Minikins

Sellers poster

Minikins is a set of German PVC figures produced by Heimo, beginning in 1974. Heimo was the first company in the world to produce Sesame Street PVC figures. The set features the Sesamstrasse characters Samson and Tiffy, and quite a few secondary characters. There were 21 figures in the set, including three different figures of Bert and Krümelmonster, and 2 figures of Ernie, Samson and Tiffy.

Heimo figures have no brand name, but they can be recognized by a small circle. The figures are quite small and were only sold in Europe. Various different color and material variants of these figures were released.

Heimo also created a set of three PVC pen holders in 1981.

An Italian toy company, Fabianplastica, released a version of these figures in Italy.

Minikins set

Bert

Bert playing accordion

Bert as a fireman

Bibo (Big Bird)

Eberhard Freitag (Roosevelt Franklin)

Ernie

Ernie playing guitar

Grobi (Grover)

Krümelmonster (Cookie Monster)

Krümelmonster playing drum

Krümelmonster as a chef

Lulatsch (Herry Monster)

Mariechen (Betty Lou)

Oskar der Griesgram (Oscar the Grouch)

Professor Hastings

Samson

Samson eating cake

Schlemihl (Lefty the Salesman)

Sherlock Humbug (Sherlock Hemlock)

Tiffy #1

Tiffy #2

Bert pen holder

Ernie pen holder

Sherlock Hemlock pen holder

These figures appear to be part of the Minikins collection. They were given to children by Myer department store Santas in Australia throughout the 1980s.

Variants of the Ernie, Bert, Sherlock Hemlock, Cookie Monster and Samson figures were released as pencil toppers on Sesame Street markers and pencil raizors.

In 2016, some original model prototypes were sold on eBay. They were purchased from a private collector who bought the models direct from the Heimo factory.

A 16cm wax clean prototype and a colored PVC Sherlock Hemlock

A 6cm colored plaster prototype of Samson

A 6cm colored plaster prototype of Tiffy