Today's review repeatedly mentioned that Palisades planned to do their own Sesame Street line, and that Ernie was planned for Series 1. So here, take a look:
If you recall, this line was one of the last things produced before Palisades went out of business; in fact, they were so close to being released that when the closure was announced, someone on the message board asked if there was any chance of seeing them and [either Mike Horn or Ken Lilly] responded that it depended on whether they'd already been put on the ship from China or not: if the boat had left port by then, the toys would make it to America and be sent to stores; if not, they wouldn't. At the time, the Palisades employees simply didn't know if the toys had made off the docks in time, so for six weeks we all waited anxiously to see if they'd miraculously show up.
(You know how it turned out.)
But, that closeness to the deadline is why final packaged samples have been shown off:
In a rare cancellation double-whammy, the cancelled Ernie already had a cancelled accessory! As you can see above, the final figure would have come with a "model sheet" Rubber Duckie, a Cobblestones album, a brick wall to stand behind, a banana, a framed photo of him and Bert, and the letter D. But in the sculpting stage, Rubber Duckie would have been joined by two other bath-related pieces: a bar of soap and a soap dish.
In a better world, we still would have seen those, though: Palisades always planned ahead, and alongside Series 4 there would have been a "Bathtime Ernie" exclusive, which surely would have included those.
Imagine a world in which we got Sesame Street toys in 2006 instead of 2025.
