wars figures on display(if they are still going ahead?)

Hey gang,

ok so what did I see and what can I talk about. Well, i saw Travis and the stuff at MR. not going to say too much since the pics are out there, Travis has his own thread and most of you already have the replicas of kermit, Animal and Gonzo. but this was the first time i had seen everything and I was very pleased....almost kinda wished i had the money for the replicas but sadly I chose to get an Arts degree instead. Fozzie looked pretty good. of ll the replicas he's the one I'm really happiest with and the one I want the most. The EM stuff looked really cool too. Dr. Teeth is clearly the strongest sculpt there, followed by Animal then probably Zoot and Janice and Floyd, bu they still all look great.

OK, the stuff you guys wanted to really hear about. The Fraggle Rock stuff WAS on display and it looked really awesome. the only complaint I have is the letterblock bases which make NO sense. Iasked if the bases would be removable and was met with a firm "maybe". What thye had were the prototypes that they had just gotten in so right now they really didn't know. but to describe them as best I can:

Gobo was sitting playing his guitar.
Mokey was sitting reading a piece of parchment
Wembley was in a very generic wembling kind of stance (there's actually a publicity photo that I think this pose was taken from)
Red was in a nice kind of "ta-da" pose
Boober was leaning against his block and looking kind of bummed about the whole thing.
Travelling Matt was exploring with a walking stick in one hand and what looked like a magnifying glass in the other.
The Doozers were building a little tower
The first generic Fraggles was blue and playing a saxophone
The second generic Fraggle was green in a sweater and just leaning wistfully on his block (I didn't ask but I imagaine we'll see paint variants on these two)
And Sprocket, Pa, and Marjory are almost all more like busts

They ALL look fantastic. they've borrowed the Palisades texturing and of course it looked really good. Wembley, Pa and Sprocket are the weakest, not necessarily bad but not as strong as the others. I think Marjory, Red and Boober are my favorites. Oh, and the saxophone Fraggle I REALLY liked him. I sent the rep to here as well as muppetnewsflash so hopefully we'll hear from him. I also gave him my e-mail address so he said he'd email me when they became available. He said to expect them next fall.

Saw the Dark Crystal stuff. The Mystic is by far the best piece there but not something I think I'm willing to shell out $100 for. Jen on the landstrider and Jen, Kira and Fizzgig looked alright but again nothing I'd spend the money on. they didn't have the castle on display since apparently they only had the prototype ad it was way too fragile.

The Jim Henson's City Critters things looked neat. I might pick up a few for the heck of it and the Mindstyle rep (I believe his name was Chris) said they would be doing pain variants for those too. he also pointed out the 8" doozer that was on display at Dark Horse.....yeah you now know as much as I do about the figure. No idea whose making it, no idea when it's available, no idea what it'll cost, but it is there.

And finally I ran into Craig Shemin. he was nice enough to stop and chat for a few minutes about a few things. He told me he's been brought in by the Diz to consult on the TMS dvds. He said he'd given them a list of things to put on and they were selecting pieces and working on them. First the bad news....First off, "A frog is born" will not be on season 3. He said they had some problems with licensing that prevented it from happening, but he seemed optimistic that they might get it onto Season 4 or 5. I 'm guessing that this might be with Sesame since it was a thing on the evolution of the character. Might have had a few other stumbling blocks if they were looking at other things. That's just my speculation. He also said they were REALLY close to getting the spot from "I love Liberty" but the production company that produced that backed out at the last second. He said he was pushing Disney to put more of the promo spots on as well as the wake-up call the Pigs in Space had recorded for NASA, but right now it didn't look good. He DID however say that they got some great commercials lined up for Season 3 and this people will be pleased and he indicated Of muppets and Men would most likely be on Season 5 but of course that's WAY off right now and anything can happen. Finally he mentioned a documentary he's working on about Henson's short films. He said they're working on the funding now and that it'll air on PBS when it's done. It didn't occur to me until later that I should have asked if that was related to the news about the biopic or what he knew about that.


And that was ToyFair. All in all it was a really great time. I'm really tired now and have two puppets shows of my own I have to get up and do tommorow so I think I'm going to cut this short now and go to bed.


Sleepily yours,
--Matleo

The licensing problem with A Frog is Born could have somethign to do with Sam and Friends. I hear that Universal owns the distribution rights to the series. I can't imagine there being many problems with using Sesame Street clips, as a few Disney DVD releases have included Sesame Street clips in their documentaries (a featurette on Budd Luckey included a clip from The Ladybug Picnic, and I hear that the recent Pixar shorts DVD includes the Pixar shorts made for Sesame Street).

And he didn't say what the commercials are for...?

Cool cool cool COOL DUDE! So you liked the EM stuff? Pics seems to show them as being way too cartoony. And Floyd has got weird human-like proportions, shouldn't his head be bigger?

I'm really excited for the vinyl Fraggles, but that sucks that Sprocket has a weak sculpt! Maybe they'll get him right before release.

Thanks for your report! I wish I could get down there more often.

Cheers,

Anthony

Gorg, Majory and Sprocket are just the heads, so yeah like busts.

Thanks a lot for the news Matt, sounds like a great show!

can't seem to find any pics from any of the muppet merchandise being shown at toy fair. anyone care to post some links?

Very cool! i saw some pictures of the EM and a Doozer. The EM sculpts are cool, they aren't as detailed as Palisades so they don't wow me enough to buy them. i saw some pics on Toughpigs.com

Too bad to hear about the licensing problem with A Frog is Born for season three. I don't know much about it myself but i wouldn't see a problem with licensing Sesame street as well and would go with it being with Universal for Sam and Friends. Hopefully we will get to see it! so many classic and new Muppet things planed and created for the Muppet Show DVD's i hope we get to see them all with the last few sets!

Sprocket was the weakest. Not necessarily bad, I just didn't think he was as good as the others. He seemed slightly scrawny to me. But that really is a nitpick. It's still a really cool sculpt and fans will still dig, but like I said I thought the others looked a little better.

That is too bad about the "Frog" documentary. I know they're trying their best, but the bonus features on these sets have been very disapointing. I think copyright laws are important, but it's just not right how they keep interfereing with art and the enjoyment of the audience (who, you know, pays for these things! lol)

I think Season 3 starts to make up for some of that. I'm actually really looking forward to the "Company of Characters" featurette and I think the other things they have on there will be fun. You've got to appreciate that this IS an expensive show to put on DVD to begin with and I think bringing in Craig and his encyclopedic knowledge of the Henson Archives is a certainly a step in the right direction for these sets. I'm mostly happy to just have the show on DVD at all and anything they add on there is just icing on the cake.

but that's just my opinion.

Oh yes, how true that is. We can't get too spoiled about these things, lol. Well, I'll wait see how the Season 3 turns out. As I said, I know they're trying their best to put out a good product.

There appears to be a blackout/censoring of any Fraggle Rock photos from any online Toy Fair 2008 coverage, odd.

Anyways, sorry to hear these wont be posable

I don't see MINDstyle as being as much of a fan-friendly company like others we're used to. The black-out has been concerning me too. I don't think they understand what they have on their hands: that the Fraggles aren't Sesame Street letters and numbers characters or that there is great strength in the Fraggle brand without need for any marketing tricks. I knew these wouldn't be posable and that's fine with me. I would support a PVC line of Fraggle figures if they made them good enough.

I wanna see these sculpts. Lets hope that now the Fare is over some pictures will pop up somewhere!

Well I understand some companies like to keep wraps on industry eyes only prototype previews, at least for a week or two until they officially release pictures.

But there's many toy sites exhaustively covering every square inch of the toy fair with pictures, and not one Fraggle Rock figurine picture.

Which leads me to think they only showed the Fraggle figures to a select few and asked for pictures not to be shown.

Im not sure where the letter concept came from, as I could see them attached to radishes more than anything.

Look at all the Super Mario figures coming out from Corgi, who I personally remember collecting Muppet toys from 27 years ago:
http://tf08.figures.com/showgallery.php?cat=642

I'd love to see Fraggle Rock figures someday in that vein.

It is my belief that MINDstyle has some very talented artists working on these pieces, but have very little Fraggle knowlege beyond conceptual art. Don't get me wrong, they have some beautiful items. I purchased the I Am Plastic book that features much of their art pieces and admire much of the company's work. I don't like how it has been applied to the Dark Crystal so far, but I hope it works with the Fraggles. I also hope those letter bases are either scrapped or removable. If the sculpts are as attractive as has been reported they don't need such an eye-sore of a stand.

I get the company's control over photographic release, but I am stunned that nobody's gotten any shots off anyway. They must have a rather surly looking bouncer.

Oh theyre extremely talented at Mindstyle...

but I cant help but wonder..when I look at the Mystic resin sculpt...wouldnt it make more financial sense to release that as a plastic figure? You sell it for $12 at stores everywhere, more people can get and appreciate this fine craftsmanship and you sell more without losing the texture or look.

Anyways, cant wait to see these Fraggle figurines

Hope that stuff is cheaper than those Japanese imports (due to the shipping fees). I love that stuff, but I just can't afford much of it.

BTW, here's something I'm really looking for...NECA TMNT based on the comic book.

Those Super Mario toys are pretty sweet! One toyline I'd LOVE LOVE LOVE to see would be Smash Brothers!