New Muppet action figures could fix a major failure of the past

Being a Muppet fan is no easy feat. While 2026 has seen the return of The Muppet Show and brought the cast of lovable felt performers back to mainstream pop culture, the preceding years were lean picking. Disney threw fans an occasional bone with a Disney Plus special or sitcom, but little else. Even a promising action-figure line based on the modern-day Muppets was cut off too soon when the company behind it, Diamond Select, went out of business in 2025. But hey, it’s 2026, the Muppets are back, and NECA is saving the day.

At the 2026 Toy Fair in New York City, the collectible company announced it had acquired the Muppets license to make action figures and revealed they were already at work on the first wave tied to The Muppet Show. Miss Piggy, the Great Gonzo, and the trio of Mahna Mahna and the Snowths make up the first collection of figures, and they look perfect. Seriously, there are no notes on these figures, as NECA has seemingly already knocked it out of the park recreating their looks from the 1970s TV show — especially Miss Piggy, whose look has changed quite a bit over the years. Unless they plan on having them flocked, it’s hard to think of any improvements NECA could make here.

As for accessories, Piggy comes with her dog Foo-Foo, while Gonzo is accompanied by his chicken girlfriend Camilla. It’s unclear whether Mahna Mahna and the Snowths will be a three-pack or sold individually.

A NECA spokesperson noted to YouTuber Toy Anxiety that the company is planning to include a variety of miniature Singing Food Muppets, which first appeared in a 1977 episode of The Muppet Show with guest star Steve Martin. That shows how deep NECA is willing to go on The Muppet Show right out of the gate. And with that in mind, there’s something else they can do to really blow away Muppet fans: finish the Diamond Select line.

There are people who invested a lot of time and money into collecting the Diamond Select line of Muppet figures, only for it to end prematurely. (Me… I did.) Even toys that were preordered were refunded, rather than fulfilled. At the time, three different two-packs had been made available for purchase, one of which included an 11-inch tall Sweetums that would have been a perfect centerpiece in any Muppet fan’s collection. Instead, collectors were left out in the cold.

This is where NECA comes in. While the focus is currently on The Muppet Show, there will come a time when the company branches out deeper into the Muppet world. When that happens, NECA needs to play the hero and finish off the holes in our Diamond Select collections.

Diamond’s figures were roughly at the same seven-inch-scale as NECA’s collection, and if anyone was going to match (or surpass, if we’re being honest) the quality of the Muppet figures already released, it’s NECA. There are six total figures needed to finish the collection as it was known. In addition to Sweetums, NECA would need to make Lew Zealand, Electric Mayhem trumpet player Lips, Uncle Deadly, Pepe the Prawn, and Kermit’s nephew Robin.

Even as a convention exclusive, releasing figures of those characters in the same style as the Diamond Select line is the exact kind of warm hug Muppet fans deserve after all these years of the franchise running hot and cold. And not to be demanding, but can NECA get to work on a diorama of the Muppet Show theater after that?