News Update: September 20, 2011

 NEWS UPDATE:   SEPTEMBER 20, 2011

Promotion for The Muppets is ramping up very quickly, so expect to see Muppets everywhere (except in your closet, unfortunately). First up, Kermit recently filmed a commercial for the celebrity-heavy ad campaign of Wonderful Pistachios. You can check out Kermit's cute TV spot (that you'll surely be seeing all the time on while watching your shows) right here:



On October 2nd, Miss Piggy will be returning to Disney Channel on their extremely popular sketch comedy show So Random! (think SNL for 14 year olds). Piggy will be playing herself as the big, celebrity guest star for the show who everyone on the show attempts to appeal to. You can see the promo for the episode here:



And in extremely random Muppet appearance news, the Muppets will be appearing on the wrestling program WWE Raw on October 31st to promote the movie. The official WWE website provides this little bit of information on the upcoming appearance, "What will happen when Kermit the Frog meets The Viper? Will the Divas make Miss Piggy flip with jealousy? Will Beaker be confused for Sheamus? On Halloween, it's time to play the music, it's time to light the lights, because the Muppets are about to get Raw!" I don't really know what any of that means, but this has the potential to be a very fun and funny appearance!

The Museum of Moving Image in New York City, which is currently playing host to the wonderful Jim Henson's Fantastic World exhibit, is having a fun celebration for Jim's birthday on September 24th. Here is a breakdown of what's occurring on the 24th, for more information visit the museum's website:

• At 1:00 p.m. in the Main Theater, attend the special program “Muppet Music Moments,” with special introductions by Craig Shemin, President of The Jim Henson Legacy, and Bonnie Erickson, Executive Director of The Jim Henson Legacy and designer of Miss Piggy, along with special guest speaker Larry Grossman, music consultant for The Muppet Show. This special 77-minute compilation features performances by Harry Belafonte, Elton John, Linda Ronstadt, and other Muppet Show guest stars, in a wide range of musical genres—classic music numbers interpreted as only the Muppets can. Tickets are free with Museum admission and will be distributed first-come, first-served. Museum members may reserve advance tickets. (This compilation program will also be presented on Sunday, September 25, at 1:00 p.m. with Larry Grossman in person).
• Receive a custom-designed commemorative cookie featuring Kermit the Frog’s signature foot prints (as long as supplies last). These artisanal cookies were produced especially for the Museum by Bonne Fete Baking, Inc. and You Cake, Inc., two Queens-based small businesses that operate at the Entrepreneur Space, a partnership of the Queens Economic Development Corporation and Mi kitchen es su kitchen.
• Watch a special episode of The Muppet Show in which the cast celebrates Kermit the Frog’s birthday. The 22-minute program will screen continuously in the Museum’s Fox Amphitheater in the Education Center and is included with Museum admission.
• Write a personal message and sign your name in a commemorative journal that will be given to The Jim Henson Legacy for their archives.

Our good friends over at WeLoveFine T-shirts are hosting another official Muppet T-shirt design contest and they want YOUR art! The Grand Prize winner wins $3,000, with prizes for first and second place as well. The winning design will also get printed on a shirt and sold at WeLoveFine. It's really exciting to think of the prospect of another amazing Muppet t-shirt after our friend James Carroll's shirt was printed. Submission deadline is October 2nd before 11:59 PM and voting for the designs opens up on October 14 until November 4, with winners being announced on November 11. And, just between you and me, most of the designs submitted so far pretty much suck (thankfully not all--see right), so to all you extremely talented Muppet fan artists who we know and love... get to it!

Speaking of t-shirts and awesome artists, our friend and staff member James Carroll's gorgeous and insanely awesome "Muppetational Mosaic" design is now being printed on all sorts of things (unfortunately not your chest) at the Threadless-sponsored Society 6. Via the site, you can order Art Prints, Canvas Prints, iPhone Cases, Laptop and iPad Skins, and iPhone and iPod Skins. It's awesome, and some of the proceeds do go to James, whose artwork makes our website so gorgeous (the header). Buy something! (You know, if you can.)

Finally, Disney has given the official website for The Muppets, TheMuppets.com, a complete makeover and Disney website overhaul. On the site, you'll find Characters (descriptions/pages for Kermit and Piggy, with others coming soon), About the Movie (The Story, The Cast, The Crew [coming soon]), Video Clips (just trailers for now, but more probably coming soon), a picture Gallery, Products (currently only selling The Green Album, but Movies, Toys, Books, Apparel, Beauty, Designer Apparel, Kitchen, Electronics, and Sationary coming soon), Games (Coming Soon), and Downloads (Coming Soon). There currently isn't too much to see on the site, aside from a few cool new pictures if you know where to look, but there is certainly a ton coming very soon as promotion heats up. Keep an eye on the movie site and on The Muppet Mindset for whatever might come from Disney!

The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier, ryguy102390@gmail.com

Threadless T-Shirt Contest

The Muppets Threadless T-Shirt Design Contest has come to a close and a winner has been announced: "Together Again" by shirt designer ponchodiazv which can be seen below...

Although this isn't a bad t-shirt by any means (including Rowlf and Scooter in the design wins style points for sure), this wasn't the shirt that won the popular vote in the challenge. The shirt design that received the highest average vote score belonged to our good friend (and designer of our header) James V. Carroll. His fan-favorite and mind-blowingly detailed "The Muppetational Mosaic," seen below...

So, you're probably asking, if the mosaic design won the highest score, why did the other design win? Well, that's because Threadless maintains the final decision on declaring a winner based on what they think their customers will buy, what they could easily print, etc. Thus, they've awarded the second place "Together Again" design with first place. But, fret not fans of The Muppetational Mosaic, because James has revealed that Threadless has indeed accepted his design as the second place winner and will be producing it as a t-shirt! Also in other exciting news, there's a decent chance that Threadless will produce other designs from the contest as well, which could lead to an entire wardrobe of awesome Muppet shirts--and an empty wallet for most Muppet fans. Worth it, though.

You'll be able to purchase "The Muppetational Mosaic" soon on Threadless and for now you can pre-order "Together Again" as part of a combo pack which includes the t-shirt, a poster, and Muppets: The Green Album on Disney's new MuppetsMusic.com.

Congratulations to both winners and we hope we'll get to congratulate even more designers soon if Threadless does decide to produce more!







The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier, ryguy102390@gmail.com

The Muppets T-Shirt Challenge

Threadless.com, known for their fun and funny t-shirt designs submitted by people like you and me (well... not me, I'm not artistically inclined) which get voted on by people online, has teamed up with Disney and The Muppets to bring us The Muppets T-shirt Design Challenge. The project is simple: design a t-shirt with the Muppets on it, celebrating the theme of friendship. Every design will be voted on, and the winning t-shirt will actually be made and sold online. Do you need it to be more awesome? Okay, fine... the winning designer of the t-shirt will also win $2,500 cash, a $250 Threadless gift card, the winning shirt signed by the Muppets and framed alongside a picture of the Muppets, a set of Jim Shore's Muppet Statues valued at $250, and, finally, a signed copy of the (apparently) upcoming album MUPPETS: The Green Album.

You can find all the details and more (including some pretty awesome Muppet pictures) on the main website for the Challenge.

There is so much to be excited about because of this contest... first off, Disney is very obviously directly including Muppet fans in its promotion for the upcoming movie, which is absolutely fantastic. Second, MUPPETS: The Green Album? What the what? We haven't heard anything about this... unless, of course, they just renamed the Muppets: Revisited CD idea they've been throwing around since the first D23 Expo. Either way... very exciting and I would do just about anything for a signed copy of it! And, to cap it all, we finally get to see the awesome group shot of the Muppets in all its glory!

The prizes are massive, the exposure is huge, and for any talented artist who wants to show of his or her take on the Muppets on a t-shirt, Threadless.com's Muppets T-shirt Design Challenge is absolutely something that you should submit a design to! (I'm looking at you, Dave Hulteen, Stuart Reeves, and all you other super talented fan artists!) Start submitting today! We want to see a Mindset reader/contributor take the big prize!

The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier

News Update: April 21, 2011

NEWS UPDATE: April 21, 2011

Our good friends over at Mighty Fine T-Shirts have alerted us to some fun new Muppet and Sesame Street t-shirts available in their store. There are three odd but cool Sesame Street Zombie t-shirts. Designed by Evan Cheng, these shirts are exclusive to Mighty Fine and include Big Bird, Elmo, and Oscar zombies declaring "B is for Brains," Bert and Ernie zombies who are frenemies of the human race, and, finally, The Count simply shouting "Blah!". These shirts are odd, indeed, there's no denying that... but they are officially licensed Sesame shirts and relatively cute, so think what you will! Mighty Fine also has a great selection of Muppet shirts and other Sesame Street shirts as well. Check out their whole stock!

Our friends working on the upcoming essay collection From Fraggle Rock to Farscape have asked us to pass along the information that deadline for entries for inclusion in the upcoming book is fast-approaching. If you would like to submit an article for the collection, simply write an essay having to do with anything from Fraggle Rock, The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, Dog City, and basically anything Henson-related that isn't Muppets or Sesame Street and submit your article or your idea to jennifer.garlen@gmail.com. The publishers are really hoping to develop a book that covers the wide breadth of Jim Henson's work--so have at it, Muppet fans!

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, which is now the distributor of Sesame Street DVDs, has released a press release on WBShop.com for a new DVD set they're calling "Sesame Street: The Best of Sesame Street Spoofs" and is scheduled for release on July 5. The spoofs will come in two volumes, so presumably this will be quite the collection of Sesame's greatest parodies. Here is the official DVD synopsis from Warner Bros.:

From the beginning, Sesame Street has always been known for entertaining both children and adults with spoofs on popular culture that happen to teach something too! Now the best of these segments have been culled together in a special 2 disc set for Sesame Street fans featuring classic content on disc 1 and more recent spoofs on disc 2. On Sesame Street, "Grey's Anatomy" becomes "A's Anatomy", "Mad Men" is really about teaching emotions, and "The Closer" is about "open" and "close". Fans will be nostalgic over old school classics "Hill Street Two's", "Born To Add" and "Miami Mice". This special collection will be treasured by adult fans of the series but can be enjoyed by the entire family.

After that super cool news of an awesome release from Sesame Workshop, check out this lame release from Disney: the 2012 calendar from The Muppets which is essentially a reprint of the Muppet parody calendars from 1999. Yes, only the hippest parodies for the Muppets now... Men in Black, Driving Miss Daisy... what more do you need?

While we're still on the subject of merchandise, the Vinylmation Muppets Series 2 figures are finally available to order on DisneyStore.com. The figures can be ordered individually in blind-boxes or you can order a box of blind-box figures that comes with 24 and is guaranteed to include ever figure, including the chaser (Waldo C. Graphic). Or, you can just be like me and order all 12 on eBay... (That's my collection in the picture.) (Anyone selling/giving away a Kermit figure?) 

Everyone's favorite touring exhibit from The Jim Henson Legacy, Jim Henson's Fantastic World, is finally coming to New York City! Starting in July, the exhibit will find its home for the remainder of the year in Astoria, Queens where Jim Henson's work will be featured on display. For more information on the exhibit finding its place in New York, check out this article from The New York Times.

Friend of the blog and amazing creator, Lance Cardinal, was featured on Discovery Channel Canada with his incredible custom Muppet Theater playset. The video can be seen online for a limited time only, so be sure to check it out as we watch our friend Lance hit the big time! 

The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier

Muppet Merchandise and Where to Find it in YOUR Neighborhood

Greetings, Muppet fans! Tired of hearing about all the great Muppet merchandise available in Walt Disney World and Disneyland--which are inconveniently not located near you? I know I am! Well, fear not friends, because The Muppet Mindset has gone through tireless (actually, we're pretty tired) efforts to find lots of great Muppet stuff available at stores near you!

Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart, everyone's favorite gigantic superstore with everything from printer paper to poor health benefits, has lots of Muppet stuff, surprisingly. Including!

• Kermit baseball cap - There are two caps available at Wal-Mart... there's one with a flat bill available for men and one with a curved bill that is plaid and available for women. Both cost $10. (How could you not want?)
• Gonzo baseball cap - Same as Kermit, only Gonzo! LOVE. One of my favorite new things. Again, only $10.
• Kermit iPod Touch 4th Gen Cover - This is awesome... and I'm so perturbed that I have a 3rd Gen iPod Touch. I'm extremely close to buying a 4th Gen just for this. Costs $19.99 and is awesome.
• Muppets Pajama Pants - I haven't been able to find these at FOUR different Wal-Marts... but they are incredible. Kermit, Animal, Beaker, Swedish Chef, Dr. Teeth, Scooter, and Pepe are all on these pants. I'm not sure how much they cost but I need them.
• Animal Boxer Shorts/Sleep Shorts - No picture available of these, but they are basically just Animal's face spread across a pair of boxer shorts. Why you would want Animal's mouth that close to your... well, you know. $14.99.
• Animal Neon Face T-Shirt - Again, no picture, but it's a very simple shirt. Black background with a colorful neon outline of Animal's face on it. I think it glows in the dark, too. $9.99, I think.

Kohl's Department Store
Yet another store that has always had great support for the Muppets and it still shows. They have some awesome t-shirts...

• Sesame Street "I Heart My Hood" T-Shirt for Women - A nice girl's shirt. Novel because it has The Count on it. $9.99.
• Kermit Three-Color T-Shirt - One of my favorite t-shirts. The green Kermit face actually glows in the dark, oddly enough. It's awesome! $9.99.
• Muppets Photo T-Shirt - I have no idea why the Muppets are in front of the Eiffel Tower... but I really like this shirt too. Gets me lots of compliments. $9.99.

Kohl's also has some cool Sesame Street Muppet "Face Shirts" which are basically just singularly-colored shirts with various Muppet faces on them, including Cookie Monster, Elmo, Bert, and others.

Target
Target has some great t-shirts available...

• Fraggle Rock T-Shirt - Yellow, "washed out" Fraggle shirt for guys. Has the whole Fraggle five on it. I really don't know if I've ever seen a widely-available Fraggle shirt... so this is great to see! $9.99.
• Animal T-Shirt - Animal is obviously the most popular t-shirt character... and here he is yet again on another shirt. $9.99.
• Muppets "Abbey Road" T-Shirt - Love. This. The color is great, the design is great (the poser puppets are ugly). I've gotten so many compliments on this shirt when I wear it around. $9.99.

And, other than that, I'm sure if you look around you'll find some more awesome Muppet stuff creeping into stores. Let us know if you find any more Muppet stuff that we missed by tweeting us @MuppetMindset or writing us on Facebook--or you can just leave a comment here, we don't really care!

Happy shopping, Muppet fans!





The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier

Mighty Fine Sesame Street T-Shirts

I was recently informed of some incredibly awesome new Sesame Street shirts over at Mighty Fine T-Shirts and I thought I would share the wealth with you, my lovely readers! These shirts are exclusively available online and they're pretty much awesome. There are seven wonderful shirts... here are my three favorites that I would really, really like to own. (You know, in case you guys were wondering what to get me for my birthday.)

Bert and Ernie "ABC 123" shirt. Yes, I think I can rock it like that.

The Count "Counting Ain't Easy" shirt. Obviously he's keeping his count-hand strong

THIS is Near!

And this Grover "Near and Far" shirt is AWESOME!

Check out Mighty Fine's complete collection of Sesame Street shirts and you'll be just as tempted as I am to buy them!

The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier