Frog Bless Us, Every One!
Written: Nov 29 '03
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Durability: |
 |
|
|
Pros: Great selection of characters to represent A Muppet Christmas Carol; wonderful sculpt and likeness.
Cons: None.
The Bottom Line: "His step always seemed a bit lighter with Tiny Tim on his shoulder..."
|
|
|
| JediKermit's Full Review: Palisade Toys Marvel Enterprises Mini Muppets PVC ... |
It’s interesting how we change over time. I remember the first time I watched “A Muppet Christmas Carol” in 1992, being overwhelmed by the darkness of the movie. Here were some of my best friends, acting as characters from Dickens’ best-known story, and some very dark things were happening to them. Kermit and Piggy as Bob and Emily Cratchit, living in poverty, Kermit’s nephew Robin playing Tiny Tim, and eventually dying in a dark, alternate future. Now, over a decade later, I rewatch it as a father, and I’m moved by this little crippled frog-boy and his family, and enjoy the movie from a new perspective.
I like it now more than I used to, which is why I was more excited than usual to pick up Palisades Toys' latest offering: the Mini Muppets figurines from the Muppet Christmas Carol. Like the first two boxed sets of Mini Muppets, these feature three figurines per package, on a smaller scale than the action figures, but with the same attention to detail and character likeness that’s making these the best Muppet Merchandise ever seen.
The first set includes my three favorite pieces: Kermit and Robin as Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim, Statler as the Ghost of Jacob Marley, and two Muppet Penguins.
The best piece is necessarily Kermit and Robin. My favorite frog has Tiny Tim hoisted up onto his shoulder, both clad in Victorian clothing, braced against the weather but in the spirit of the season. Cratchit has his hat off in greeting in his right hand, and Tim waves his tiny little crutch with his own left hand, hanging onto his Dad for support. I’ve mentioned before what a softie my son has turned me into—I love this piece so much that it’s under my lamp on my nightstand, so it’s the first thing I see when I get up in the morning and the last thing I see when I go to bed. It captures the spirit of those two characters perfectly, and is how I want to be with Miles. Is that goofy or what? Anyway. Back to the toy. It’s more of a display piece than a toy, and the level of detail is astounding. The plaid on Tiny Tim’s paints is so tiny, so detailed, that it gives the people who paint it ample opportunity to mess up, but on my figure, it’s executed perfectly. The details of the sculpt are impressive, down to the texturing of the little nubs and dimples on Kermit and Robin’s felt “skin.” Excellent.
One of the highlights of the film comes in the first act, when Statler and Waldorf, “those two old guys in the balcony” appear as the ghosts of Jacob and Robert Marley (one character was split into two brothers to give both Muppets something to do). Palisades has given us both ghosts in these sets, but you need to buy both sets to get both characters. With this first set is Statler as Jacob Marley, and he’s very impressive. Cast in translucent plastic, he’s ghostly indeed, mouth open in a curse, hands reaching forward, and wearing actual metal chains, which move freely so you can wrap them around his neck, shoulders, wrists, arms…however you feel like chaining the old man up. Putting him together with Waldorf is quite stunning, and a highlight of the set of figures.
The clincher for this set is Palisades’ first inclusion of the everpresent Muppet Penguins; in this case, a pair of penguins, ice skating on a base that looks like a piece of ice. One penguin is riding the other; the bottom penguin has a red and green striped scarf billowing behind him, and the top penguin is standing on his friend’s back with a “I’m King of the World!” sort of pose. He’s wearing a red and yellow scarf and a top hat. They’re a great addition to the set, and balance out the darkness of Marley’s ghost perfectly. Hopefully we’ll see some penguins in the action figure line soon—they add a lot to these scenes.
These three figures are great by themselves, and if you were only to buy one set, I’d suggest this one. The Kermit and Robin / Cratchit and Tiny Tim sculpture alone is beautiful, and would be appropriate as a standalone gift to someone who’s more fond of Dickens than the Muppets. When you combine both sets together though, you get a great lineup that may be expanded next Christmas with more characters. Eventually the characters will be populating a kind of “Christmas Village” atop our family piano. That’s the plan, anyway.
You’ll have to act fast to find these figures—they’re available at Barnes & Noble in special packaging, but are also available at Media Play, Suncoast, Sam Goody, EB, and other retailers; another suggestion I always make is to support smaller retailers and online vendors—Boxingcow.com and Bean’s Toys both have outstanding customer service and great turnaround time.
Pick these up soon and make them an early gift for the Muppet or Dickens fan in your life—let them enjoy them during the month of December and get into the yuletide spirit.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 14.99
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
JediKermit
|
 in Movies, Kids & Family, Books |
 - Top 100 |
|
Member: Quinn
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah
Reviews written: 2122
Trusted by: 597 members
About Me:
Books, Movies, and Toys. Is there more to life?
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.