It has been twenty years since the release of my Rudolph book! I wanted to re-clarify some things about the Rudolph and Santa Animagic figures!

 My book has been out for twenty years now!   All of my updates on Rudolph have either been in my other 5 Rankin/Bass hardcover books or in my articles in RetroFan magazine (Big Rudolph article last Christmas and a Mad Monster Party article in October 2021 with Rudolph update).   I assisted with both the auction of the Rudolph and Santa Animagic figures in November of 2020 and the display of the figures at the Center for Puppetry arts November 2021.   I have seen some clips from Antiques Roadshow and their Podcast which are very misleading.   They interviewed me for both, but failed to disclose that these figures are NOT the ones used in the actual animation of the TV Special.    They are the publicity used Animagic figures for photos and the NBC Display at the Rockefeller Plaza in NY.   Tad Mochinaga and his staff hung onto the puppets used in the actual animation and you can see pictures in both my book on The Making of Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town and The Daydreamer, and also Rankin/Bass' Frosty the Snowman 50th Anniversary scrapbook.   You can clearly see Santa's beard is shorter and decaying in the lines in the beard where Santa's mouth moved in the special, unlike the Santa beard on the one in the Center for Puppetry arts (Which is larger and rounder as in the publicity photos).   I made this discovery last Christmas and wrote about it and also did interviews about it, but apparently "Production used" or "Screen used" sounds better to some producers, so they mislead a bit.

lots of untruths knowingly being published on the internet recently about the two Animagic figures at the Center for Puppetry Arts. I guess I will have to publish another update here shortly...

PBS' ANTIQUES ROADSHOW was Very Disappointing!

I am so sorry I told Rankin/Bass Productions fans to tune into PBS' ANTIQUES ROADSHOW tonight, because the piece that I saw, created a false narrative to what the Producers wanted you to believe.   I did multiple interviews for this show over the past year, so they can't say "We didn't know."  They even asked me to clarify on a few occasions, which I did.  In fact, they went out of their way to take the facts I relayed to them out of this segment.  At one point I got an email from someone that worked there, asking to order my book The Making of Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town and The Daydreamer directly from me, instead of our website?   They never ended up ordering?!

 

In the segment, they called them "Production puppets" and "Screen used puppets" and they are neither.  I explain in my RetroFan Magazine article in issue #17 out October 13th, 2021 and I explained to Antiques Roadshow, the screen used puppets, more correctly called Animagic figures, stayed in Japan and many remained in the collection of head animator Tad Mochinaga.   You can see these photos in my book on Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town and our Frosty the Snowman 50th Anniversary Scrapbook.   The Animagic figure of Santa in the TV Special had a smaller beard and lines in the beard that moved as his mouth did (Which you can clearly see in my book photos).  The publicity photo Santa has a much bigger and rounder beard, with no allowances for mouth movement.

 

The Animagic figures that appeared on Antiques Roadshow and were so badly appraised right from the start, were the Publicity only figures.   They were used for Publicity photos in New York and then they were put on display at NBC-TV in the Rockefeller Plaza for a short number of years.

 

While this host talked about his personal connection to the Animagic figures, I heard from the seller before Antiques Roadshow.   Then I appeared with the figures, after my friend Kevin Kriess bought them at many conventions and on television (2006-2009).  I helped coordinate the restoral with my friends Mark Caballero and Seamus and Robin Walsh at Screen-Novelties prior.  Kevin sold them to another friend of mine, Peter Lutrario.   I worked on the catalog for the 2020 auction,

through Profiles In History and I also worked on the exhibit at the Center For Puppetry Arts for this Holiday season.  This is the 20th Anniversary for my book The Making of the Rankin/Bass Holiday Classic:  Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

    It was really disappointing to see this sort of fluff piece, after giving PBS, Antiques Roadshow and Detours so much of my time and the history of the figures!   I would never do an interview for them again... and again, I am sorry I promoted it originally!

I ordered a Halloween mask three months ago from Trick or Treat..for Halloween! UPS delayed shipment twice and now says it is coming Monday? I look at their online ratings and they have one star 🤣 Pretty poor service. On a lighter note, a Producer from Antiques Roadshow wants to interview me for his podcast show Detours tonight (I guess it will be used for TV too..as we are doing camera) about Rudolph and Santa 🎅 #friday