Recommended music: Gonzo – I’m Going To Go Back There Someday
It’s #SomethingElseSunday, and we’re still celebrating 70 years of the Muppets. Today, it’s getting weird in here with the Palisades Toys Muppets Gonzo!
The puppet that would become Gonzo the Great first showed up in the 1970 Christmas special The Great Santa Claus Switch as Snarl, the Cigar Box Frackle. Jim Henson performed the puppet in the 1974 TV special Herb Alpert and the TJB, but Dave Goelz has played the character ever since. The puppet appeared again in 1975 in both The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence pilot and the Muppet Meeting Film Muppet Picker Upper. After some changes to the puppet and a new name, Gonzo became his own character, and the rest is history.
Gonzo was a key part of the opening theme in every Muppet Show episode, always playing the final trumpet note. In the first season, he tried to hit the space inside the ‘O’ of the ‘Muppet Show’ sign like a gong, but like in later seasons, something unexpected always happened instead.
Besides Kermit, Gonzo has likely appeared in more productions than any other Muppet. His backstory has changed a lot over the years. On The Muppet Show, he was a frustrated performance artist and daredevil. He was the focus of the Muppet Babies storybook What’s a Gonzo?, called a ‘Whatever’ in The Great Muppet Caper, and finally became the main character as an alien in Muppets from Space.
Over the years, Gonzo has had many romantic interests, including Miss Piggy, Madeline Kahn, a live cow, and most famously, Camilla the chicken.
Palisades Toys made over a dozen different Gonzo figures for the Muppets toy line, including several variants. Stuntman Gonzo appeared in the second wave in 2002, and the Gonzo and Camilla set came out in wave 5. Gonzo wears his classic purple tux in this set, and the same body was later used for versions in baby blue, black, gold, and even a checkered suit.
This set also comes with Camilla as a pack-in figure, a display base, a detailed box of chocolates with a removable lid, and Gonzo’s trumpet from the Muppet Show opening theme. If you only want one Gonzo figure for your collection, this is probably the most classic and complete option.
The 70th anniversary of The Muppets has passed, but I still have a few more characters to feature on the blog. If you missed The Muppet Show’s 50th-anniversary special, you can catch it now on Disney+. It’s a fun watch, and Gonzo even gets a few lines.
#ActionFigurePhotography
#TheMuppets70
#ToyPhotography
Dale's Toys 