Review of Bert and Ernie
Sesame Street Action Figures

Introduction

When the exceptional toy company Palisades went belly up, it left a hole for many collectors. They had produced many great lines, but their shining beacon was the Muppets, a broad, expansive line that included key characters, oddballs, variants, rarities, and play sets, all of exceptional quality. As the line matured, they started moving toward Sesame Street as the natural next step, and produced one figure - Super Grover - while showing off figures in various pre-production stages for series one and two.

Sadly, it never happened. The company went out of business before any of the additional Sesame Street products saw the light of day, although some lucky collectors did manage to get and preserve the pre-production versions. Part of those plans were Ernie in the first wave, and Bert in the second. Collectors were pretty excited when NECA announced last year they were picking up the license and producing figures in their 'ultimates' style, starting with Bert and Ernie.

These are just now hitting stores, including Target and online retailers. Expect to pay around $35 each, depending on where you find them. Additionally figures are planned, including the Count and Big Bird!

Packaging - ***1/2
The boxes are collector friendly of course - you can open them and remove the figure and accessories with little damage, and replace everything later for storage or selling. You'll have to cut a few of those annoying twistie ties, but that's about it.

The artwork on the box is very reminiscent of the show, and both fun and attractive. Rather than go with 'live action' photos, they went with artwork similar to the books that were produced in conjunction with the show, and it's a great idea.

Sculpting - ****
Each figure comes with two - count them, two! - head sculpts. Both have one with a closed mouth expression, and both have one with a wide smile.

With Bert, you get one additional sculpt related benefit. The two heads have slightly different hair and eyebrows. One has hair that's more straight up, the other is a little wilder, while they eyebrows are raised on one, straight across on the other. These two pieces are interchangeable as well, giving you plenty of different combos. In particular, the eyebrows are key, because they greatly alter the emotion of the sculpts, both with the smile and without.

This first shot of Bert is how he comes in the box - straighter hair, straight eyebrows, closed mouth. The sculpting is very much in line with the Palisades Muppets, with similar textures and detailing. These are a little bigger, coming in at 6 inches tall for Ernie and 7" for Bert, but they do work fine on the shelf with the previous line. I've included a couple shots at the end showing them with some of the Palisades figures.

Ernie isn't quite as versatile, but the two heads are still both quite nice.  I'm sure folks will have some issues - the eye shape and size are always a point of contention - but I love the overall look. I will admit that I don't see myself using the closed mouth Ernie sculpt, but I can see both versions of Bert getting some shelf play.

The bodies are more articulated than the Muppets were, and the sculpting works with these joints nicely. There's clean lines throughout, and while some of the sculpt does hinder the movement, it's better than I expected. More on that in the Articulation section.

Each figure has several hands sculpted in different poses, designed to work with the other accessories as well, and they swap easily. Swapping the heads was a little trickier, and I recommend using some heat on the head each time.

Paint - ***
The paint work is good, but I do have a few quibbles in this area.

In particular, the eyes are a bit wonky. The white tends to be sloppy along the edge, and since in reality the eyes are separate from the felt face, this sort of slop is very distracting. There's also some fuzzy edges and some over spray, but the clothing, especially the shirts, are tough to do well.

The colors all look appropriate to me, but I have no doubt that the serious fans will find issues in shade and tone. But for me, they're spot on. In the photo of Bert below, you see how much different the unsmiling face looks with the raised eyebrows instead of the straight eyebrows. He goes from angry to surprised!

Articulation - ***1/2
It's impossible not to do comparisons to the Palisades figures, and when it comes to articulation, these new figures get the win.

There's the ball jointed neck, which works pretty well, especially with Bert. The collars do restrict them a bit, especially the wider football head of Ernie, but it's as good as it can probably be.

Both have rotating hinge shoulders - once upon a time called NECA shoulders - that hide the joint pretty well, along with rotating hinge elbows and wrists. The hands swap pretty easily, but since the pegs are pretty small, you'll still want to take care.

The legs include ball hips, rotating hinge knees, and ankles, and they all work pretty well, although again, some of the sculpt (like the pant cuffs or shirt edge) get in the way.

You can get a reasonable number of poses out of these guys, and displaying them together will be a lot of fun.

Accessories - ****
Regular readers know I love accessories, and this pair have a nice assortment.

I already mentioned the extra head with each, and that always goes a long way to increasing this score. And those swappable hair pieces and eyebrows on Bert take him to another level.

There's extra hands too, with each character getting three sets. These swap easier than the heads, and they remain in place while posing them. The sculpts are also designed to hold some of the other accessories, with varying degrees of success.

Both also get one letter - A and C. They make excellent additions to the display, and both stand nicely on their own. The C has a slightly flattened bottom to make that possible.

Each also gets a 'bird'. Ernie has his rubber ducky of course, and Bert gets a pigeon. Again, both can stand on their own.

The last thing for Ernie is the framed photo of him and Bert. It actually has a hanger indentation on the back to hang it on the wall!

Bert does a little better, with his framed bottle cap collection, a book of boring stories, and a cigar box of paper clips. Every collector should appreciate Bert - he's always been one of us.

Fun Factor - ****
These guys are a ton of fun, and releasing them together was a perfect move. They set the tone for what could be a very long running line, if NECA manages to handle it right. This could be a hot property, and I have really high hopes to see the likes of Cookie Monster, Big Bird, and others on my shelf. At this weekend's Toy Fair, we did see Big Bird, Count, and Oscar, so things are looking good.

Value - **1/2
At $35, these are at the usual rate for the Ultimates line. There's a nice assortment of extras, making the price point reasonable. Regulars know a **1/2 here means an average value, and it doesn't affect my Overall score either up or down.

Things to Watch Out For -
Not a thing. Obviously, you'll want to take some care swapping hands and heads, but everything is well made and sturdy.

In the photo below, you'll see Ernie with the prototype of the Palisades Guy Smiley, and their take on the A and B letters.

In the next photo, Bert is with the Palisades Bert original clay sculpt. You can see the difference in planned scale, but in the earlier photo with Kermit and Fozzie, you can also see that this scale doesn't realy stick out that badly. Are they a little big? Yea, but the style is similar enough that I'm a happy camper.

Overall - ***1/2
I've been waiting for these figures since the announcement with great anticipation. Not getting the Sesame Street figures from Palisades was always a huge disappointment, but it looked like NECA could help correct that issue.

Now that I have them here, I'm thrilled. While there's nits to pick - isn't there always? - these live up to my expectations, and I can't wait to get more. These will make a great addition to the Muppets display, and I hope collectors give them the attention they deserve.

Score Recap (out of ****):
Packaging - ***1/2
Sculpting - ****
Paint - ***
Articulation - ***1/2
Accessories - ****
Fun Factor - ****
Value - **1/2
Overall - ***1/2

Where to Buy 
These are starting to show up at Target, where they are the usual $35. Online options include these site sponsors:

- Entertainment Earth is also at $27, but once they are in stock you can use my link and get an additional 10% off, plus free shipping!

- or you can search ebay for a deal.

Related Links -
Search my reviews and you'll find plenty of Palisades Muppets reviews, but there won't be many for Sesame Street. However, be sure to check out Super Grover!

You should also hit the Search Reviews page, in case any other applicable reviews were done after this one was published.

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