Review: 71033 The Muppets Collectable Minifigures
Posted by CapnRex101,
71033 The Muppets Collectable Minifigures has proven notably appealing, featuring various fun characters from the delightful puppet ensemble. These minifigures include intricate head sculpts and resemble the excellent designs from 21324 123 Sesame Street.
Exclusive heads were successful for the Sesame Street characters and 71030 Looney Tunes Collectable Minifigures, so should prove effective here. However, the varying Muppets offer some interesting challenges for minifigure design.
Summary
71033 LEGO Minifigures - The Muppets Series - Complete, 86 pieces.
Whether puppets or minifigures, The Muppets are sensational!
- Good character selection
- Outstanding moulded detail
- Numerous referential accessories
- Occasional colour inaccuracies
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
Box Distribution
Each box contains 36 minifigures and should accordingly include three complete series, which has been normal since 71029 Collectable Minifigure Series 21 was released.
Minifigures
Among these twelve characters, Rowlf the Dog appears perhaps the least anthropomorphic. Translating the canine to minifigure form is therefore difficult, although I think this example is more successful than many from 71030 Looney Tunes Collectable Minifigures. This detailed head is certainly important in that regard, but the mouth seems open too wide, relative to the actual puppet.
The texture on the ears and reverse is perfect though, complementing printed fur on the torso, arms and legs. While these designs are very basic, their continuation on the arms and sides of the legs is welcome. However, I am surprised that normal minifigure legs were chosen because shorter legs would have captured Rowlf's stocky proportions more accurately.
Rowlf adores music and is The Muppet Show's pianist, so includes suitable accessories. The printed sheet music depicts the opening bars of Beethoven's Sonata No. 8 second movement and features the title in tiny lettering along the top. The bust of Beethoven is also provided and usually stands on Rowlf's piano.
The hair element identifies Beethoven and I like the contented expression, which could prove useful for building other statues. However, this bust sometimes comes to life onscreen, hence another face is included and appears more stern. 71009 The Simpsons Collectable Minifigures Series 2 remains the only series without any standard minifigure heads.
Dr. Bunsen Honeydew represents the quintessential absent-minded scientist and his unique melon-shaped head, for which the character is named, is instantly recognisable. The doctor's empty spectacles look superb and I like the tiny mouth. However, spring yellowish green was probably not the most appropriate colour, since bright light yellow remains available.
The scientist's labcoat looks nice and could be easily adapted for more traditional minifigures, although the medium legs are less versatile. I think medium legs are suitable though because Dr. Honeydew should be shorter than many other Muppets, notably including his long-suffering lab assistant.
Beaker accordingly stands significantly taller than Dr. Honeydew, including normal minifigure legs and an unusually tall head. Once again, the head sculpt captures fantastic detail and the understandable fear in his expression is palpable! His bulging eyes and nose seem especially effective, although I think orange hair would have been more accurate than red.
Spring yellowish green suits Beaker's lab coat and I like these dual-moulded legs, which also feature decoration on the sides of the feet. Unfortunately, the sand green shirt underneath the lab coat lacks accurate patterning, but I can understand omitting such intricate details because these squares would be absolutely tiny.
Both minifigures include scientific accessories. Dr. Honeydew's conical flask contains a pink liquid, which has only appeared with printing before, while Beaker carries a device to monitor experiments. Of course, something has gone desperately wrong, so the indicator is pointing to imminent danger!
While many Muppets are particularly associated with specific costumes, Gonzo changes his attire frequently. Nevertheless, the yellow chilli pepper shirt is distinctive and displays brilliant detail, with decorative chilli peppers continuing on the sleeves. The medium legs are splendid too, again featuring spots across their sides.
Gonzo's dual-moulded head captures his crooked nose and bulbous eyes, although I think a darker shade of blue would have been more accurate than this bright shade. Conversely, the more vibrant colour complements this shirt and allows easier differentiation between Gonzo's nose and the rest of his head.
Camilla the Chicken is Gonzo's frequent love interest. These characters should be nearly the same size, but her presence is welcome, even at this scale. Camilla resembles past chickens and uses the standard component, distinguished only by intricate eyelashes and lavender eye shadow, both of which reflect the onscreen character.
Kermit the Frog leads The Muppets and is definitely its most beloved character, so capturing his likeness was paramount. While not necessarily as complex as other minifigures, Kermit is fantastic. The distinctive head shape and eyes correspond with the source material, while his printed tongue matches this character's common appearance as well.
Minifigure proportions are poorly-suited to Kermit's body shape. Nevertheless, I think medium legs were probably the correct choice and his printed collar looks good. Otherwise, the design seems remarkably basic among Collectable Minifigures, so mirrors the simplicity of the original puppet.
Given the need for numerous new heads, Kermit's famous banjo is the only accessory mould created for this series. This element is similar to LEGO guitars and features attractive metallic silver accents, while the decorated rainbow 2x2 curved tile makes clever reference to Rainbow Connection, which remains Kermit's most celebrated song.
Of course, Kermit rarely appears without the boisterous Miss Piggy, whose ornate minifigure contrasts nicely with her beloved Kermie! The character's large eyes and textured blonde hair both look marvellous, while moulding also highlights her prominent snout and ears. In addition, the dress appears spectacular.
Pink and metallic silver are certainly appropriate colours, with intricate detail continuing on the sides of the dual-moulded legs. Miss Piggy incorporates dual-moulded arms too, with lavender elbow-length gloves. Silver bracelets complete an opulent ensemble, conveying the character's expensive taste quite effectively.
Miss Piggy carries a printed magazine, inevitably focusing upon herself. The magazine cover roughly matches the actual minifigure, surrounded by even more pink sparkles. However, my favourite feature might be the most mundane, since a tiny barcode appears in the corner and demonstrates amazing attention to detail.
Another impressive head has been developed for Fozzie Bear, again presenting the simple mouth shape associated with The Muppets. The character's eyebrows, nose and classic hat look superb, while moulded hair indicates Fozzie's fuzzy texture. His ears appear particularly authentic in this regard.
Much like Rowlf, decoration on the torso, arms and legs continues that texture, to reasonable effect. In fact, the designs on Fozzie's legs are completely identical to Rowlf's, only differing in colour. The torso is unique though, featuring a spotted tie. As expected, Fozzie's detailed head remains the outstanding feature of this minifigure.
The Muppets' resident comedian is packaged with a microphone stand and a banana, which presumably alludes to the 'Banana Sketch'. Fozzie Bear insists the sketch is world-renowned during a 1976 episode of The Muppet Show, despite the bemusement of his fellow characters.
Animal is the drummer with Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem and this minifigure definitely captures his manic personality. The facial expression looks fantastic and I like his bushy hair, which reflects the original character. However, blending magenta or purple into the hair would have improved the design further, in my opinion.
The pronounced black eyebrows are accurate though, while Animal's traditional clothing looks great. The design on his shirt is more visible here than on the puppet, but matches the source material and continues across the dual-moulded arms. They feature spiked bracelets and this minifigure includes dual-moulded legs too, representing tattered trousers.
Collectable Minifigures sometimes include elaborate accessories, but the miniature drum kit surpasses anything else! The printed bass drum displays Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem branding, easily recognisable by the band leader's gold tooth. A snare drum and metallic gold cymbal are cleverly integrated as well, although the new Technic pin with friction would have prevented the drum from accidentally rotating.
The Muppet Show and this series of Collectable Minifigures would be incomplete without the cantankerous Statler and Waldorf. These two characters revel in mercilessly criticising every aspect of the show and would undoubtedly find some issues with their respective head sculpts, although I cannot. Waldorf's moustache and sceptical expression are particularly impressive.
Statler's prominent chin appears accurate too, while both minifigures include suitably texture across their hair. The dark brown and dark blue suits seem relatively simple among the other Muppets, although their designs correspond with the original characters. However, the lack of back printing on the torsos is disappointing.
These characters are rarely associated with accessories, but the designers have found clever means to present the critics' disposition. Waldorf includes a teacup, saucer and printed sign to express his boredom, while Statler carries a laptop, displaying Scooter on its screen. I am glad Scooter is acknowledged, although his omission from the series is unfortunate.
The Swedish Chef was introduced during 1975 and looks magnificent here, benefiting from a unique head that includes his trademark bushy eyebrows and moustache. The chef's eyes are therefore completely hidden, while the contrasting colour of his nose is replicated on this figure. The hat includes appealing texture as well.
Additionally, this torso features accurate blue and white stripes, mostly covered with an apron when viewed from the front. The pink bow tie and printed arms look perfect, so I can envisage this piece proving quite popular, since it could be used for other minifigures. The dual-moulded legs look nice too, with sand blue trousers and printed shoes.
Beyond his indecipherable gibberish, the Swedish Chef is known for his chaotic cooking, that sometimes involves living food. This tomato accordingly displays a mischievous face, with the same mouth style as many Muppets. A whisk is also supplied, ready to combat the malevolent tomato!
The lead guitarist with Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem is named Janice. Like the Swedish Chef, this Muppet lacks traditional eyes, but does include enormous eyelashes and lips. This minifigure captures those important features on her triple-moulded head, which also features blonde hair and a dark tan hat that originates from the series. Janice's hair prevents her head from moving.
Unlike many other Muppets characters, Janice's costume commonly changes. This colourful ensemble works well though, featuring another pair of dual-moulded legs to recreate her skirt. The flame yellowish orange skin tone, which is unique to Janice, compares favourably with the original character too.
LEGO introduced an electric guitar element during 2014, sometimes with printing. This design looks nice, although Janice should actually carry a left-handed guitar instead. While that would have been ideal, another new element would be required, so I can understand this compromise.
Overall
Collectable Minifigures with unique heads developed specifically for each character are not always popular, although similar designs have usually proven effective. 71033 The Muppets Collectable Minifigures continues the trend, since these twelve characters each capture their respective counterparts with near-perfect accuracy.
Some characters are better-suited to minifigure portrayal than others, but all include appealing detail. This selection of minifigures is satisfying too. While Sam Eagle, Scooter and some extra members of Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem would have been ideal, I think the current group of twelve provides excellent coverage of the troupe, offering something to interest any Muppets fan.
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64 comments on this article
One word: Magnificent.
Over the past two years I was finally backing away from my 47 year obsession. Now TLG is playing on my childhood; resistance is futile, my wife will not be pleased lol. Love them all!
Despite the inaccuracies on some figures, this series is probably the most anticipated one for some time IMO.
If you do a quick Google search for Dr. Bunsen Honeydew you get mixed results on whether he’s more yellow than green. A living tennis ball, if you will. But I think they picked a pretty good color here. Thanks for the review!
Only ones that are must haves for me are Waldorf and Statler.
Beaker, Chef, Gonzo and Animal are all up there in terms of quality for me too. Kermit just seems wrong somehow, as does Rowlf. Bunsens good, but the wrong shade, and I'm just not overly bothered about that rest.
All thats just personal opinion though. They're all decently enough done that there aren't any massive glaring inaccuracies such as they've done with other character sets such as the WB range.
I’d love to see the Pigs In Space crew and also Uncle Deadly if/when we get another series.
Great to see the saucer is back! Also great with a properly printed electric guitar in a new colour. And yes, I like most of the muppets too. :)
Boo!
Boooo!
Those are the worst things I’ve ever seen!
They're terrible!
Horrendous!
Well they're not that bad.
Oh, yeah?
Well, there are some I like!
Well, I like a lot of them.
Yeah, they're GOOD actually.
They're great!
They're wonderful!
Yeah, bravo!
More!
More!
I appreciate the fur print detailing, which was regrettably absent on several of the Sesame Street figs.
I wish Elmo and Cookie Monster had had body printing similar to Rowlf and Fozzie. This series looks incredible and I'll be getting them all!
These are absolutely awesome! <3 This might just be the first time I'll buy a full set of blind bag figs.
These all look really lovely, and are definitely more successful than the Looney Tunes figures in translating weird, toonish proportions to minifig style.
Frankly it’d be a shame if CMF lines were all we got from Muppets. Anyone remember that great line of action figures from Palisades Toys in the early 2000s? They had AMAZING playsets that were chock full of details and would be definitely look great in Lego form.
One thing’s for sure, that kitchen utensils on Bricklink are going up in price. Swedish Chef is BEGGING to have a MOC kitchen made for him.
Really looking forward to this one, an immediate, no-brainer purchase - woohoo!
I have never really watched the Muppets so I don't have a strong connection with this series. That being said, I plan on picking up Kermit so I can include him in my star wars dioramas. The new banjo piece is another good reason to get him.
This will be the first minifigure series I'll be collecting them all... can't wait
I guess the rainbow connection turned out to be a 2x2 grid of studs.
Best thing Lego did since classic space and castle
Muppets mend themselves well to being a Lego figure. The simple puppet design means that far less detail is lost.
I love the Muppets and all of these figures are quite good. Many of these work well in pairs, too. Statler/Waldorf, Kermit/Piggy, Bunsen/Beaker, Animal/Janice.
A set good enough to get an entire box and give to friends.
The seven year old me idolized the original curmudgeons, still does. This may be the only time I am aiming for CMF duplicates.
originally had no interest in these, but my inner kid says Kermit is a must-have, so there we go
Nostalgia is a powerful drug.
@WemWem said:
"These all look really lovely, and are definitely more successful than the Looney Tunes figures in translating weird, toonish proportions to minifig style.
Frankly it’d be a shame if CMF lines were all we got from Muppets. Anyone remember that great line of action figures from Palisades Toys in the early 2000s? They had AMAZING playsets that were chock full of details and would be definitely look great in Lego form.
One thing’s for sure, that kitchen utensils on Bricklink are going up in price. Swedish Chef is BEGGING to have a MOC kitchen made for him."
Maybe the Lars family kitchen?
Wow! Amazing series. My wallet is going to be a lot lighter! I have 21324 and these minifigs will go perfect with it.
Swedish Chef is going to look so great in the 10255 : Assembly Square Bakery! And Rolf upstairs at the piano!
Why does the Swedish chef not have a chicken in the basket? That would have been perfect.
@B_Space_Man said:
"If you do a quick Google search for Dr. Bunsen Honeydew you get mixed results on whether he’s more yellow than green. A living tennis ball, if you will. But I think they picked a pretty good color here. Thanks for the review!"
I agree, I don’t think the yellow color referenced would be accurate at all, and I think the green here is the best option.
This is the first CMF series in a long time I plan on purchasing a complete box of.
Overall a fine looking assortment. The only downside is there isn't more! Could go back to 16 per series, or those few times where it was 20...those were the days. But I realize to do that they will just up the price which is likely why they reduced to amount of figures so they didn't up the price. I guess eventually we will just get a few figures for the same price.
Either way, I will say Honeydew looks better in green, but yes google search shows could be a mix between yellowish/goldish/spring greenish. But I think this works well enough, so I won't complain. Plus considering the actual fruit honeydew is a light/bright green, I'll allow it.
LEGO would be smart to release a few sets containing the remaining members of the cast if they don't do a second series.
I'd love a stage/backstage with Scooter, a closed mouth Kermit, closed mouth Rowlf, Sam the Eagle and lots of easter eggs. Maybe with a Sweetums big fig.
I'd also buy an Electric Mayhem bus with the whole band.
This may be the first set I collect in its entirety, and my wife is surprisingly supportive. You can't deny the Muppets.
@CapnRex101 ,
Thank you for yet another great review and set of pictures.
Beethoven’s bust’s expression isn’t contentment though. It’s the statue falling asleep to Rowlf’s performance of the adagio from the Pathétique Sonata. It’s from a 1978 Muppet Show sketch, most likely before your time!
Good review and I already have two sets on pre-order from a seller so it was a done deal already.
I could nitpick Muppets all day and all night…colors, pupil focus, likeness stuff, outfits, blah blah blah…but gut reaction is that I still can’t wait to get them and seriously hope this series does really well so a second set might fill in the holes.
@darthmar said:
"Why does the Swedish chef not have a chicken in the basket? That would have been perfect."
Or a chocolate moose?
I dare not get into minifig collecting, but these look great! And less uncanny than the Simpsons, somehow!
@B_Space_Man said:
"If you do a quick Google search for Dr. Bunsen Honeydew you get mixed results on whether he’s more yellow than green. A living tennis ball, if you will. But I think they picked a pretty good color here. Thanks for the review!"
As mentioned The Muppet is actually more green than yellow and he caused a similar uproar when the palisades muppets line came out 20 years ago. I believe he is meant to be green to match the honeydew for which he is named
I will be buying these minifigures the minute they become available here in Middle Earth. Looking forward to a second series too - such wonderful characters!
I think all of these are wonderful! Kermit does look a little odd with minifig legs, but... these are minifigs, after all! The blockiness of minifigs is what makes them so charming in the first place.
I'm nut zee-a beeggest Muoppets fuon, buot zeese-a ire-a pretty guod. I ispeceelly leeke-a Unimel, und I vuouldn't dere-a sey unyzeeng negetife-a ibuout Veldurff und Stetler. Und I zeenk zeere-a is oune-a mure-a I leeke-a..... Bork Bork Bork!
Just a random thought but Beaker's Lab coat would be perfect for a Dr. Clayton Forrester minifigure... gotta stay true to my roots!
Some of the 'color inaccuracies' are due to perceptions and color memory from era of NTSC and PAL broadcast color shifts. Palisades when they released their awesome line of 25th Anniversary Muppets action figures 20 years ago faced some of these same issues, which they defended Honeydew's flesh/felt being a light green (not yellow) then as well as Beaker's lab coat not being light/off-white as many people expected. Their spec choices were due to the fact that the Henson company had been closely involved with providing reference materials, including original puppets, and signing off on production. Wouldn't be surprising if there was that level of brand attention in LEGO's licensing/approval efforts here notwithstanding LEGO's much more limited casting palette by comparison.
Given the actual Dr Bunsen Honeydew muppet is the greenish colour of a honeydew melon (hence the name) this colour is more accurate than yellow would be.
The Statler and Waldorf ones scare me. I'd be worried about waking up in the middle of the night to find their disembodied heads staring at me from the nightstand
I approve of everything but Dr. Bunsen's coloring.
I think I will be buying more of these than I thought I would, just because of some of the neat accessories and things.
As a child the band were my favourites, and I just love Animal and Janice in Lego form, Rowlf is pretty good too. Really hope there'll be a second series to complete the band!
@Peeeeeeet said:
"The Statler and Waldorf ones scare me. I'd be worried about waking up in the middle of the night to find their disembodied heads staring at me from the nightstand"
Ebenezer Scrooge (from the Muppets Christmas Carol) would probably agree with you, as the two played Jacob and Robert Marley in the film!
Great figures. Ridiculous selling method.
Coming soon, City sets in 3 packs or unprinted gropeable boxes!
Not my cup of tea but the execution here is fantastic
If you’ve ever seen action figures or full-body statues of Rowlf, the minifig is a nearly perfect match for his proportions, as seen from the front. You can occasionally see his entire lower body on-screen. I know there’s at least one shot in The Muppets (2011), when Kermit asks him to rejoin the gang, where he’s reclining in a chair with his feet visible. It’s just that general performances were limited to waist-up shots, because they typically left off the lower body when a Muppet had arms that one of the performers could wear (Rowlf, Fozzie, Honeydew, and Swedish Chef all have this style arms). It’s when the arms were operated by metal rods (Kermit, Piggy, and Gonzo are this style) that they could easily incorporate legs into the design, so sleeve-style Muppets probably only got legs in feature films where the budget could cover making special versions just to film one scene (Kermit & Piggy riding the bike, Fozzie dancing, etc).
Honeydew, I’m used to seeing in this shade of green, and a quick image search shows both yellow and green versions. Like this minifig, the green versions look appropriately close to the color of actual honeydew fruit. His flask is actually a completely new color, printed or otherwise. The liquid in the flask has been trans-purple, trans-light-blue, trans-neon-green, trans-bright-green, opaque lime, opaque magenta, and opaque magenta w/ print. This is trans-dark-pink.
Gonzo’s legs look terrible with the incomplete speckle pattern. It would have been better to just skip it if that’s as much coverage as they can manage.
Kermit looks like Doc Hopper got to him.
@quixotequest:
Several Muppets have had their base colors change over the years. This becomes much more obvious when you realize that there have also been changes to materials used, like whether a character has a nose that’s bare foam, or covered in felt. Zoot’s nose has changed colors and materials several times over the decades. If you look up images of Honeydew, about half of them are legitimately yellow. These images are too crisp to have been screencapped from decades-old VHS or Betamax cassettes, so the skin color has definitely changed over the years. Unlike Zoot, I can’t find any info explaining the changes, but I did run across one image that has an easily identifiable source, which is when they were collecting donations during Muppet Christmas Carol, and he looks distinctly yellow.
@WemWem said:
"These all look really lovely, and are definitely more successful than the Looney Tunes figures in translating weird, toonish proportions to minifig style."
I guess that’s the difficulty in a way, right? A muppet is a physical 3D things already so easy to translate to a minifig, whereas Looney Tunes are inherently 2D so there’s so translation involved.
Even though I love the Simpsons, I do think this is the best ‘molded head’ CMF series they’ve done.
Ahhhhhh. :)
There's nothing like pure, unadulterated Lego good news. Love all of these. But, the accessories may be the coolest aspect... Camilla, the tomato, a banjo, the ZZZ tile, and that drum set. Whewwee!
Absolutely need a second series now to get the rest of the Electric Mayhem!
And Sam Eagle, Scooter...
When I first heard about these I was not that bothered, to be honest. Lego have done a fantastic job here and I am now in two minds.
@PurpleDave said:
"Several Muppets have had their base colors change over the years. This becomes much more obvious when you realize that there have also been changes to materials used, like whether a character has a nose that’s bare foam, or covered in felt. Zoot’s nose has changed colors and materials several times over the decades. If you look up images of Honeydew, about half of them are legitimately yellow. These images are too crisp to have been screencapped from decades-old VHS or Betamax cassettes, so the skin color has definitely changed over the years. Unlike Zoot, I can’t find any info explaining the changes, but I did run across one image that has an easily identifiable source, which is when they were collecting donations during Muppet Christmas Carol, and he looks distinctly yellow."
Yes those are possible points —and indeed Muppets did have evolutionary changes over time, including for still photography studio work where felt gloves would be used for Swedish Chef, where only Frank Oz's human hands were in the production footage. Though besides what I said that The Henson Company was legitimately closely involved with the Palisades multi-year project for approving color reference callouts—so light green in the standard for Honeydew—also when I worked with Lowry Digital (now Reliance) in the late 00s they had been involved on the digitization and restoration work for Disney and Lucasfilm, with the Muppets portfolio included. NTSC/PAL color shift is a definite issue, as are earlier digital transfers from TV broadcast masters. Going from filmed source they def sought with their production and brand teams to address and improve color issues like with Honeydew in post. So if there was a yellow actual Honeydew Muppet at an earlier point is possible, but I think the other issues are of more relevant likelihood.
@quixotequest:
When Palisades was working with them, they would have gone according to standard _at_that_time_. Colors and costumes may have been different before, and again after, but it’s the moment the deal was signed that matters.
Muppet Christmas Carol was recorded on film in 1992. While that predates the work you referenced, I don’t think you can blame TV broadcast standards for the fact that Honeydew was, in fact, much closer to yellow in that film (looking at my Kermit’s 50th copy from 2005, he’s closest to light-lime, and definitely not as green as Kermit). Home video releases were transferred directly from film.
Speaking of which, just over a decade ago, JHC reportedly located the original negative for the song “When Love is Gone”, which has only been available in the US on full-screen versions. Hopefully, this being the 30th anniversary, they’ll have been able to make the transfer so we can finally watch the full movie in widescreen.
@PurpleDave said:
" @Home video releases were transferred directly from film."
They weren’t until Lowry got involved bc of their work with Disney and Lucasfilm (among other studios). Original assets in both film and some video had been telecined and transferred to NTSC or PAL broadcast masters, and these are what the earliest Muppets home video and even digital contents were transferred from. It is part of why contents could vary so much among international markets.
@quixotequest:
I was referring specifically to home video releases of Muppet Christmas Carol. I have no idea what process The Muppet Show went through, but there’s a quote from Brian Henson regarding what needs to be done to get the missing song back into the widescreen version. He specifically referenced a negative, which only exists for film. Feature films from major studios in that era were shot on film, edited on film, printed on film, and only transferred off of film when necessary (usually for TV or home video). The full-screen version may have been taken from a TV transfer, but there weren’t many companies dealing in widescreen broadcasts at that time, so I would be shocked if the widescreen version on my DVD came from a TV transfer.
Checking the two versions against each other, I’d say Honeydew might be a teensy bit more green in widescreen vs full screen, but it’s like the difference between lime and medium-lime. This color is a bit jarring because at no time do I recall him being that minty blue.
If any of these minifigures' colors bother me, it's probably Fozzie, who always struck me as more orange than brown. I'm not sure if LEGO's orange shades would quite be right, but the nougat feels off too.
@PurpleDave said:
" @quixotequest: I was referring specifically to home video releases of Muppet Christmas Carol. ..."
I can't speak to the master & release history for Muppets Christmas Carol specifically other than to say having worked in the industry as a sr production director for home video release, that even for DVD widescreen releases of legacy theatrically-screened content, digitization from intermediate Digibeta masters was the most common. Even some were wider ratios that had been stored in a horizontally compressed format on Beta SP masters and then re-stretched out for DVD content production.
Mastering from film did happen for some big studio legacy releases, of course, but it was common for them to scrimp via intermediate masters — a step where color shifting was normal and was often re-bay'd to either correct for it or just shift/edit as studios then-currently preferred. Going back to film for remasters became more common as studios and their production companies were gearing up for the Blu-ray market in mid-late 00s, but even this is not a certainty. I mean, in that era I saw content dev'd to standards *still* not delivered to consumer markets and it has still continued since to improve in studio planning for their legacy content. For example, in 2008/9 I was in an edit/color/screening bay for Star Wars: New Hope at Lowry/Reliance for an 8K film remaster using unaided, natural-eye 3D artificing.
All that's to say that yes, even for DVD home video content, color shifting from intermediate mastering is possible even for theatrical widescreen content.
Must get these to recreate the Christmas Carole!
The discussion about having 16 characters for series like this (Scooter along with Dr. Teeth, Floyd, and Zoot to complete the band) versus 12 seems like it has an easy solution:
48 per box.
Four sets of 12 or three sets of 16 depending on the series. They've made boxes with 60 and boxes with 36, just go in between to 48.
Continuing to do 12 should also be accompanied by a 12-figure version of these:
https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/lego-minifigure-display-case-16-5005375
https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/8-minifigure-display-case-red-5006151
Does anyone know if there is a set box placement for each of the figures like with series 22?
@slvrlksrfr said:
"Over the past two years I was finally backing away from my 47 year obsession. Now TLG is playing on my childhood; resistance is futile, my wife will not be pleased lol. Love them all!"
Pray tell how a Lego fan gets a maiden
Definitely going to try to get a Kermit just for the memes, but I might want Animal too for his awesome pieces