Another New York Comic Con has come and gone! Before NYCC, we shared our cheat sheet for how to find all the Muppet stuff at the con, including fun panels, tempting merchandise, stunning artwork, brilliant cosplay, and more. And those are exactly the sort of things we found!
As always, we didn’t just amass all this Muppet love just for our own enjoyment – we’re excited to share it all with you too! Keep on reading to hear about all the Muppet love throughout this year’s New York Comic Con.
PANELS
ToughPigs Presents: The Muppet Drawing Challenge
We may be biased, but this panel was easily the highlight of the entire con. Hosted by ToughPigs and moderated by ToughPigs’ own Joe Hennes, we challenged six of our extremely talented artist friends (Dave Hulteen, Chris “Smig” Smigliano, Richard Michael Gomez, Will Carroll, Amy Mebberson, and Louis Henry Mitchell) to draw Muppet-related prompts live for our audience. The twist is that they have no idea what they might be asked to draw. We ended up with Muppets as Marvel heroes and Batman villains, Fozzie Bear as Pokemon, Muppet Babies, Starfleet officers, and so so so many more. Naturally, we wouldn’t host an event like this without trying to record it to share it with anyone who couldn’t be there, so watch ToughPigs for the full video and closeups of all the artwork coming very soon!
Pop Culture Puppets!
Right before we took the stage, in the same room, no less, was a panel showcasing some rockstars of the puppetry world: Kathleen Kim, Noel MacNeal, Jennifer Barnhart, Joey Mazzarino, moderated by Rick Lyon. They discussed their paths to becoming professional puppeteers, with the story of Noel’s mother’s unwavering support being a highlight. (And if that sounds good, you should check out his memoir!) Naturally, with a panel of puppeteers, some puppets are going to show up. Joey’s compatriot, Chicky Bawk Bawk, stole the show, offering his own commentary on the discussion, and there was a surprise reunion of Rick and Jennifer performing Trekkie Monster from Avenue Q. Aren’t puppeteers neat?
Playbill Presents: The Big Broadway Nerd Panel
Since he’s about to make his Broadway debut, magician Rob Lake appropriately joined Playbill’s celebration of geekery. And when it comes to geeking out, Rob did plenty about the Muppets. He mentioned that it was actually The Muppets Take Manhattan that introduced him to what Broadway was. Most notably, he noted that when he created illusions for major music tours and Sesame Street Live, he was just as excited to meet Big Bird as when he met Adele. So yeah, he’s definitely a Muppet nerd like us.
Meanwhile, at Blumhouse’s annual presentation of their horror movies to come, BlumFest, the studio gave a marionette created by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop for the upcoming film Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 away to a lucky fan. (Though we would’ve settled for some Freddy Fazbear’s pizza.)
One unexpected moment occurred during the NYCC Team Q&A on Sunday, where they revealed that when a major film studio had to cancel their presentation at the last minute, the con organizers made a serious effort to get the Muppets to fill the slot. It turns out they’ve been trying to get them for years! While it didn’t work out this time, we’re encouraged that they view Kermit, Miss Piggy, and the rest of the gang as highly as we do.
MERCH
Before we get to all the new(-ish) stuff, it’s worth pointing out some of the vintage Muppet merch we spotted. Comic Con is always a great place to shop for hard-to-find pieces, such as old plushies, Sesame Street action figures, and derpy looking Fraggle Rock dolls.
One vendor was selling this old Guy Smiley doll in the box! I’ve only ever seen photos of this. And seeing that price tag, this is about as close as I’ll ever get.
Also worth mentioning is this Gobo Fraggle mold. It took some detective work to figure out what it was a mold for, but we deduced that it was used to make Gobo Halloween masks. Pretty neat, pretty rare, pretty expensive!
This vendor sells all sorts of banners, and historically they’ve had a few Muppet options. But they’ve added a few this year, as well as this nifty Electric Mayhem poster.
Disney Publishing had a booth at NYCC, and what a treat to see that they didn’t forget our pal, published author Kermit the Frog.
Normally you’d use these types of tags so you wouldn’t lose your luggage, but using Labyrinth tags would surely get them lost in a puppet-filled goblin maze.
KidRobot had this giant Cookie Monster on display, alongside some cute Cookie plushes and slightly gross statuettes.
There are an insane amount of Loungefly bags out there across all sorts of pop culture properties. Among those being sold at the Con: Kermit the Bag and Count Von Purse.
I stumbled across artist Sukesha Ray’s table where she had this Muppet parody comic book on display – it’s called “Moppets Got Talent,” and it sure stopped me in my tracks. More on this later, but it’s proof that you never do know where the Muppets are going to pop up!
The NECA booth had their impressive Sesame Street action figures on display, including the already-released Bert, Ernie, and Count, as well as the upcoming Big Bird and Oscar. But also making its world debut is Sherlock Hemlock.
Here’s a better view of Sherlock, complete with his dog Watson.
Also on display, extremely briefly, was Frazzle (mislabeled, as you can see, as Herry Monster). Interestingly, he was only in the glass case for a few hours before the NECA staff had him removed. Apparently he wasn’t supposed to be revealed just yet, but someone snapped a photo, proving that Frazzle’s (probably) on his way.
There were tons of collectible pins all over the convention floor, but these were a few of our favorites. All original, all unique in their own way.
The Geeky Tikis featuring our Muppet pals were on display, but unfortunately not filled with mai-tais. I would’ve settled for a single paper umbrella.
ART
Every year at Artists Alley – the section of NYCC where artists set up booths to sell prints, draw commissions, and meet their fans – there are unique pop culture homages as far as the eye can see. So of course, a good amount of them featured the Muppets – certainly more than I expected! Just a sampling of our favorites can be found here (and be sure to follow all these talented artists on your favorite social media service):
And of course, we spent a good amount of time with our friends and professional artists in the Muppet realm, including Jay Fosgitt, Amy Mebberson, James Silvani, David Petersen, Jodie Rae Charity, and Guy Gilchrist.
COSPLAY
What a thrill it was every time we spotted someone across the con floor wearing a Muppet-related costume! (Or in some cases, what we thought was a Muppet costume, but was just a very Doozer-looking Bob the Builder.) As you can see, we got a good amount of Kermits and Rowlfs and Oscars and Labyrinth Worms to tide us over until next year.
CELEBRITIES
Lilli Cooper, who we know best as Doc from Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock, was at NYCC signing autographs with her fellow Hazbin Hotel cast members. We stopped by to say hello, and what a treat! I’d spoken with Lilli for the Fraggle Talk podcast, but this was our first time meeting in real life, and she was just as delightful as we all already assumed. She shared in our excitement and frustration for the future of Back to the Rock, assuring me that she’s waiting with bated breath on a season 3 announcement just like the rest of us. Needless to say, she’s a huge Fraggle fan in her own right, and an extremely nice silly creature to boot.
Speaking of famous folks we hadn’t technically met yet, our pal Dylan Postl, aka Hornswoggle! You know him as one of the Gulag prisoners in Muppets Most Wanted, or you may know that he’s maybe the biggest Muppet fan to ever wrestle for WWE. Much like Lilli, we’d interviewed him for ToughPigs, but the only time we’d met in real life was briefly at the Muppets Most Wanted red carpet premiere. And let me tell you, spending this time with Dylan was like a homecoming. He really is a huge fan, and I’ve loved sharing in that fandom with him over the years. When I say he’s “one of us,” I mean it in every sense of the word. And if you ever get a chance to see him at a convention, you better be sure to tell him that you’re a fellow Muppet nerd.
And with that, both New York Comic Con and our coverage of all the Muppet fun at New York Comic Con are over for another year. But the countdown to NYCC ‘26 has begun! And as we promised, stay tuned for a much more thorough recap of our Comic Con panel coming soon!
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by Joe Hennes and Matthew Soberman
