Celebrate the Holidays with Abby!

[Drtooth]

Well, SW has done it again... clearly they're using Abby to get all kinds of merchandising bucks that Zoe could never get. This weekend, I saw some cool holiday stuff if you're an Abby enthusiast.

For Halloween, they have an Abby plastic trick or treat pail shaped like her head. They also have a plush one, with a picture of Abby printed on it.

And For Christmas, they have a mini- ornament collection with Abby as one of the pieces (I'm talking the Kurt Adler ones) as well as an Abby Christmas stocking.


I wish Grover got this sort of stuff...:smirk:

[Redsonga]

Not that I hate Abby but she is being marketed by the same sort of people that seem to think pink is the only color that will sell with My Little Pony :P. I wish that they did not have to play the 'everyone who is three loves pink' card to get anything to outsell Elmo (You know, my first favorite color was red but I did not pay any mind to Elmo at all, werid)...Or design muppets around Elmo, like Zoe, rather than the whole family of SS collectively :(. And why not have characters that speak other things besides Spanish to? I miss when just the humans were the main spanish teachers honestly...

[heralde]

Not that I hate Abby but she is being marketed by the same sort of people that seem to think pink is the only color that will sell with My Little Pony :P

Definitely agree with that! I like Abby too but I was upset with some of her early publicity. Someone was quoted in the New York Times saying Women's Lib had already done it's job so she didn't mind her daughter being all princessy. I'm sorry but "Women's Lib" still has a long way to go, and I wouldn't be so carefree about it, heh.

And yet again, SS is kinda forcing kids to pick the most popular character.

[Redsonga]

Oh, it's really nothing about women's lib to me, I don't mind girly girl as some of my favorite toy lines could be thought of as that, but like MLP, I just hate what marketers think of as girly being limited to pink and purple. What about green? Or white? You know, now that I think of it, Abby would have been so pretty in white and silver, she could have been a snow fairy :)...

[heralde]

Oh, it's really nothing about women's lib to me, I don't mind girly girl as some of my favorite toy lines could be thought of as that, but like MLP, I just hate what marketers think of as girly being limited to pink and purple. What about green? Or white? You know, now that I think of it, Abby would have been so pretty in white and silver, she could have been a snow fairy :)...

Yeah I don't mean girls can't be pretty and all. But like you said, the emphasis with little girls is almost all pink and bright. Like they can't be anything else. I think it can be damaging.

[Redsonga]

Yeah I don't mean girls can't be pretty and all. But like you said, the emphasis with little girls is almost all pink and bright. Like they can't be anything else. I think it can be damaging.

I remember when we were little the focus was on rainbow colors IMHO, and you could pretty much pick your favorite...But then, the 80's and early 90's were more colorful for everyone:excited:

[heralde]

I remember when we were little the focus was on rainbow colors IMHO, and you could pretty much pick your favorite...But then, the 80's and early 90's were more colorful for everyone:excited:

That's a good way to look at it, differences rock!

[Drtooth]

Definitely agree with that! I like Abby too but I was upset with some of her early publicity. Someone was quoted in the New York Times saying Women's Lib had already done it's job so she didn't mind her daughter being all princessy. I'm sorry but "Women's Lib" still has a long way to go, and I wouldn't be so carefree about it, heh.

And yet again, SS is kinda forcing kids to pick the most popular character.

I still think the problem is they want to jump all over the popularity that Dora had, and they were always struggling to get a big female role into the show. Zoe, Rosita, and Prarie Dawn seem to be the staples, but we've lost the likes of Merry (or Mary) Monster, Lulu, Elizabeth, Google, Pheobe, Betty Lou, etc. etc. etc. etc. And while Elmo has appeal that crosses the genders, they really needed a marketable female. Though, I still say Rosita is an underrated Latina in Kid's shows... she has more personality than Dora.

Personally, the one Abby thing I'd want is a small PVC in scale to the others. So far, I haven't seen that yet.

[Ilikemuppets]

You forgot Ruby to be picky. :crazy:

But serously, The difference between Abby And Elmo is that while Elmo appeals to both genders, he is not girlie, but Abby is in appearance, but not completely in character. But they are both being mass marketed. *shrug*

[Redsonga]

You forgot Ruby to be picky. :crazy:

But serously, The difference between Abby And Elmo is that while Elmo appeals to both genders, he is not girlie, but Abby is in appearance, but not completely in character. But they are both being mass marketed. *shrug*

Ruby was my favorite. If I didn't know that she was much too young I would say she quit the show because Zoe is her daughter:coy:. The shock...

[frogboy4]

I thought purple was the new pink marketed to girls.

I don't see why Zoe isn't getting the push Abby has gotten.

[Count von Count]

I wish Grover got this sort of stuff...:smirk:(quote: Dr.tooth)

Me Too!

[heralde]

I wish Grover got this sort of stuff...:smirk:(quote: Dr.tooth)

Me Too!

Yeah I was going to reply to that too. I mean, if they focused on more characters on the show, wouldn't there be more opportunity for merchandising?

[Redsonga]

I agree, Grover was my favorite when I was little :(. If only the marketing wasn't only aimed at the newest characters. Of course they should get things made of them to but it is not like everyone else moved away from SS to make room for them...
Zoe never had much of a push that I can see..it's sort of sad that she is more of a shadow of Elmo now...

[The Shoe Fairy]

I thought purple was the new pink marketed to girls.

I don't see why Zoe isn't getting the push Abby has gotten.

I Think it's just Abby appeals to the Little girls of today; and (being a fairy) has a sort of role play appeal to her.

[The Shoe Fairy]

I agree, Grover was my favorite when I was little :(. If only the marketing wasn't only aimed at the newest characters. Of course they should get things made of them to but it is not like everyone else moved away from SS to make room for them...
Zoe never had much of a push that I can see..it's sort of sad that she is more of a shadow of Elmo now...

At the time though; she was the tomboy that went against the "Pretty in pink" Ideal, Which was revolutionary in terms of childrens characters.

[Redsonga]

At the time though; she was the tomboy that went against the "Pretty in pink" Ideal, Which was revolutionary in terms of childrens characters.

I know, but that just makes me wish she was pushed as much as Abby is being now, of course in a perfect world everyone would get equal marketing :). As far as being my favorite in terms of tomboy-ish that would be Ruby (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2YY3Ba6Js0), but she seemed to go away as soon as she was made :(.

[Drtooth]

I wish Grover got this sort of stuff...:smirk:(quote: Dr.tooth)

Me Too!


Well, they were kind of starting that. Especially around the 35th anniversary. Remember, Grover got a balloon and a Macy's plush... and Super Grover was the only Palisades SS figure to go totally produced, and he was the promotional start up figure (they even had an Alex Ross lithograph). It all seemed to co-incide with the creation of Global Grover. As of now, I do still see some more Grover stuff, but not nearly as much as the old days.

I thought purple was the new pink marketed to girls.

I don't see why Zoe isn't getting the push Abby has gotten.

I seem to recall her having some sort of push in the 90's when she first came out. And she was pretty much the most licensed gal monster on Sesame until Abby came in. (Poor Rosita... it's like she doesn't exist). But I don't see half the bigger ticket items that Abby has... but I still haven't seen any Abby PVC's (and there was a new PVC line last year... It was basically Elmo, Zoe, Bert, Ernie, Big Bird and Cookie Monster).

You forgot Ruby to be picky
I think a LOT of people forgot about Ruby... which makes my point.:shifty: Girl characters, as well as ethnic characters of both genders are notoriously hard to fit into a show, because you'll always offend some group one way or another. Look at the problems Disney is having with The Princess and the Frog. At one point she was too African American, and it bordered on a Stereotype, now they've changed it to satiate those critics, while new critics said she isn't African American enough.

With girl characters, you'll always take slack for making a character feminine, but not all girls are going to relate to a tomboy. Much in the way that some boys don't identify with G.I. Joe, and pick someone softer. I can recall a series of Dilbert strips where they had a stereotyped woman called Anita, and Scott Adams got so many complaints he made a character that was the exact opposite of every female stereotype. Then they accused him of making fun of lesbians.

Case in point, you just can't please everybody.

Though, I still think this is more an issue of one character focused over others... Elmo's still the top dog when it comes to that, though Abby has come a distant second.

[The Shoe Fairy]

I know, but that just makes me wish she was pushed as much as Abby is being now, of course in a perfect world everyone would get equal marketing :). As far as being my favorite in terms of tomboy-ish that would be Ruby (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2YY3Ba6Js0), but she seemed to go away as soon as she was made :(.

I Like Ruby; but the first thing I thought when I saw her was "Woah; Hair like this! http://bighairrules.com/_images/poison/poison_pic8.jpg"

Yes we all wish for an equal world; but that Political Stance generally does not work.

[Ilikemuppets]

At the time though; she was the tomboy that went against the "Pretty in pink" Ideal, Which was revolutionary in terms of childrens characters.Yeah! I think there need to be a balance of female personality. Mayby one is more girl-ish than the other but not completely. Mayby one is more natural than another, but is has a feminine side to her. I know those aren't the only examples but just saying.

[Redsonga]

I Like Ruby; but the first thing I thought when I saw her was "Woah; Hair like this! http://bighairrules.com/_images/poison/poison_pic8.jpg"

Yes we all wish for an equal world; but that Political Stance generally does not work.
I like 80's rock band hair :3! The world needs more of it IMHO :D!

[The Shoe Fairy]

I like 80's rock band hair :3! The world needs more of it IMHO :D!

Yeah! Thats Why I grew My hair! :cool: