Have you ever had an idea that you wanted to try, but lacked the time and/or knowledge to pull it off? But you decided to make do with what you have and try your best anyway to make it happen? Well that’s what I’ve been kind of doing over the past year with my game ‘unboxing’ articles. You see, I’ve seen many videos of people unboxing new games, showing off everything that comes with a collector’s edition and whatnot. Well, I thought it would be fun to do that, too, but instead of having me do the unboxing, I thought it would be fun to have a puppet do it! Just to be different. But I don’t have a video camera and I don’t have time to make a YouTube account, but I do have a digital camera and I do have a place where I can write articles, so I decided to start with that.

Last year, one of my younger brothers, Jeff, who also has an interest in puppetry (see, we like to do other things besides play video games), he helped me make a sock puppet puppy that I named “Boxer” to unbox any collector’s edition game I got last year, such as Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and others. But this Christmas, I got a real life Muppet, so I thought I’d try using that for my unboxing articles for a while. Hopefully I won’t make any Boxer fans mad (doubt there are too many fans anyway) by making this change. But I guess if enough people object, I can go back to using Boxer the sock puppet puppy. I still have him lying around, although I’ll have to hot glue one of his googly eyes back on again! Maybe the new puppet can be Boxer’s owner.

I’ve always had an interest in puppetry, which probably stems from the fact that Muppets were a HUGE part of my childhood, and a lot of other people’s childhoods from the 80’s. You could see Muppets on hit shows on several channels, from Sesame Street to the Muppet Show, Fraggle Rock, movies like The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth, and even cartoons like Muppet Babies. I’m also a huge Mystery Science Theater 3000 fan, and even though most of the cast is still making fun of movies with Rifftrax, my favorite parts of MST3K were the low-budget robot puppets.

Anyway, thanks to the popularity of the recent new Muppet movie (which is pretty good; by the way), Disney marketed a toy over the holidays called the Muppets Whatnot Workshop. It may have been advertised as a toy (exclusive to FAO Schwartz and Toys R Us), but it’s a pretty darn nice toy geared towards spoiled rich kids and/or crazy adults like me. It’s also slightly expensive (for a toy), but it is of very nice quality and luckily we got it on sale. The packaging is very well done, too, and the whole thing even comes in a plastic carrying case with zipper and handle.

According to the back of the box, this is a Whatnot Muppet. Whatnots are used in every Muppet production as just general extra Muppets. You probably mostly saw them on Sesame Street, maybe yelling a cheer about the letter J or helping to sing a song about people in your neighborhood. The Whatnot Muppet Workshop comes with one puppet (I got an orange one), along with a wide selection of eyes, noses, hair, and other facial features you can Velcro on it.

Mine came with glasses, as well as a pair of regular eyes and two pairs of eyes with colored lids. I chose the regular eyes. There were also three noses, a round red one, a big blue one, and a pointy orange one. I liked the orange one, but it was a little too pointy and the blue one just showed up better. Hair choices included regular black, feathery blonde, and green. The black made him look too much like Guy Smiley, and the blonde made it look too girly or surfer-ey. So I chose green hair since I like crazy colored hair on characters anyway, even if it does make him look like a living carrot with the orange skin. I think it also comes with a moustache and a beard, too. It also comes with a stick for moving one of the arms, but I’ve been having a little trouble getting that to work well. The nice thing about the Velcro parts is that you can interchange things pretty easily. Brother Jeff can even make his own puppet. He wants to make a hipster puppet, but I don’t know why. I think he’s been watching a little too much Portlandia if you ask me. Ha ha!

One thing the Whatnot Muppet does NOT come with is clothes. You can buy extra clothes for it online for 20 to 40 bucks a pop, but I had a better idea. You see, during the day I work at a place that sells supplies to mostly hospital gift shops, including things like baby clothes! (Yes folks, I don’t review video games ALL day) So one day I took my Whatnot Muppet to work and tried on some baby clothes on it in our showroom to see what size it would take. 12 to 18 months works best I found out. So that weekend I went to a local thrift store and bought four shirts for my Muppet all for less than ten bucks! I wonder if that’s how they clothe the REAL Muppets? Dressing the Muppet reminded me of when my little brothers were babies and I had to dress them. Anyway, the clothes I got for my Muppet were a button down black and white plaid shirt, a Hawaiian shirt, football style jacket, and a sweater with black and white houndstooth design with brightly colored stripes (looks like a Bill Cosby sweater). Because of the Muppet’s big head, button up clothes work the best since you don’t have to pull anything over its head!

And that’s my new Muppet that I’m going to use for unboxing articles this year (unless too many people object). One thing good that came out of the Whatnot toy is that it gives me a greater appreciation for puppetry. Even the stuff they do on Sesame Street is harder than it looks, and I can’t even imagine how they get them to hold musical instruments or ride a bike! They make it look so easy, but now I understand how much practice and talent it takes to operate those things properly.

So now I’ll do an unboxing test run and have my Whatnot Muppet show you all what extra things you get with the special edition of the King of Fighters XIII game I just wrote about. One thing I forgot to mention is that I haven’t decided a name for my unboxing Muppet character yet. I’ve just been calling him G.P., which stands for Gamer Puppet. So if you folks can come up with a better name for this guy, let me know in the comments section and if I like it well enough, I just might adopt your name!

Anyway, so here’s the KOF XIII game box.

It comes with a soundtrack, too!

A four-CD soundtrack with songs from every KOF game in the series! It’s so big that my Whatnot Muppet had trouble holding it up!

Anyway, that’s all I’ve got for now! Just wanted to do some housekeeping conclusions with you all before I go. Wanted to let you all know that this may be my last official big blog for a couple of weeks. I might squeeze in a game review here and there in between, but things have been kind of slow on the gaming front (and busier at work), so I haven’t had as many things to write about (and I do apologize for that). So if any of you have any ideas on things you’d like for me to write a blog about, by all means, suggest them in the comments section and I might poop out a blog about it. Otherwise, my next blog probably won’t be until February, when I unbox the collector’s edition of Soul Calibur V with my new puppet, and I’ll probably also write a blog about all the characters in that game, too.

I haven’t had as many games to review in January, so I apologize for that, too. It’s just one of the slow times of the gaming year, I guess. I’ve been using this time to finish games I started during the busy holiday rush, like both new Kirby games and Disney Universe. I used a Christmas gift certificate to buy LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean, so I’ve started playing that, too.

Another reason why this might be my last blog for a couple of weeks is that in late January/early February, our Internet provider is changing a few things, so I’ll be getting a new wireless router soon. I don’t know if the transition will be smooth and quick, but if there are any problems or snags (with my luck, there usually is), I may be offline for a little while during that time. Which would suck, I know. And then after the change, I’ll have to go through all the wireless devices in the house (gaming consoles, PCs), and change the password to the new router (which will be a pain). I’m just worried because I’m horrible with computers (I can’t even re-install my printer driver right). So I could really use your prayers that the new router change will be smooth and easy, and I’ll be back online quick so I can write more stuff for you all to read! And that’s all I have for now! Later! –Cary

Tags: Misc