Sesame Street Hand Puppets--The Count

[EmergencyIan]

I had a Muppets Fozie Bear hand puppet. Loved it!


- Ian

[sauce]

Ernesto di Apriti Sesamo has recently joined me for some adventures.
I am so stoked on this boxed Harbert puppet. I also like that it's an ERNEsto by harBERT.

[huedell]

anyone got a pic of that rubberhead Count?

The ebay auction is gone

[palitoy]

Ernesto es muy buena

[sauce]

Anyone out there have a group shot of the puppets in their collection?
I am totally hooked on these now!!
Yikes!


Oh, and one thing: this Harbert one came with a plastic stick to place around Ernesto's arm and then hold then the other in my hand so I could be like a Henson Muppeteer. Is that in the USA release too?

[rche]

The Harberts and Vicmas are a little different from the US counterparts. Most notably in the soft puppets and textiles. All the SS hand operated puppets with arms came with the puppeteers stick so you could join in.

There was more than one US version of Big Bird. A pull string and one where you could sort of wiggle the beak through a hole in his head. A final cloth style hand puppet more similar to oscar and cookie was late in the game.

Vicma had some characters that were not available in the US. and their Grover and Cookie were somewhat larger. Again, the cloth and textiles from the foreign releases were a bit different than the US versions. In addition to Betty Lou, Guy Smiley, and Sherlock Hemlock, there was Professor Hastings, Toccata, and Mordicus. The latter two were the equivalent of Big Bird and Oscar for one of the European shows.

Gotta big family weekend going on, but when it is over I will put a pic up.

rche

[sauce]

Wow! thanks for the info, rche!
:-)
Way cool. I have seen a few Vicmas out there. Gonna make a play for them.
Can't wait to see the pic!

[rche]

Hiya B,

Uh oh. Now I have some MORE competition in the ss puppet world.

I will try to get some items posted up including a very odd OOAK Dr. Teeth puppet I grabbed this year. I don't have any group shots at the moment. I'll post some during the megomeet so us homebodies have something to do.

[jwyblejr]

Don't know why I didn't pay attention to this thread the first time around. Check out the claws on Cookie Monster. Guess no one will be messing with his cookies.

[Earth 2 Chris]

I had the Bert and Ernie with the hard plastic heads. Man, those things were HEAVEY. I recall whacking myself with them in the head as a kid. It hurt.

I had a Cookie Monster puppet too, but I recall it looking a bit different. Maybe it's all the modern stuff messing with my memories. I do recall stuffing cookies in his mouth, crushing them in my hand and having the crumbs fall down my arm. Good times.

Chris

[megoscott]

I just did a post on my blog showing pictures of a truly amazing SS Hand Puppet collection. This guy pretty much has everything that was made, including the Lili Ledy Paco and Abelardo hand puppets! Check it out.

About Those Hand Puppets

[rche]

This thread is getting better every day.

I just clicked into the WGSSFP link to see the hand puppets and thought, Hey - I recognize those pictures.
Sure enough I just purchased some puppets from David and he sent me a couple of the same shots whilst we were haggling. Awesome.

I would add to his notes to you that the Vicmas that are going for $30 are the more common first issue puppets like Epy and Blas (Ernie and Bert). The latter ones are not as strong as they were, but are still over a franklin. Benjamin that is, not Roosevelt.

Paco and Abelardo are indeed toughies, but so are the Toccata and Mordicus who are on his shelves as well. Sesame puppet heaven indeed.
Very cool - thanks for posting the link Scott

[sauce]

WHOA! Great collection pics there. Thanks for the linkie, Scott! Glad to see your WGSSFP site get some recent activity, too.

I really need a bigger house.....

[rche]

Hiya folks,

As promised, some Sesame goody. It is ok if it is not mego - the cat is away for the weekend you know.

First off, since this thread started with the count, here is my count and two of his plush puppet counterparts. The plushies were made by Child Guidance, which was later purchased by Gabriel.



Up next is the batch of puppets that sees daily action at my house. I have a 5 yo daughter and 2 yo son who love these guys to pieces. Whenever we are having meltdowns or the toys are not getting picked up, one of the puppets comes down and can get more help and dry more tears in a minute than I could do all day. Amazing. Their favorite is the Snuffy who is an Applause puppet made fairly recently. The Big Bird is also Applause from the same era. Kermit is a fisher price non puppet circa 78 or so.



Here are some of my Vicmas. These were made in Spain and correspond with some of the European Sesame programs. The Cookie Monster is much bigger than his US counterpart, tho he still has the hole in the mouth you can stuff cookies into. Epi (Ernie) is a bit smaller than the US versions and the plastic is softer. I think the Harberts are quite similar. Then you have Trudy (Bettylou), Felipe (Guy Smiley), Sherlock Hemlock, and Professor Siesta (Prof. Hastings). The bird puppet on the end is Toccata who is Big Birds counterpart for the French program Rue Sesame.



Some of the rest of the crew. The hard puppets to the right are from Child Guidance, but are pretty late in the game. Probably after Gabriel had the rights to CG stuff. They are significantly smaller than the earlier puppets and very hard plastic. Almost too stiff to work the mouths. Grover is also a later puppet. The earlier Grovers had a plastic skull that kept the head shape. This one has no skull but does have plastic eyes and nose. The last grovers had pom poms for noses. Oscar and Cookie are the earlier versions with the pull tabs to work their arms. The purple guy is an anything muppet. He came with different eyes, hair, and a nose that attached with velcro so you could make your own personalized muppet (very cool). Some Herry Monster puppets. These used to be so hard to find folks thought they were homemade. Until a box showed up. And Rowlf the dog. One of my personal favorites.



Lastly, the odd fellow in the middle is a Dr. Teeth puppet I picked up from a fellow in Belgium. He claims it is from the Exin company from Mexico. I cannot find any information to verify that. It is very well made, and has a plastic skull quite similar to the ones used in Grover and in Fisher Prices Animal puppet. The tailoring is all quite neat, but the nose and eyes are rather lumpy and look to be poor casts. It seems to be either a very nice custom which was probably made in the early 80s or a prototype of some sort. It is certainly one of a kind and a gem in my Sesame/Muppet collection.



That is all for now. I hope you enjoy it.
as always
have a good time

rche

[sauce]

RCHE!!! WOW!!
Thanks so much for the great pictures and text, man. This is some truly amazing stuff that you've amassed!
I love that the puppets are the "voice of reason" with the kids. And how true true true. :-)
Vicmas are lookin' fine! Boxed no less! YAHOO!

Dr. Teeth is just rad. Just RAD! I love the character and the puppet is stupendous!!

I'm going back to look at your pics again. thanks!

Bryan