UPDATED 12/31/05 - I love the Palisades Muppets line, and it's a perfect example of a 'definitive' series.  No one will ever succeed in doing a better line - it's simply not possible.  I was fortunate to collect the line right from the start, and I picked up pre-production pieces that interested me whenever possible.

The first ones I added to my collection were test shots of the series 2 figures - Fozzie, Gonzo, Floyd, and Crazy Harry.  Each one included test shots of most of the accessories as well. 

Not too long after that, I added one of my most prized possessions - the 'toilet head' Animal.  This initial head sculpt was, well, let's be honest...it was weak.  It looked like Animal had been given a swirly, hence the nick name around the Palisades office.  I've shot him with the original production Animal so you can clearly see the differences.  The final production Animal had a much wilder, less tame hair style.

Next up is a recent addition to the collection - Rizzo the Rat.  You'll notice that I like pre-production stuff that's different from the actual production stuff in some way, major better than minor, but I like there to be something significant enough to notice easily.  This Rizzo is a great example of that.  This early version has the nose and head as one single sculpted piece, and the whiskers are glued in individually .  The final production head (shown in the photos to the left) has the nose as a separate piece, and the whiskers running all the way through the nose.  The arms are also the incorrect color, and the eyes are painted looking down, instead of out straight.  The accessories are all painted test shot versions of the production accessories as well.

The next figure is an example where I don't yet have a production example, because it won't be released until this winter, 2004.  It's the Santa Chef exclusive, done for an ebay Christmas event.  This version is a painted test shot, that still has the white pins and disks in the joints, and some parts can be easily taken apart (like the head).  I won this one at a convention in a Palisades raffle.

Another one of the early Muppets prototypes that I picked up was from the Electric Mayhem playset.  It's an early version of the neon sign, done in a more 'neon' color and style, with more transluscence.  It's also not glued down, so all the sign pieces can be easily removed.

This next item isn't quite the same as these other pre-production items.  The Tux Gonzo was originally scheduled to be a Target exclusive.  Then Target backed out, and it ended up a convention exclusive later that year.  However, a few Gonzo's were clamshelled for Target, to show to various buyers etc.  Notice that in the card art there's a shot of Tu Tu Pepe, a figure that was planned but never actually released. Here's what he looks like:

This next item is a 105% sculpt pattern for the skull that comes with Uncle Deadly.  

Next up we have a 105 of Gonzo.  This figureis all resin parts, and actually comes completely apart.  He has a 105 version of the tire accessory as well.

The next one is a little unusual.  It's a test shot of the Muppets Penguin, but rather than in the normal plastic, it's done in a clear plastic.  There's no plans to actually release the figure in clear, but they were running some other clear figures and wanted to see how it looked.

The Penguin is much bigger than I had expected - here he is with the 105 version of Gonzo.

Here's another 105, this time of Statler.  Notice that the hat is not a sculpted part of the head, or glued on in any way, in this early version.

Next up is a resin Johnny Fiama.  This early torso sports two versions of the coat.