Just like Santa’s elves, here at Forever Fun we’re preparing for the Christmas season. As many of you know this is the time of year that we begin our sales meetings for our 2012 product. This means Terri and I are busy getting together mock-ups for our sales team. In midst of the spray mount, spray paint, cutting and gluing we have managed to neglect our blogging duties. We have been reading all of your comments and questions and discussing many of them as soon as they are posted. We have not forgotten about our loyal fans, we have simply been loading up the sleigh and hoping for a great 2012 season.
As you can see we are presenting quiet a bit of product. Everything pictured is in that ever-uncertain land of possibility. We are hopeful for the newer items to become a production reality, yet we all know that is dependent upon buyers and consumer trends.
With that said, the 2011 product is still on our minds. We are working on the web site. Be on the look out for updates. Please continue to let us know what your thoughts and feelings are about the product that you are seeing out on the shelves. You feed back is greatly appreciated and always taken into consideration.
Tags: Charlie Brown, Christmas, Christmas Decor, Christmas Tree, Collectibles, Decor, forever fun, Frosty, Peanuts, Rudolph, Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, Samples, Toys, Workbench
|
|||
25 Responses to “Forever Fun: Just Like Santa’s Elves…”Leave a ReplyYou must be logged in to post a comment. |
|||
|
|
October 5th, 2011 at 7:59 pm
I see a few newer items for Peanuts ….. Good Luck with the sale pitches …. I know I keep asking but perhaps newer Peanuts characters in the mix . Also perhap one day Peanuts Havest figures.
October 6th, 2011 at 7:22 pm
In the BACK CENTER of the picture, I see a Christmas Charlie Brown and a Snoopy+Woodstock next to him. It looks like the Charlie Brown has plastic clothes, but I cannot tell from that picture.
Right UP FRONT in the picture, there are at least 3 Rudolph Snow Globes and then a trio of what I assume are deluxe Rudolph figures (Hermy, Santa, and Sam).
Next to the Charlie Brown figures in the BACK CENTER, I see what look to be three of the push puppets (Rudolph, Santa, and another Reindeer). These look to be similar from previous years’ push puppets.
In the FRONT CENTER, there is a cardboard cut-out of a pull along Rudolph toy (in both packaging and un-boxed variety). This is obviously a mock-up, as there is no point in prototyping the toy unless someone shows interest.
Behind the Rudolph Pull-along, there appears to be two deluxe multi-packs for Charlie Brown. The top one appears to be the Christmas tree lot with a Snoopy and Lucy figure. The second one on the bottom appears to be Linus in Christmas clothes. Since these seem similar to the two packs that were already shown with the Snoopy Train set post, you can probably see a better image of the two sets there.
Finally in the FRONT RIGHT of the picture, it appears that there are two Christmas trees in packaging. Since a Charlie Brown tree is already readily available every year in triangle packaging at most CVS and Meijers, these both appear to the the Christmas tree from the end of Rudolph with the Bumble Star on top.
BEHIND the two Christmas trees, there appear to be more figures, but I cannot get the image fidelity clear enough to be able to decipher them. My gut tells me that one is Linus in 3 3/4 scale with what appears to be a possible strand of Christmas lights, and next to him (on the right) Charlie Brown in yellow shirt with a Santa hat. I cannot tell what figure would be to the left of Linus, but a best guess is either an elf OR the more likely scenario of another Snoopy figure.
Please feel free to debate if I am right or wrong (Forever Fun is welcome to confirm or deny as well…but they probably won’t). I look forward to website updates, as well as news about the 2012 line whenever it is released.
October 7th, 2011 at 11:21 pm
One of the trees is in Rudolph packaging the other is in Peanuts with Snoopy on the side.
The thing I’m interested in is the fold out cardboard Charlie Brown (behind the snow globes), I’d like to see one of these and a rudolph one as well.
October 8th, 2011 at 6:59 pm
Hi Folks,
Your products bring so much pleasure to fans of the Schulz and Rudolph characters! I just discovered this past summer your Peanuts Toboggan Run animation from about 2 years ago when Time and Space Toys offered it afresh. That item is just so right for the O gauge toy train hobbyists. It would be a big hit for traditional Lionel train people as well as those into the On30 stuff (narrow gauge O scale on HO scale track) like the trains Bachmann offers for those who do the holiday villages with those popular ceramic and porcelain buildings made by Department 56 and Lemax. Your Toboggan Run is really special because of the gentle rolling hills and well-sculpted Peanuts figures in approximately O scale. Not asking for you to talk about your business practices, but it amazes me how you can sell an item like that at such a low price when a company like Lionel would have a suggested retail price of at least $70. I know volume is an issue. I modified my Toboggan Run to also run continuously for use on a train layout and I am impressed by the quality of what I see inside as well as the durability of the mechanism (no belts), especially at your price.
With the many challenges this economy presents to your company, I gather it is very difficult to expand. But I hope your company could consider offering a product line for the toy train hobbyist when the time is right. And your Toboggan Run item is a perfect scale for those who do Christmas villages, with or without trains.
Take care, Joe.
October 16th, 2011 at 4:56 pm
So far I’ve found the 4 Charlie Brown Halloween Figures, the 2 K Mart ones, the Rudolph PVC set, and the new K Mart Snoopy clip on. I went to 2 KMarts and while the paint jobs on the PVC sets was better than last year it was still pretty sloppy. THe best painted set I found was in a crushed box. At 39.99 a pop I’m waiting to see if TRU is cheaper and with better paint jobs before I take this back. One thing I noticed in the PVC selection is that the tree was loose in most of them.One of the elves was missing his candycanes in another. But that’s the only poor items I’ve seen thus far.
Sears has the 3 bobble heads at a rather pricey 6.99 or 7.99 (I forget which) each.
I haven’t found the CVS clip ons yet and TRU should begin setting up after this week.
I have not opened anything yet but the new scale CB figures appear to be solid plastic rather than the rotocast heads. I’m still not too kean on the new scale as all of the various lines were in the old scale and part of the appeal has always been in mixing up the characters from all the specials o interact in displays.
As for new product, I kep hoping we’ll get to see the original Frosty characters but I supposed it’s a lost cause by this point. Such a shame. Is there any new Frosty this year?
Can folks please keep an eye out at Meijer’s for me as we have none in my area. I have yet to get any of the clip ons and now some are no longer offered….
October 29th, 2011 at 3:08 pm
Is there a list of what is new this year, ONLY new sculpts or new accessories, in regards to the Rudolph line and the Peanuts line?
November 4th, 2011 at 11:07 pm
Were the Halloween Peanuts figures ever released? I’ve been to every CVS all over the Los Angeles area and never say them anywhere. About to give up trying to collect this stuff. It’s just no fun anymore when you can’t get it.
November 5th, 2011 at 11:13 am
Hi Folks,
No secret I really enjoy your figures and animated items. If it isn’t against your rules and policies, I have s very short Thanksgiving video on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Py12yJoHBs
with your Peanuts figures and the Lionel Snoopy & Woodstock handcar. The Sally, Pig Pen, and Franklin figures are from the mini clip-on Charlie Brown Christmas set and the Valentine’s Day figures of Lucy, Linus, and Charlie Brown. I have used the whole Christmas set (with the items in their hands carved away) in this scene before, but we are not all quite ready for winter attire. You’ll see what a good fit your products and Lionel’s are for a Peanuts handcar set. Anytime I post a photo of these items on a train forum, I always get questions about where I bought them. Same is true in my home — people love Charlie Brown and Snoopy. Also, notice how effective this small set-up is on a surface that measures no more than 24″ by 36″ using a type of bendable 3 rail O gauge track called GarGraves. This scene is suitable for autumn, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and with the figures in their winter attire from the Christmas set, obviously for Christmas. For the warm weather months, think Easter, Valentine’s Day, Fourth of July, Veterans Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day, Father’s and Mother’s Days, too, just with some leaves on the trees and tiny flowers from the craft store!
Take care, Joe.
November 6th, 2011 at 11:28 am
Here’s information to the collectors since we seem to be very much on our own.
So far I’ve found everything but the Rudolph Décor Blocks, Push Puppets, and Slide Puzzles. I’m not too thrilled about the new scale at all. While the online pictures of the sculpts looked great the actual product doesn’t come close. The smaller size also makes the figures feel fragile and cheap. I think the bulky Peanuts characters fared much better in the scale change than the Rudolph ones.
Some other notes on the matter of new releases, the trains are still the same ones as year’s passed just revamped. I’ve always been a fan of the trains but, sadly, the price has skyrocketed. When this all started the Rudolph train sold for 30.00. A few years ago the Rudolph and Frosty trains sold at 40.00. This year the trains are 50.00. As the trains always seem to warm shelves whoever I‘ve been I fear we may be seeing the end of the line on these so to speak. Apparently there is another scaled train at a drug store chain
A note on the PVC sets for the collectors. The K Mart one and the TRU one are painted differently. The most notable change is that the candy canes in the hand of the boy elf are red in one version and white in another.
You can find the bobble heads at Sears and the clip ons at K Mart are the same as last year’s CVS exclusives. No one seems to have the mini Charlie Brown figures Meijers had last year. (It’s VERY frustrating not having access to all of the store who have the exclusives) I haven’t found the CVS figure 2 packs yet either but I did find the clip ons.
That’s about all I have to offer. Anyone else having any luck?
November 6th, 2011 at 1:41 pm
I saw that TRU had their Christmas stuff out. With all due respect to Forever Fun… I didn’t waste my money on any of their products. The Charlie Brown figures were the same exact figures as the ones I bought at CVS, with the exception of NO accessories besides the backdrop, Snoopy’s ears and no mask on Woodstock (the latter two coming in the same box). And for the same $6.99 price. They had a lot of other product too — figurines in box sets and individually packaged, the deluxe sets first seen at K-Mart with a more reasonable price of $9.99 (I will probably pick up the Snoopy & Doghouse set this week) and inexplicably, the Snoopy Christmas Doghouse set from years past with the larger scaled Snoopy figure for $24.99. If I missed anything, especially in the individually packed new scaled figures, please let me know, but I was underwhelmed and unimpressed. (EDIT: Time & Space Toys shows accessories with their figures and the shelf picture below this blog entry shows Charlie Brown and Linus with winter coats and hats. Did I miss something??)
Rudolph wasn’t much better. While I love the new scaled Peanuts, I looked at the new scaled Rudolph figures and thought them inferior to what I already have, which is A LOT (thank you, Playing Mantis, Memory Lane, Round 2 and Forever Fun!). And I feel they worked great at the larger scale. Santa was kind of cool with the cloth Santa suit, but Hermey, which is supposed to have a screen accurate head sculpt, didn’t look right either. Cheap? Maybe it was the shine of the plastic? I don’t know. They also had deluxe figures too, the one that stuck out for me being Skinny Santa. I may pick up Santa-suit Santa because, well, it’s Santa, but I don’t see a longtime collector like myself having a need for these. Maybe once I get Santa opened I will change my tune.
There was plenty of other Rudolph merch on-hand too, including the mini tree with character ornaments and the cool Santa Sleigh and full team PVC set that plays music. But when you have the classic, large full-sized team… :^)
Did anyone pick up any Christmas items and want to offer up opinions with having them in-hand?
November 7th, 2011 at 8:58 am
Hello, loyal fans of Forever Fun. The Forever Fun website is live albeit a little later than we hoped. As infrequent blog post hint, we’ve been deep in the selling season for 2012 while simultaneously receiving production samples of 2011 for web photography. To save you from puzzling through the website or reading past blog posts to figure what “new” sculpts are included in the 2011 products, here is a listing:
All Rudolph® and Peanuts™ poseable figures and accessories are all new.
For Rudolph figurines/ornaments, we have eight new figures if you count the new candy canes for Boy Elf, the snowflake for Hermey and the Girl Elf with Christmas present. All new figurines include Santa in his sleigh, Mrs. Claus on throne, Baby Rudolph, Santa’s Christmas tree and Young Buck Rudolph with harness.
The new Peanuts mini figures include: Charlie with a Santa hat, Lucy with holiday gingerbread cookies, Linus with string of lights, Sally with Christmas teddy bear and Woodstock in a Christmas tree.
The website will list where these products are available. Join us on our facebook page and have a Forever Fun Holiday season!
November 7th, 2011 at 2:12 pm
Terri- thanks for the info. But not ALL Peanuts items are new, are they? The mini-figures that come with the nativity scene are the same as last year, aren’t they?
These lines are a bit confusing now, between PVCs, ornaments, keychains, minis, mid range posables, etc. And it seems not all of these are available everywhere. It’s hard to keep track of what is new, what item is unique to which store, etc. It’s actually gotten to the point where it’s just so overwhelming trying to figure out what’s new and where to get it that I’m on the verge of giving up.
Were the Halloween figures ever released this year? I didn’t see ANY in Los Angeles, not exactly a small market. And the TRUs I went to this weekend had a very small number of the Rudolph and Peanuts Christmas figures, no Lucy or Linus “deluxe” figures, and all the Rudolph figures were missing accessories or paint (or had some issue with the packaging, like bent backing cards inside plastic box).
A clear list of EVERY new figure and variation would be great and where it’s available.
I was never a fan of the original Hermy sculpt, but the new one is even worse, in my opinion. It’s too bad FF didn’t really try to nail these figures as true copies of the original puppets when they had the chance to redo the line.
November 8th, 2011 at 11:28 am
Terri :I think people have to get use to the new sizes since for the longest time we had one size . I know for the most part everything for Christmas is out . Will you guys be moving forward with Valentine and Easter Peanuts figures .. It’s never too early to discuss these things . I just hope next year we can get a few diffrent Charlie Brown characters … Jim
November 8th, 2011 at 2:34 pm
Just to let everyone know CVS is already starting 25% off Christmas . I picked up the playpack $8.74.. I recieved 25% and I had a $1.00 off …
November 19th, 2011 at 1:17 am
I picked up the CVS Charlie Brown & Linus Playback the other day. I haven’t opened it, but it’s a nice looking set and the cloth goods, while not everyone’s thing, looks nice and makes up for the lack of pants on the figures (or, in other words, for giving us the same base figures as the Halloween Peanuts set). And at 25% Off, you cannot beat the price!
The Lucy & Snoopy Set was a disappointment. Lucy is the basic figure and Snoopy is the same Halloween Snoopy with the ears up (I don’t remember if the expression is the same). I might have still bit if Snoopy’s doghouse was blue, like on the back of the box and true to the Christmas Special, but it was red. I’d rather spend the same $10 on the TRU Snoopy & Doghouse set and get a standard ears down Snoopy over an extra Lucy (I think there will be plenty of opportunities for multiples!) and lights. I think both doghouses are snow covered too.
November 21st, 2011 at 10:36 am
I kinda wish that there was something extra with the Lucy and Snoopy playpack set in regauds to clothing . I opened mine and the backdrop does add something … I hope that the line takes off and that other characteres can be made. Also on a diffrent note
I sincerely hope that you guys will be adding Valentine and Eastrer this year coming 2012. I know it rather disappointing that there were no figures for both thiose holidays 2011.
Also hopefully nexxt year for Halloween that you can do Playpacks with backdrop. Please add other characters …
November 23rd, 2011 at 2:28 am
I know these figures have been done already in the older scale, but Halloween Playbacks with backdrops and costumes from the Great Pumpkin special would be nice for 2012. It’s been a while since we have seen those done and it would be a good time to revisit the special, hopefully with some new characters thrown in too.
Valentine and Easter Playbacks that are based on those specials would be nice too!
November 24th, 2011 at 11:37 am
I hope that you guys at Forever Fun can let us know if there will be Valentine and Easter figures this year , I would love to see Halloween playpacks as well . Can you klet us know if Valentine and Easter will be arrining for 2012?
November 26th, 2011 at 3:45 pm
Not thrilled with the new scale for the Rudolph action figures. Please bring back the old size. There are still some characters that could be done in the old size, including improved sculpts of some of the old figures (namely Hermey) and also a number of Misfit toys have never been done. Also, as far as the PVC Rudolph figures, I don’t like the non-canon coloring of some of the figures. I guess Forever Fun went with Christmas colors, rather than staying true to what was established on the tv special.
Peace and Love,
Hermey the Elf
December 2nd, 2011 at 5:42 pm
I know you guys are busy but anything you can say about Valentine and Easter .. Since CVS usually puts stuff out right after Christmas for Valentine …. Jim
December 6th, 2011 at 8:36 pm
I’m bummed no Valentine or Easter .. Hopefully you can post pics of what could of been
December 8th, 2011 at 7:26 pm
Forever Fun Christmas stuff is now on clearance at TRU. Nothing big, but I did grab a Rudolph Santa and a Snoopy with Doghouse for $7.98 each. And I finally saw a Deluxe Linus with Sled.
December 9th, 2011 at 11:08 am
I’m hoping because of the lack of additional holiday offering ( Easter and Valentine ) that next year Halloween and Christmas we ast see a new face or two figure wise . Jim
December 14th, 2011 at 7:20 pm
FYI, K-Mart has a lot of their Christmas stuff on sale, including The Peanuts (I think The Peanuts are on-sale and not on-clearance). I forget the % Off, but in the end, the Charlie Brown and Snoopy figures, priced at $12.99, came close to the same price as the same TRU clearanced $9.99 priced figures.
December 21st, 2011 at 2:57 pm
Merry Christmas to all… Looking forward to seeing the offerings that pan out for 2012… Jim