My only query is do they have permission from Disney/Jim Henson companies for using the word "muppet" - or are they associated/supported by D/JH?

I'm confident that FAO Schwarz is aware of all the legal stuff, and are probably working very closely with Disney/Henson. Licensing characters is pretty common in retail, this is a unique way to do the licensing. Imagine, they are licensing characters that have no definite look, and no individual names. I wish them the best of luck.

What hits me, when I look at what they are selling these puppets for, is how valuable my own collection of puppets could be...gotta go call the insurance guy!

oh its not the licensing of the characters just more the word/term "muppet"

but then again, I doubt Disney have dibs and control over the word "muppet" do they?

oh its not the licensing of the characters just more the word/term "muppet"

but then again, I doubt Disney have dibs and control over the word "muppet" do they?

The word "Muppets" is a registered trademark, and subject to all relevant intellectual property laws. It is owned by The Jim Henson Company.

The in-store experience at FAO in New York opened earlier this week. To see some pictures of the shop and the experience of designing and creating a Muppet Whatnot, you can check out http://www.stitchkingdom.com/exclusive/muppetwhatnot

They will ship internationally too although it's very expensive. I've heard suggestions to use http://www.bongous.com or some other mail forwarding service to reduce those costs.

and for what it's worth, the Muppets are in fact owned by Disney and this is completely on the up and up. I actually encountered Disney people there when the shop was having its soft opening.

and yes, Muppet is a registered trademark, but it's owned by the Muppets Studio, which is directly owned by Disney.

the Jim Henson Company is not owned by Disney (it's owned by Jim's children)

Thanks Bradk............ for the update, pictures website and the video. Hope you come back more often. Welcome to Puppets and Stuff

Billy D.

They will ship internationally too although it's very expensive. I've heard suggestions to use http://www.bongous.com or some other mail forwarding service to reduce those costs.

I contacted the customer service and they told me they weren't offering international shipping for Whatnots.

odd. maybe an inconsistency or change of policy. but like i said, when i have seen numbers quoted for international shipping, they were extremely high. i'm talking in the neighborhood of $250 US or so.

it appears they're getting a much larger response than they bargained for.

I don't know. That's what they told me; maybe they simply changed their policy due to the high interest in the puppets.

They look to much like generic pre made puppets and they also look very small compare to the other pictures I have seen.  I will wait until I read more about people buying and there thoughts on the quality of them.

I just hope it goes over well so that they may boost more puppets in the media for the future.

Daryl H

Just an update for those who are curious; a inside look at the Whatnot workshop, with pictures of them building the puppets:

http://toughpigs.com/2008/11/whatnot-photo-tour.html

It looks amazing. Wish I could have gone to check it out