Last November, I was trolling this very site, when I saw a post by our own Debbie McDuffee alerting all of us Clackers to the new product at FAO Schwarz: The Whatnot Muppet.
I love the Muppets, as does everyone, I hope. (If you don’t love the Muppets, I’m sorry for you. Scroll down for a review of House, or something.) I have always wanted a REAL Muppet, not one of those crappy felt Elmos or the like. I wanted a real Muppet, like the ones I saw on TV!
The Whatnot Muppet Workshop at FAO Schwarz has finally filled that void, albeit about 30 years later than I would have liked. If you live in NYC, you can simply pop into FAO Schwarz and design your own Muppet! You get to choose from three different body types, then you can choose from a wide variety of eyes, hair and clothes. You can even “pick” the nose. Apparently, the employees there love that joke. In 20 minutes, you will have your own professional-quality Muppet, made to order. You even get a plastic bag to carry it in, in the event you’d like to walk around the town square with your Muppet.
For those of you lucky enough to not live in the NYC area, you can order a kit online. After dropping enough hints, I was fortunate enough to receive one for Christmas. The kit is like a Colorform set and allows you to explore all the different combinations you can create. You then put together the Muppet of your dreams, and submit the form online.
Deciding just what you want your new pal to look like is quite a task. I went through many different combinations before deciding on my final design. Once I sent in my design, the wait began. The website said I could expect my Muppet in mid-February. Then, like a Holiday special miracle, it arrived just the other day!
It is truly a beautiful creation. Well worth the $130 price tag someone else paid. I have named him “Barry.” With his green skin, purple nose, and ’60s era check suit, he is everything a Muppet fan could want.
Except now, I want another one!
Clacked by Bill White
on Feb 04, 2009 @ 12:00 EST5EDT
What a terrific idea! I can’t believe they didn’t come up with it sooner. FAO Schwarz must be making a fortune.
The muppet in your drawing does look like a “Barry”. Have fun!!
But can you just “design” the muppet? What about his backstory…who is he, what does he do? Inquiring minds need to know!
Just checked out the What Not website over at FAO. Apparently these little guys are so popular they’ve shut down the New York walk in location!
Thanks, Bill, for the tip (and the soon to be gained Brownie Points) – I’m ordering one for the wife tonight . . .
Re-post (the Internet ate my comment):
The other day I browsed through the “Blogroll” here on CC and found your website Bill and knew about your Muppet Love even before you posted about it here on CC. Let me share my puppet story – for the first time in ages I got out on Christmas Eve (which is the “real” Christmas here in Europe/Germany – we give our presents on the 24th around 4 to 8 pm) to a disco I’ve been to dozens of times back when I wasn’t over 30 :-) At the disco I met two girls who had two handpuppets – the one made those two puppets for the both of them. I can’t describe the situation to be honest you have to have experience it yourself. It was amazing. I mean I read about those cigarette breaks Ken Levine now and then talks about. He tells that story about him filming sitcoms in NY and Sesame Street being filmed on the other end of the lot and those muppetteers standing there with their muppet on one hand and a cigarette in the other and how bizarre that is… and Sarah Chalke talked about the filming of the muppets episode of Scrubs this year (for the 8th season of scrubs, it already aired).
I never understood it before how it is when you actually start talking to a muppet instead of the actor. Those two girls at the disco acted with their puppets and I got really excited – to be honest I was kind of hesitant to even talk to them for the puppet took over the dominant part on the whole thing. So I only watched on Christmas Eve and felt kind of sorry I didn’t interact with the puppets.
So in January I went to that OTHER disco I had gone to back in the day when I was still in school – and lo and behold you guess who was there – those two girls with their puppets – and finally I took that leap of faith and talked to their puppets. Man I’m so glad I did. Turns out the smaller of the two girls made those puppets herself (!) – you won’t believe how detailed these two puppets looked – and you mentioning that Build-You-Own-Muppet store gave me an in and I talked with the “artist” for quite a while. Those two puppets are crafted after the likeness of the two so they would have each other when the other one is away. The taller girl left for a semester abroad two weeks ago and now when the smaller one comes to the disco (like two days ago) she always has the puppet with her so her girlfriend is always with her. And again you won’t believe the detail – or the glee of joy the taller one got in her eyes all Christmas Eve for getting her present, the puppet.
Hope you enjoyed my little story. I’m still learning more about the whole story every sunday at the disco, so maybe there’ll be an update sometime but this way or the other I now understand your joy with your muppet (puppet). These guys can be really awesome and I’m a bit sad that I’m not the type of person to “play” a muppet or own one. I like being at the other end of the conversation. Love the puppets and really like the people acting with them. So thanks for sharing BIll :-)
Women with puppets in nightclubs. Oh, England must be a truly magical place!
Sorry, meant to say “Europe”, not “England”, although I’m sure England is a magical place…
It’s germany and yup it’s kind of magical. You know the two girls are a couple and … ok sorry I don’t want to turn into a pig right now :-)
It’s really great what they did and it makes me want to cuddle them for their cuteness and a totally non-sexual way. The girl who made the puppets is both extremely creative and very intelligent and they both are very friendly. Real nice people and with puppets on top of that. And they enjoy my kind of music. Yay :-)