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Lately I’ve been gathering more images for Sesame Street plush (Applause), and as I’ve been checking what the Wiki has and what it needs, I’ve found that navigating all the related pages has been difficult, as there is also Sesame Street beanbag plush (Applause) and Sesame Street Christmas plush (Applause).
Merging those two into the rest of Sesame Street plush (Applause) would solve multiple problems: ease of navigation/convenience, duplicate files, and incorrect information.
Several images on the beanbag pages aren’t actually beanbags. For example, the Big Bird sailor plush isn’t actually a beanbag (I own one). Then, the Christmas beanbags are on both pages. I also count at least one beanbag on the main page. There’s also the fact that Applause made Sesame Street plush for multiple holidays, not just Christmas, including Easter and Valentine’s Day.
I feel it would be easiest to merge everything onto a single page, similar to how Sesame Street plush (Sesame Place) and Muppet plush (Sababa) is set up, combining all different types of plush.
And anyways, I think Sesame Street plush (Applause) could use a little reorganization and cleanup, especially with the image captions. Maybe something similar to Sesame Street plush (Sony) where it’s organized by character, or by type like the Sesame Place plush page. That would make a good opportunity to merge those other two pages into a single one.
Thoughts? - DeadlyDarker (talk) 18:52, 10 January 2023 (UTC)
- Did beanbag plush animals as such actually exist prior to 1993? The term definitely didn't, and as far as I can suss out the manufacturing method used to class them seems to have originated with Ty Warner, the Ty/Beanie Babies founder (using pellets and understuffed polyester) when he launched the line in 1993, and then others followed suit. I think the designation for those 1985 Big Birds was based on size and appearance at least as implied by the pics. -- Andrew
22:17, 10 January 2023 (UTC)
- Did beanbag plush animals as such actually exist prior to 1993? The term definitely didn't, and as far as I can suss out the manufacturing method used to class them seems to have originated with Ty Warner, the Ty/Beanie Babies founder (using pellets and understuffed polyester) when he launched the line in 1993, and then others followed suit. I think the designation for those 1985 Big Birds was based on size and appearance at least as implied by the pics. -- Andrew
- The concept of beanbag plush existed prior to Ty: our pictures of the 1979/1981 Fisher-Price Muppet plush show tags on the Fozzie & Gonzo toys that say "Beanbag Muppet/Muppet Beanbag". But that's actually a good example of what Maddox is talking about — just one page about the plush line that includes plush dolls, puppets and beanbags.
- The problem with the Applause plush is just that there was so much of it! That's why it's been 17 years and we still have messy, incomplete pages. :) Maddox, I'm really happy that you're organizing it all and making it more complete. You're absolutely right about the Christmas plush; it makes more sense to have it all together.
- Personally, I like separating the beanbags from the other plush, because it was mostly a reaction to the early-90s Beanie Babies craze — lots of franchises made collectible beanbag lines in those years, and that's kind of an interesting story. Also, we've got dates for them all, which is nice. But I'm not married to it, and if Maddox really wants to merge them, I wouldn't object.
- I think it would be ideal if we could present the information chronologically, like that Fisher-Price Muppet plush page, which I think tells the story of how the plush line evolved over the five years that it existed — starting with Kermit and Fozzie plush and a Rowlf puppet, and expanding from there. But that's a relatively small amount of material, and we're sure about the dates. For the Applause plush, I've got some dates from catalogs and tags, but there's a lot on the plush page that we don't have dates for, so I don't know how feasible that would be.
- Maddox, you've got more energy than I do for working on these pages right now, and you're doing excellent work, so I don't want to stand in the way of you improving the pages. I think you should follow what you think is the right way to organize them, and I'm happy to help you however I can. —Danny
(talk) 00:01, 12 January 2023 (UTC)
- Maddox, you've got more energy than I do for working on these pages right now, and you're doing excellent work, so I don't want to stand in the way of you improving the pages. I think you should follow what you think is the right way to organize them, and I'm happy to help you however I can. —Danny
- Thank you! I like the idea of something chronological, but as you also said, I don't know how feasible it is. Not every plush has a date on the tag, and for those that do, it can be difficult to find pictures of the tag to verify the date. Also, Applause re-released many plush in different years with different tags but look exactly the same. Trying to sort all of this has been nothing short of a headache haha. I'd also like to try and include the model numbers on the page (something on every tag) to help with that issue.
- As for the beanbags, we could always have a section on the page dedicated to them; same with the puppets. My issue is that I wouldn't consider several of the plush on that page to be beanbags, as in having pellets in them, We would also have duplicate images of the Christmas beans. And it would be nice for navigational purposes to have everything on one page.
- It might be a good idea to make a sandbox to tinker with how a merged page would look like before making any major changes to the current pages. This isn't really something that can be done overnight. - DeadlyDarker (talk) 00:50, 12 January 2023 (UTC)
- Oh, I definitely agree with you that if there are things currently labeled as beanbags that aren't, we should fix those mistakes and put them in the right places. Also, I agree that Christmas stuff should be treated like any other plush, so the Christmas beanbags would be in the beanbag page (or section) without duplication. —Danny (talk) 19:31, 12 January 2023 (UTC)
- Oh, I definitely agree with you that if there are things currently labeled as beanbags that aren't, we should fix those mistakes and put them in the right places. Also, I agree that Christmas stuff should be treated like any other plush, so the Christmas beanbags would be in the beanbag page (or section) without duplication. —Danny
- I just made Sandbox:Sesame Street plush (Applause) to see how everything looks together and to reorganize it all more easily. I’ve included some history of the Applause company to add some context.
- I also added the puppets, similar to Muppet plush (Fisher-Price) and Sesame Street plush (Sesame Place). Many of them, especially the full-bodied ones, are practically plush anyways.
- It’s still rough and needs some work, but it acts as a draft before applying the changes to the actual page. I’ll be working on it over the next several days so let me know what you think and if there should be any changes. - DeadlyDarker (talk) 21:51, 12 January 2023 (UTC)
- Now that I'm able to visualize it, I'm happy with keeping the puppets on their own page. I'd still prefer merging the beanbag and plush pages, but if everyone else wants to keep it separate, that's fine with me too. - DeadlyDarker (talk) 22:25, 12 January 2023 (UTC)
- Let's keep them separate. 1) We have lots of examples of different types of merchandise made by the same company split up onto different pages. 2) We have enough beanbag articles that we could probably make a category as a landing page for people looking just for beanbags. —Scott (talk) 23:01, 12 January 2023 (UTC)
- Let's keep them separate. 1) We have lots of examples of different types of merchandise made by the same company split up onto different pages. 2) We have enough beanbag articles that we could probably make a category as a landing page for people looking just for beanbags. —Scott
- Alright, sounds good! And just to make sure, is merging Sesame Street Christmas plush (Applause) with Sesame Street plush (Applause) still good to do like Danny said? - DeadlyDarker (talk) 23:31, 12 January 2023 (UTC)
- I figured it wasn't unprecedented. We have Sesame Street plush (Sesame Place), Muppet plush (Dakin), Muppet plush (Sababa), etc. all in Category:Christmas Toys despite only a handful being Christmas plush.
- Although I'm not sure why Sesame Street Christmas plush (Applause) is in Category:Sesame Street Christmas Decorations to begin with; none of the other plush pages are in that category. But if everyone agrees, I'll go ahead and merge them! - DeadlyDarker (talk) 22:11, 14 January 2023 (UTC)
