Ernie

It was exciting when NECA finally released their first Sesame Street figure, the Count. And then Monkey Boy revealed that apparently, no, Bert and Ernie had been released some time prior. If they were so "released," why did I have to order them off Best Buy's website to finally get the pair? Checkmate, liberals! There's a literary device called amphiboly, which relies on syntactic ambiguity to create confusion. This is usually mild confusion, and it's also usually for the sake of humor. It's not quite a pun or a paraprosdokian, but it could be used that way; it's basically a verbal plot twist, which is what makes it so good for jokes. You'll find it in Groucho Marx lines, all over the place in Clue, and very much in the type of humor Ernie displays. Ernie is a prankster and is known for saying silly things, but the former is an intentional habit and the latter is not: he chooses to annoy Bert with weird behavior, but when he misunderstands a question or saying, that's him legitimately misunderstanding it. He's written that way to introduce the kids watching to the concept of words having ambiguous meanings, so they can start to parse them out for themselves. A prime example: Bert gets dressed up and wants some feedback. He asks his friend "Ernie, tell me, how do I look?" Ernie pauses and with impeccable timing replies "with your eyes, Bert." That's amphiboly in action! Judging by the "Volume 1" in the upper corner of the front of the box, it seems NECA expected Ernie would be the first one they released. That makes sense, Palisades intended to put him in their first series, back when they tried to do Sesame Street figures, too. As an introductory toy, Ernie's great. His skin has a pebbled texture to make it feel like felt, while his hair (make from fake fur on the real-life puppet) is sculpted as a solid piece. The standard head has a nice, pleasant smile befitting the character, but the set also includes a second where the smile is so large that his mouth is open to reveal his tongue. Ernie is wearing his iconic outfit, sneakers, jeans, and a striped sweater. The sweater has wide bands around the waist and wrists, but a narrower one around the neck - narrower, but thicker. Is this supposed to be a turtleneck, or is that just the way the sweater was made? The toy was sculpted by the man who's not quite a mop, and not quite a puppet, Paul Harding, and Harding knows how to sculpt clothing so it looks like clothing, even if the proportions are slightly different than usual. So the jeans look like denim, and the sweater has vertical lines to make it look like it was knitted for real. The paint is vibrant. Ernie's skin is a muted orange (is he supposed to be black?) and his nose red, and the pupils in his eyes are set slightly above center, as has been true of the Muppet almost since the beginning (Jim Henson experimented with the placement in the early days, so some of the early early sketches have him looking straight ahead instead of up). The stripes on the sweater, blue and white and red and yellow, and applied very cleanly, though the paint on the elbow joints scrapes right off the first time you move him. In addition to the bonus head, the toy includes alternate hands: open, pointing at something, or partially closed. They're not really shaped to hold any of the accessories, but they're closer to being able to do that than the open hands are, so go figure. Articulation is as good as anything else NECA makes, with a barbell neck, swivel/hinge shoulders, swivel/hinge elbows, swivel/hinge wrists, a balljoint chest, balljoint hips, swivel thighs, swivel/hinge knees, and swivel/​hinge/swivel ankles. Everything moved nicely right out of the box, though as mentioned above, bending the elbows takes the paint off his sweater. His accessories include the letter C, the painting of he and Bert that hangs in their apartment, and his beloved Rubber Duckie. The painting actually has a notch on the back so you could really hang it... if you had something to hang it from. Call that the "Jacob Marley door knocker" problem. Beats having a fully flat back, though! The rubber duck seen on the show was, in the real world, manufactured by Alan-Jay Plastics decades before the show aired. It's got different proportions than the stereotypical "rubber duck" shape we think of today, but hthis accessory gets it right. It's a toy of a toy made by a different toy company, which has got to be one of the rarest things ever - especially since the Alan-Jay company is long out of business, and so NECA wouldn't have had to pay licensing fees (which sets this piece apart from things like Funko making a Mr. Potato Head or a He-Man or whatever). When Palisades planned their line, their Rubber Duckie was going to be a more modern style, the way it's drawn in other merch, rather than being accurate to the prop. Ernie's a great action figure, living up the standard Palisades set decades ago. It's still sad we never got a Sesame Street line back then, but NECA can be proud of what they've given us here. -- 09/10/25 Waddles, Bubbles, or Twinkle? Tell us on our message board, the Loafing Lounge.