Along the lines of the Elvis teddy bear incident, I thought I could take a look back at some of the toys I used to enjoy as a kid that hopefully many of you remember as well. Many of these toys are no longer in my posession, forcing me to look to eBay to find suitable photographs. :)
The original Fisher-Price Sesame Street play set was great. Unlike many toys of today, the "action figures" (actually Fisher-Price little people, I know) were included with the toy! No batteries, no electronics of any kind. Yes, just a doll house, I know, but a Sesame dollhouse! Looking back, what made this thing so unique was how accurate it was. The stickers on the toy were a great representation of the actual set. For example, to the left of Hooper's Store was the door leading up to Bob's apartment. (It was just a sticker, it didn't open). That's a detail that might get missed by most non-Sesame fan people.
One big mistake- they put Ernie and Bert's apartment on top of Susan and Gordon's apartment. Actually, they live in the basement right below Susan & Gordon. But oh well. When you peek inside E&B's place, you get to see more of those great details. Bert's bottle cap collection is on the wall, along with the portrait of E&B. And when you peek into the bathroom door, you see in the bathtub- yep, you guessed it, Ernie's rubber duckie.
The original set included, IIRC, Gordon, Susan, Mr. Hooper, Big Bird, Oscar (who looked just like a trash can until you lifted the lid), Cookie Monster, Ernie and Bert. Later on, they created other little people not included in the original set. They were: Sherlock Hemlock, Roosevelt Franklin, Herry Monster, Grover Monster, The Count, Prarie Dawn and Snuffy. Somehow we lost the Gordon figure for many years until one day Dad found him in the bottom of our toy chest. I remember that moment well. At last the lost figure was found!
In Susan and Gordon's apartment, we see a portrait of the Count on the wall. And the set includes a TV set with only one channel. It shows Grover counting to three- twenty-four hours a day. :) You'd think Sesame Street would have more original programming.
The apartment above Hooper's store is Mr. Hooper's apartment. There's a painting on the wall of Big Bird which is signed something like, "To my good friend, Mr. Blooper." Now the problem with having all those extra figures was that they didn't have a place to live on the Street. That meant that EVERYBODY had to live in Mr. Hooper's apartment! It must not have been a very comfortable time for those guys. Thankfully, I guess they all have places of their own now.
So the attention to detail - even if the details were'nt always 100% accurate - was definitely a highlight of this toy. I'm glad I can remember those little things all these years later.
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If you're interested in muppet/Sesame toys, you may want to visit the Muppet Central forum in the links section & talk with other zany collectors. :)
