I miss Palisades' Muppets. I really do.
They really took me back to being a kid and watching the first
runs of the Muppet Show. Second, they were part of my
collecting that Mrs. Nerd appreciated as well. We'd spend
some time with each new figure swapping tales of just being kids
and enjoying all of the goodness that the Muppets brought to our
young lives. But, alas, there are no more
new figures for now. Ironically, I've been able to scoop up
a couple of things I'd missed on their original release over the
past couple of months. My latest acquisition was the OMGCNFO
exclusive Muppet Penguin 2-pack. I delayed ordering this
when I heard of all the issues people were having with the site.
I wasn't even sure any of these guys would see the light of day at
the time. Flash forward to May 07. I was sifting
through Amazon and happened onto these fellows, and at $9.99!
Oh happy day! New Muppets!
This two pack is two of the same figure packed
with two stands.
Appearance:
One of the things that always made the Palisades
figures great, was the fact they paid a attention to the details.
It would have been incredibly easy to make all of the figures
smooth and cartoonish. (Think about the old Fisher
Price figures.) But they made sure that the figures were
properly textured. That goes a long way to giving these guys
their look. Smooth beaks and felty-looking bodies.
The open beak gives them a classic Muppet
expression. These guys would look great in your Backstage
playset or band diorama. And since there was hardly ever a
single penguin on the show, it's great to have two of them.
There are couple of small things that make these
guys slightly less than perfect. One, their feet.
These feet look really generic. I would guess they were
going for a vinyl type look to them, but they seem just a little
plain. Second, the paint on my pair is fairly sloppy
compared to the rest of the Muppet line. With black and
white, the slop really shows on the arms, ahem, flippers.
Fun:
They're penguins! Of course they are going
to be fun. There aren't many Muppet scenes they won't fit
in. Backstage, you bet they work. Swedish kitchen
making sardine soufflé. That'd be awesome. Sitting in
with the band. Hand them a tambourine and they are ready to
go.
These guys are armed with ball jointed flippers.
There is a cut joint for each leg and one for the head.
There is a pretty wide variety of poses for the arms and
each one says something different. It did take a couple of
tries to get the legs in the right place to have them stand on
their own. Once I did though, there was no need for the
included bases. I really don't know how much I'm going to be
posing those legs, but it's nice to know I can.
The one thing missing with these guys is
accessories. I guess one of the figures is the figure and
the other was the accessory. It would have been nice to see
some little props with them. Maybe a re-use of Lew Zealand's
fish, perhaps.
Overall:
Penguins were all over the Muppet Show.
It's great to see that Palisades recognized that the background
characters are as important to the heart and soul of the Muppet
show as the lead characters. I'm left wondering if these
guys hadn't been produced near the end of the run, if they would
have got the paint perfect and some accessories.
Overall, I'm ecstatic to have them as part of my
collection. Besides adding to general chaos of my
Muppet display, penguins are just cool dudes.
Engineernerd Score: 85/100
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