How do you describe your collection?
I call it “The Muppet Stuff Museum”. It’s a Jim Henson collection but it really is focused on The Muppet Show characters.
The collection spans the display room, starting in 1976 when The Muppet Show started. A quarter of the way around, it incorporates other Jim Henson projects such as Sesame Street, Bear in the Big Blue House, Fraggle Rock, and the newer shows from The Jim Henson Company like Sid the Science Kid and Dinosaur Train. Finally, it showcases items from Jim Henson’s Creature Shop productions, such as The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, and MirrorMask.
I’ve catalogued over 5,000 items, but there are probably closer to 7,000 in total.
When and why did you start your collection?
When people say that they are lifelong collectors, that’s sort of where I am.
My collection began just by getting hand-me-downs. I was born in 1979, and my cousins were born in the late 1960s and early 1970s. They were the prime audience for early Sesame Street. By the time they were in The Muppet Show years and The Muppet Movie, they were ready to give this stuff up to the new baby in the family. When I was a small child, I already had the original Sesame Street and The Muppet Show albums, which were out of print by that point, and the newer movie soundtrack.
Back then, we didn’t have streaming — we had VCRs. I rented videos and recorded things off the television — even at five or six years old — because I wanted to watch them. Sometime around 10-years old, I actually began collecting. I kept the tags on the things I bought or didn’t even open them. I wanted to keep things nice because I realized that — like the things I had before — they won’t always be available at the store. Something clicked in me that there’s a collectible element to these items and that I should try to preserve them and make sure that they’re available for other people to see as well.
For me, The Muppets have always been a really accepting group of characters. You have the straight-man character — Kermit — who is always just one step away from losing it from all the crazies around him. I think that’s why Kermit is everyone’s favourite character — he’s so universal. For the longest time when I was growing up, Kermit was my favourite character, too. As I grew up, Dr. Teeth from The Electric Mayhem, another character performed by Jim Henson, became my new favourite. It’s a character that was used heavily in early years of The Muppet Show but not as much later on, so when he does appear, it’s special.
To get back to what I like about the Muppets, it’s how it transferred into adulthood. The characters, storylines, and songs were great as a kid. When I got a little older, I found the technical achievements made by Jim Henson and his teams fascinating. They were able to create these characters and make them feel so real. It’s just amazing. To add to that, when you watch the show as an adult, there are lots of things you just didn’t get as a kid — like the jokes and literary references — because you didn’t have that knowledge as a child.
That’s what makes the Muppets and Jim Henson a lifelong passion for me — it’s that evolution. As a child, you can appreciate it but as an adult, it just encompasses all these different aspects.
How do you display and store your collection?
That was a consideration when I bought my house about 10 years ago.
As a kid, my dad said I could have one bookcase for my collection. As the collection grew, it quickly outgrew that space and turned into things being strewn around my desk and other cabinetry. I moved away for college and then lived in California for a bit, but still continued collecting. By the time I moved back, the collection grew to the point of having to store things with friends and family. When I looked for a house, a key consideration was that I needed a space for the collection that was not in the living room or major artery of the house. I wanted a normal house that also had space for my museum. I found a place that has a decent-sized loft space where I can keep everything somewhat tucked away and then use closet space for overflow.
Even though there are many things in storage, the majority of the collection is on display. I used IKEA bookcases to line the perimeter of the room, arranging things like puzzles, games, and other toys, chronologically and found shelving from Hallmark stores that were going out of business for the interior space to display glassware, pins, and figurines. I have a whole section of signed and cast-and-crew items — objects given to The Jim Henson Company employees or celebrities they worked with. I also have sections for international, fast food, holiday, and promotional items. There’s also a whole section dedicated to promotional items for the 2011 and 2014 Muppet movies.
For almost every Jim Henson Company production, there was a lunch box. On top of every section around the room, I placed the lunchbox for that production or era. The Muppet Show, Muppet Treasure Island, Sesame Street, Fraggle Rock, and The Dark Crystal all have lunch boxes and are the perfect size to fit on top of the cabinets. I didn’t want the displays to be a mess and the lunchboxes were a great way to keep things cohesive through the different eras.
As for cataloguing, I use Excel. I have one spreadsheet that has probably 20 tabs. It goes cabinet by cabinet, so it’s easy to know where things are. It became a little difficult as I moved things and had to change the spreadsheet, so I catalogued some of the items by their type—books, posters, records, and CDs.
What do you consider to be the Holy Grail of your collection?
The item in my collection that has become a favourite is a solid-pewter Kermit wine topper.
Before The Jim Henson Company sold the Muppet characters to Disney, they held MuppetFest — a weekend convention in Los Angeles celebrating all things Jim Henson, from the Muppets to the Creature Shop, to Bear in the Big Blue House, and more. The Jim Henson Company had a selection of gifts for sale that they gave out to employees, guests, and other people they deemed worthy. I bought the solid-pewter Kermit wine topper that must weigh a pound — it’s pretty deadly, and I was also able to get some wrought-iron Kermit candlesticks. The base is Kermit’s head in wrought iron, and the iron twists up to hold a candle. I display those on a glass table so when light shines through, Kermit’s head projects as a shadow on the wall.
I have many of the Muppet movie posters but I was missing The Muppets Take Manhattan. I happened to find one on eBay given out to the cast and crew that was signed by Jim Henson, Frank Oz, and producer David Lazer. It’s very rare to find an item like that.
It’s funny how these kinds of things come back into your mind, but Big Wheels were popular when I was a kid in the early 1980s. They made both Sesame Street and Muppet versions. I’ve been on the hunt for many years for the Muppet Big Wheels, in the box if possible. I’m a mint-in-box guy and I haven’t seen one in 20+ years – they’re super elusive. I think part of the reason why they are so hard to find is that they were well used. When your parents bought you a present like that in the 1980s, they didn’t want you sitting there looking at it, you took it outside and played with it. The wheels were easily worn and many were left outside, causing the stickers to get messed up. So, finding one still in good shape is hard.
As you get a little older, things start disappearing because your parents throw them away without you knowing. Again, that kind of spurred the collection as I began to learn that things sort of just disappeared or wouldn’t always be available. When I was a kid, we went to see The Muppet Show Live. It was a stage show that featured actors in giant Muppet costumes. I went to a couple of those shows and was allowed to pick an item from the souvenir shop. Even then I loved The Electric Mayhem so I got an Animal pennant. When we moved from my childhood home, I left it behind. I thought we were going to go back for a couple of things but we didn’t. Leaving it up to a seven-year-old to pack is not a good idea. I left some things behind that were precious to me. This was probably 1987 — eBay was still off in the distance and it wasn’t until maybe two or three years ago that I finally found another Animal pennant. It took me 30 years to find one and searching for it directly led to my collection. You start looking for a specific item and you find other cool things. All of a sudden you own 7,000 items along the way to finding a pennant.
What advice would you give to someone interested in starting a similar collection?
First, don’t always worry about what something is worth. Worry about what it’s worth to you — if it’s worth collecting to you. It doesn’t always have to lead to financial gain in the end. Of course, that helps since you’re making a financial investment but, you know, make sure it’s something that you truly love. That’s a big piece of it.
I would also suggest to start cataloguing early. I have been trying to catalogue my collection and it’s sort of like a race against time. I’ve learned that as soon as I get something new, it goes right into the catalogue. I put it right into my spreadsheet immediately, or else I risk forgetting to do so. If you don’t have this habit, eventually you will have a whole project on your hands. Collecting shouldn’t be about making spreadsheets, it should be displaying and figuring out how you want to spread the joy of your hobby to the world.
See more of Chris’ collection on his YouTube channel and website.
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