I haven’t at all times managed to acquire each merchandise of Muppet merchandise I needed, however I’ve been fortunate sufficient to personal some good ones. That is one in every of them. Click on right here to examine others!
As I’ve beforehand said on this web site, I’m much less enthusiastic about buying stuff than I was. Shopping for new knickknacks and doodads doesn’t excite me as a lot because it did as soon as, and that extends all the way in which to Muppet toys.
However typically you simply can’t resist, you recognize?
That’s what occurred not too long ago at a classic toy retailer. The aisles have been filled with treasures, and I used to be tempted to seize a Transformer or a Grasp of the Universe or a Star Struggle. However each time I noticed one thing intriguing, a voice in my head would say “You don’t want that.”
Finally I made my solution to the final nook of the shop, and that’s once I noticed him, in a bin filled with die-cast Sesame Avenue vehicles: Barkley! And the voice in my head stated “You… want that.” So I purchased him, and now I’ve a cute little Barkley toy. (For these questioning, it’s a PVC made by Applause, however I don’t know what 12 months it’s from.)
I’ve at all times favored Barkley. He’s a Muppet, so his look is stylized — and he’s large — however he acts like an actual, loveable canine, which isn’t so widespread for Muppet animals. I assume there in all probability aren’t many Sesame Avenue followers on the market who don’t like him.
After I was a preschooler, I at all times beloved watching the closing credit the place Barkley and a bunch of youngsters ran round Central Park, particularly the half the place the youngsters disappeared behind a tree, a lot to Barkley’s confusion. (I’m nonetheless making an attempt to determine how these children made themselves disappear like that.)
And are available to consider it, that closing credit sequence means there have been a number of years the place Barkley was seen at the very least as soon as per week, making him probably the most outstanding Muppets on the present!
It wasn’t till I received the toy house that I noticed a possible purpose it had struck me as so interesting within the first place. I don’t assume there’s been very a lot Barkley merchandise. There was a Barkley “Bean” as a part of a 1998 Tyco set of “Sesame Avenue Beans”:
And after clicking by way of Muppet Wiki, I used to be capable of finding this PVC made by Applause in 2000 as a part of a “Basic Sesame Avenue” line (he seems like he has pigtails!):
However I can’t consider any others! What am I lacking? And the way is it doable that such a pleasant canine hasn’t been merchandised extra? You’d assume each child in America would need a Barkley doll to hug and drag round on a leash and throw canine treats at.
I haven’t fairly determined the place I’m going to show this Barkley. On high of my 123 Sesame St cookie jar? On the shelf in entrance of my Sesame Avenue Outdated College DVDs? Or perhaps he ought to hang around with Dexter Jettster:
I’ve one closing query about my new Barkley. Who do you assume threw him the frisbee that he’s holding in his mouth? One apparent reply can be Linda, who was established as Barkley’s proprietor for years on the TV present. Or it might be Large Chook, who co-starred with Barkley within the specials the place they went to China and Japan.
But it surely might be anyone, actually. Which suggests it might be every other toy — though it will be extra satisfying in the event that they have been the proper measurement subsequent to Barkley, who’s a really massive canine. So the following time I’m going to a classic toy retailer, I’ve a brand new aim: Discover a toy that’s proportionate to this Barkley, with an arm that may be posed to appear to be it simply tossed a frisbee. Perhaps it’ll be a Large Chook. Perhaps it’ll be a Cookie Monster. Or perhaps… perhaps it’ll be a Starscream or a Bebop or Rocksteady or a kind of novelty motion figures of the Pope.
If I discover the right companion to frisbee-catching Barkley, I’ll let you recognize!
Click on right here to play a tiny sport of fetch with Barkley on the Powerful Pigs discussion board!
by Ryan Roe – [email protected]
