Jim Henson's Labyrinth - My Collection (Dec 2023 Update: Red Goblin Rider Helmet)

I am in love with these little detailed props! The jewelry is so much fun, love the idea of displaying them in the charity box.

Thank you so much! The charity box was never high on my list of things to make, but I'm so glad I did. I struggle at decorating/organizing my shelves, items just tend to 'float' on them and never really feel like they have a proper place....but once I made the charity box things started to 'click' a bit better and helped to ground a few of those floaty items.
 
So I was really hoping to nail down what model of bear Sir Lancelot was, metaphorically climb down Mt. Sinai and be able to definitively say "Lo and behold, here is Lancelot". Unfortunately I'm finding myself a bit muddled by the unfamiliar world of vintage teddies, so I think I'm just going to throw in the towel, share what information I have gleaned, and cast it into the wind.

This is a follow up to a previous post, where I basically rambled some thoughts about the Lancelot prop. Feel free to check that post out for some reference photos of Lancelot in the film and the various Labyrinth exhibitions where the prop has been displayed.

Firstly, I am fairly certain Lancelot is a vintage Merrythought bear, potentially the "M" Model in the colour London Gold. Here's a couple of pages from the Teddy Bear Encyclopedia which goes over the main characteristics of this bear. The "M" style bear was made in a wide range of sizes, the first two images are of a 10 inch bear, and the third image is the 16 inch bear.

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The "M" style bear was also released in 12 or 14 inch sizes, and I think one of those two options is the proper size of Lancelot.

Now here's the rub, and the source of my main confusion. According to the Teddy Bear Encyclopedia, the Merrythought "M" style bear was made through the 70s - 80s, though I have also seen what looks very similar to the "M" style bear dated to the 50s and 60s. Age of the bears is of course, important for figuring out what would've been on store shelves or available as a used-toy find at the time of Labyrinth's production. The wear on Lancelot in the film makes me think he may have been a used bear, but I'm not 100% certain of this, another point of confusion.

There seems to be a bit of variety within the "Merrythought London Gold" label. Here's a collection of images I've pulled from various completed eBay and Etsy listings, all Merrythought bears in the London Gold colour.

Various 14 inch bears:
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10 inch bear (First image) and 16 inch bears. The last bear is dated to the 50s according to the seller:
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~15 in bear, dated to the 60s according to the seller:
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One of the obvious differences: Some bears have brown eyes and others amber (The TBE lists both eye colours being used for the "M" style bear within the same decade). It also feels like some bears have a flatter head while others have a much more defined shape. I'm not sure if this is potentially a difference in the pattern of the bear or perhaps a sign of wear. Mohair was typically used on these bears, but since the texture of some bears appears different I wonder if there were bears made with synthetic fibres instead (Which food for though, Lancelot is described as having "Synthetic fur" in one of the recent Museum exhibitions).

Lancelot in the film is obviously missing his foot tag so we can't use that to narrow down what decade he's from, but based on my admittedly amateur research there's at least two different era's of foot tags for Merrythought that were used in the time around Labyrinth's production. Based on the Teddy Bear Encyclopedia the design on the left image is from bears made in the 70s - 80s. According to TBE the tag on the right hand image was on bears made in the 80s to 2000s. I ended up emailing Merrythought to try and confirm the time range of that 80s - 2000s label as I was seeing conflicting details in the TBE, at least according to that customer service agent usage of the right foot label started in the 80s and was only in use for around decade.

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Adding to this, Merrythought still produces London Gold bears today, so there's quite a few listings of this replica model, which uses this foot tag.

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One last thing I'll note: The TBE also mentions that starting in 1982 Merrythought introduced a range of limited-edition bears for the international market. The book says these were "replicas... or special limited-edition versions of previous lines...". While the book does not specifically say the "M" style bear was re-released, part of me is wondering if at least part of the variety pictured above is due to these "limited-edition" re-releases, especially since some of those bears seem to resemble the most recent replica model while using the 80s - 2000s era foot tag.

So basically this is my long-winded way of saying I think I have at least figured out Lancelot's manufacturer, but the specifics of what exact bear he is eludes me. So if anything I hope I can at least point those hoping to find their own move-accurate Lancelot in the right direction, even if that pointing is more like a broad gesticulation towards a foggy horizon.

So as not to leave this post on a dull note, I will mention that I am pretty sure I've ID'd what stuffed toy they used to make the Didymus plush in Sarah's room. Didymus is a Steiff red squirrel plush named "Ricky", dressed up and altered to resemble the Didymus puppet. I purchased a Ricky and plan on updating it to make myself a more movie accurate Sir Didymus, so stay tuned for that.

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As mentioned in my previous post, I am pretty sure I've ID'd the plush used to make the Didymus plush from Sarah's bedroom. I've already made myself a Didymus plush look-alike using a Beanie Baby, but once I realised I could purchase the actual plush used in the movie I knew I'd have to do a V2 to get something a little more accurate.

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So here's what we're working with, the Steiff "Ricky" Red Squirrel Plush. I was able to find a Ricky that was in good but imperfect condition (Missing the tags and with a slight grey stain on the bottom of one foot), so I didn't have to feel guilty about altering a vintage Steiff plush.

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To add the white fur I unravelled some white yarn, then threaded the individual strands through my Didymus using a large needle. An important thing to note for anyone else that is going to do this, you want to have your unravelled yarn longer than you expect, as the next step will be to brush through the unravelled yarn with a stiff brush which smooths the yarn out and also tears off a lot of yarn in the process. Once the yarn is brushed out you can trim it down to size.

(I should note, I also added some black embroidery thread to Didymus' nose to better match the film)

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For Didymus' tunic, at first I stuck pretty close to the one in the movie, which appears to be made mostly from felt. However after finishing the movie-accurate tunic I thought "I can make this a bit fancier". So I sort of threw out movie accuracy here and instead used some embroidery thread to put an extra bit of pizzazz onto my Didymus' tunic.


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I then sewed the tunic onto Didymus, adding some tiny gold buttons onto the front. It's hard to tell, but based on this behind the scene photo there are some sort of gold details on the front, it's just a bit ambiguous as to what they look like.

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The eye patch was more felt, cut and sewn into a loop around Didymus' head.

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Didymus' hat were two 4 inch circles of fabric, sewn together, flipped inside out, topstitched along the edge, and gathered with a running stitch along the perimeter. I'll admit that I'm not entirely sold on my hat, the colour is a bit off and the shape isn't quite right. I think my fabric choice is a bit too thick, but it's what I had in my scrap box so for now it'll do.

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And with that, Didymus is complete! I love him a lot, he definitely puts my original Didymus stand-in to shame.

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Inspired by some of the wonderful displays I've seen here on the forums, I thought it was time to spruce up my Labyrinth shelves. The majority of items I've made myself, but I'll be sure to note the ones that I purchased/where I got them from.

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The first two shelves are showing off all my props relating to Sarah's bedroom. On the first shelf I've got my Hoggle bookend, Lancelot stand-in, music box, Jareth statue, and the 13 hour alarm clock. The walrus is a reference to a similar one seen on Sarah's bedside table so I thought it'd be a fun addition to my shelf.

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The second shelf is home to my Didymus, Firey, and Ludo plush toys, along with my wooden Labyrinth and Sarah's crown. I updated my crown a bit since I posted about it, it turns out dollarstore vase filler is a good source for giant fake pearls.

Sarah's brooch was made by MouseMeat, it's a lovely addition to my shelves.

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The third shelf is representing the ballroom, and is home to my poisoned peach, etched Sarah in a crystal, and Jareth's mask. Jareth's mask comes from a seller on Etsy named B3LeatherDesigns, who unfortunately doesn't appear to sell this mask anymore (Which is a shame, it's really lovely). Sarah's crystal is from Popcultcha, which unfortunately doesn't appear to be sold anymore.

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The next two shelves are for the 'general' Labyrinth items. Here I've got my worm, Cannonball Goblin, Wiseman's charity box, Sarah's ring and bracelet, and my Labyrinth eye lichen. The worm is from a seller on Etsy named LittleAsrai, and Jareth's amulet is from Geekify.
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This shelf is sort of anti-climactic, most of these items are just 'inspired' by the movie. I've got a black chicken plush (to reference all the chickens running around the Labyrinth), two captured fairies in a jar (Made with those faux moving butterflies-in-a-jar things that were all the rage a while back), Hoggle's sprayer, a metal can with a crystal to reference the blind beggar, and a pair of milk bottles (Referencing the ones you can see on Jareth's doorstep).

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Let me know if you want details on any of the props shown!
 
Your collection is so HUGE. This is a beautiful shelf set and I'm so tickled to be a part of it!
This is a amazing and you have a lot to be proud of.
Thank you! It's nice to finally be able to do the grand reveal, I'm definitely super proud of how my collection's turned out. I'm at the point where I'm not really sure what else I could add to it, but I'm sure I'll come up with something sooner or later!

And thank you for your contribution to my collection! One day I'll get around to making myself a Sarah costume, but for now the brooch will have a home on my shelf.
 
Thank you! It's nice to finally be able to do the grand reveal, I'm definitely super proud of how my collection's turned out. I'm at the point where I'm not really sure what else I could add to it, but I'm sure I'll come up with something sooner or later!

And thank you for your contribution to my collection! One day I'll get around to making myself a Sarah costume, but for now the brooch will have a home on my shelf.
I have (only slightly) distant plans to try and make the ridiculous fan with the face mask on it from the Masquerade scene. I don't know why I want to, other than to have a huge fan with a lot of ostrich feathers on it :lol:
 
Inspired by some of the wonderful displays I've seen here on the forums, I thought it was time to spruce up my Labyrinth shelves. The majority of items I've made myself, but I'll be sure to note the ones that I purchased/where I got them from.

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The first two shelves are showing off all my props relating to Sarah's bedroom. On the first shelf I've got my Hoggle bookend, Lancelot stand-in, music box, Jareth statue, and the 13 hour alarm clock. The walrus is a reference to a similar one seen on Sarah's bedside table so I thought it'd be a fun addition to my shelf.

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The second shelf is home to my Didymus, Firey, and Ludo plush toys, along with my wooden Labyrinth and Sarah's crown. I updated my crown a bit since I posted about it, it turns out dollarstore vase filler is a good source for giant fake pearls.

Sarah's brooch was made by MouseMeat, it's a lovely addition to my shelves.

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The third shelf is representing the ballroom, and is home to my poisoned peach, etched Sarah in a crystal, and Jareth's mask. Jareth's mask comes from a seller on Etsy named B3LeatherDesigns, who unfortunately doesn't appear to sell this mask anymore (Which is a shame, it's really lovely). Sarah's crystal is from Popcultcha, which unfortunately doesn't appear to be sold anymore.

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The next two shelves are for the 'general' Labyrinth items. Here I've got my worm, Cannonball Goblin, Wiseman's charity box, Sarah's ring and bracelet, and my Labyrinth eye lichen. The worm is from a seller on Etsy named LittleAsrai, and Jareth's amulet is from Geekify.
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This shelf is sort of anti-climactic, most of these items are just 'inspired' by the movie. I've got a black chicken plush (to reference all the chickens running around the Labyrinth), two captured fairies in a jar (Made with those faux moving butterflies-in-a-jar things that were all the rage a while back), Hoggle's sprayer, a metal can with a crystal to reference the blind beggar, and a pair of milk bottles (Referencing the ones you can see on Jareth's doorstep).

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Let me know if you want details on any of the props shown!
This is an amazing, very well curated collection! Love the themeing to the shelves- the wallpaper background to the bedroom shelf is a nice touch. It makes me want to rewatch it just so I can spot more things to suggest for you to add to this display!
 
I have (only slightly) distant plans to try and make the ridiculous fan with the face mask on it from the Masquerade scene. I don't know why I want to, other than to have a huge fan with a lot of ostrich feathers on it :lol:

More masks is something I've been considering, I've seen some great reference photos from the various Labyrinth exhibitions (and I don't know about you, but great reference photos they always make me want to put them to good use!) I've also got a resin Goblin helmet that I purchased from a seller on Etsy a while back that I really need to get around to finishing/painting.

This is an amazing, very well curated collection! Love the themeing to the shelves- the wallpaper background to the bedroom shelf is a nice touch. It makes me want to rewatch it just so I can spot more things to suggest for you to add to this display!

Thank you! Please feel free to drop any suggestions in the thread, I'd love the opportunity to expand my collection even further!

Great collection and very well displayed! Thank you for sharing it with us! It is one of my favorite movies!

Thank you! Labyrinth is a movie I cling to when I'm feeling down, so as you might imagine I've been clinging to it a bit this year. It feels really gratifying to finally get my collection to a point where I feel really proud to share it on the forums.
 
It's been a while since my last post! I think I've made the majority of my "must-have" Labyrinth props at this point, but every so often I'll replay the movie in my head and go "Oh hey, that'd be a fun prop to have", and then I have to figure out how to make it.

Case in point, Jareth's riding crop/scepter:

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You don't really get a good look at the riding crop in the movie so this is one of those prop replica builds where I need to preface it by saying this isn't an exact replica. You get a far off shot of this crop in the Dance Magic sequence, and I think if I remember right Jareth pokes Hoggle with it at one point, but I don't recall ever getting a good close-up of the crop.

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This was pretty easy to make as I did some googling and realised there was an existing walking cane out there that had a handle that'd be a good fit for Jareth. Jareth uses the form of a Barn Owl at different points in the movie, so I figured the vaguely bird-talon looking handle would work really well for this project.

The metal handle was pretty securely attached to the walking cane, so I ended up sawing off the metal handle from the cane and sanding the rough edge smooth.

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I bought a cheapy riding crop from Amazon but it was pretty poor quality so I decided to customize it. I wrapped faux vinyl around the crop to thicken it out a bit, wrapping a strip of vinyl in a spiral and securing it with glue. My vinyl was entirely the wrong colour, so I used some Angelus Leather paint to tint it black.

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To spruce up the handle I braided it with some faux suede strips. Like my vinyl my suede was also the wrong colour, so I used some suede dye to try and tint it black (And when that failed I ended up using some watery black acrylic paint to try and tint it further, which ruined the suede texture but it did give things a somewhat aged look that I liked).
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The handled was made from a strip of leather I got from the craft store, glued together around the edges and cut out with a rotary cutter. Then I just jammed it onto the end of the crop, and wrapped a bit more suede around the connection point to try and disguise that area a bit.
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Then I just needed to jam the metal handle onto my updated crop, and this project was done!
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I'm pretty happy with how this turned out! I'm glad I found that existing walking cane, using that definitely gives this project a way more professional finish than if I had tried to cobble something together myself.
 
FANTASTIC COLLECTION!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you! I'm pretty proud of what I've got so far. I've got a few more items on my to-do list, and I'd also like to take another crack at my music box build (Mostly just trying to update the external stuff so it's a little less obvious it's 3D printed, plus I'd like to try and update the figurine so it's a little more accurate to the film). Sadly I don't believe the music box has ever appeared at an exhibition to provide high resolution pictures of it, so my build still won't be 100% accurate but it'll hopefully be a tiny bit closer.

And on that note, I discovered that Jareth's crop has actually made it's way into an exhibition, albeit not a Labyrinth one. This was taken at a Bowie themed exhibition in New York (Apparently photos weren't allowed but that didn't stop this redditor from taking a sneak pic).

So this pretty well confirms my crop build isn't accurate to the film, which I already figured, though it is interesting to see just how different it is. I wish we could see more detail in the handle!

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A few years back I made myself the Cannonball Goblin out of some styrofoam balls, it was one of the earlier props I've done and it definitely showed in the execution. I eventually made a version 2, but even that was a bit lacking... and then I saw zorg's thread about his build of the Cannonball Goblin, and I kept going back to that thread and thinking "Damn, I want mine to look like that!".

I don't have Zorg's 3D printing skills but I did come across some giant fillable Christmas ornaments last December, so I managed to cobble this dude together:

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Still not perfect, but much better than my previous two attempts! As mentioned the body/helmet are made with fillable Christmas ornaments, the helmet being slightly smaller than the torso. I cut/dremelled things to shape, and stippled some modelling pasted on for texture. The rim on the helmet is a foam dowel with a slit carved into it, slid over the edge of the helmet.

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The spikes were made using plastic bullets from a costume bullet belt, and the flanges (And all the other metal trim for that matter) were made from craft foam cut on my Cricut.

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The base of the legs were made from popsicle sticks with nuts and bots for articulation. The armour was more craft foam, once again cut out on my Cricut. The large rivets are actual leather rivets, while the smaller rivets are dollar store stick on pearls.

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The arms were more popscicle sticks/nuts and bolts, and some apoxie sculpt over top to fill out the form. After painting it I used some pastels to try and add a bit of variation to the skintone.

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The hinge is more craft foam, with some faux leather as the strap. Pretty basic construction, I'm mostly showing it off because I like how it looks and you never get to see it since it's in the back.

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So that's it! Maybe in another few years I'll take another crack at this dude, but until then I'm pretty happy with how he looks on my shelves. Again he's a huge improvement from my previous versions. Thanks again to Zorg for the inspiration, your thread really kickstarted my desire to try making this dude again.

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KOMakesThings - great job! And thanks for sharing your progress! Your paint technique on the armor is fantastic - that patina really sells the whole look!

Any chance of a side-by-side pic to see your various progression up this guy?
 

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