Casey Daron - My Muppet fandom began four years ago, when I was eight. I was in my room, looking for something to do, when I found a Muppet coloring book. I faintly remembered coloring in it when I was three or four years old. As I kept my search in my room, a found a small Kermit stuffed animal. I knew nothing about the Muppets, yet they intrigued me. A few months later, I was in a store when I saw the book, Before You Leap by Kermit the Frog. I begged my parents to buy it, hoping to learn something from the book. I did learn some simple things, but I really had much more to find out.
I bought The Muppet Show: Season One in 2007, watched every episode, and shared a lot of laughs with my family. I now could easily recognize some of the lesser-known Muppets like Sweetums, Thog, Wayne, Wanda, and Uncle Deadly. I had just recently found Muppet Wiki and Muppet Central, and was found on them every day. I shopped online for any Muppet thing I could find. I remember myself going to Newbury Comics, and buying action figures, stuffed animals, lunchboxes, pins, stickers, and shirts. This was just the beginning to my vast Muppet Collection to over 150 items.
For my 9th birthday, I probably got the best present ever. My parents hired someone to paint me a beautiful Muppet mural. It showed Kermit on the Muppet Show Stage, with Statler and Waldorf in the balcony looking very displeased and cracking jokes. The next year, I got my very own Muppet Whatnot, which I named Elvis. We drove all the way from to New Hampshire to New York to get this personalized Muppet. This was awesome, because now I could make my own little Muppet shows. For Christmas I got the posable Kermit Photo Puppet, and later I got the Gonzo Photo Puppet as well.
The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier
