The second wave of Diamond Select’s Muppets is a strong wave overall with a handful of standout inclusions. While the figures themselves are on the petite side, (they are Muppets, after all) there is a lot of value at $66 for the entire set.
One great thing is that two out of the three packages in the wave come with two fully articulated figures. While Animal is all alone in his great big blister card, he comes with a pretty bitchin’ set of drums, so that makes up for the absence of a cardmate.
Being the loneliest Muppet of the wave, let’s tackle Animal first. Unlike the rest of the wave, Animal is not encumbered by much clothing, so all of his articulation remains unhampered and works great to give him a nice range befitting his manic personality. He even has a hinged jaw, so you can have rather somber, mellow Animal or you can have freaking-the-F-out Animal.
Animal has a great sculpt and since all of his articulation is useful, he can sit, stand, or wail on his drums at will and he looks great doing so. He comes with a real metal chain that is connected to his neck.
He also comes with a pair of drumstick that are, in theory, removable, but I can’t see ever separating him from his sticks because there is always something, somewhere to bang on. Besides, his grip on them is pretty tight, so they’re not going to be falling out of his hands.
The bulk of Animal’s package was taken up by his full drum kit. I managed to keep them upright for the photos (barely) but I would definitely recommend finding something sticky to attach them to whatever surface you’re going to be leaving them on because they can be a bit precarious. He even comes with a tiny stool that he can sit on perfectly. While all the Muppets are endearing in one way or the other, I’ve always dug Animal’s approach to everything. Sometimes you just need to go nuts and bang things.
Moving on to Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and his assistant Beaker. Where Animal’s articulation was a bit more free-range, these two run into some problems. Not that the articulation isn’t there, it’s just that due to their designs it’s not as useful as it could be.
First off, let’s just give Beaker a little bit of praise. Not the figure, even though that’s fun, but the character and design. That is just a great face. It says it all, and you need a face that says so much when Beaker’s vocabulary is a bit stunted. When you’ve got a character that looks hilarious without doing or saying anything, then you’ve got gold.
Beaker has a set of double-jointed knees under his lab coat. That’s right, double-jointed knees that are mostly inhibited by his clothes. I’m not complaining, but that’s weird, especially compared to his arms, which get single joint swivel-hinge “elbrows” that are so impeded that they barely get any use at all. He has hinged wrists, but there’s so much sleeve that you don’t get much there, so it ends up being mainly swivel with a touch of back and forth.
I do wish toy companies could work on the playability of some of their joints. A little less plastic around the rim and he could have been much improved.
Dr. Honeydew has some decent leg articulation under his coat as well, but you’re pretty limited in getting maybe a little half-step motion going before you run into the lab coat. His arms work much better than Beaker’s, allowing about 90 degrees of bend. He can hold things with his hands better than Beaker, so his clipboard isn’t going anywhere. Beaker sort of has to rest things in his palm.
For accessories, they come with their namesakes, as well as a phone, the aforementioned clipboard, a mortar and pestle (non-working), and a test tube rack, in which the test tubes are separate and can be removed. So, good grief, don’t lose them.
Despite the articulation hiccups, I dig the two of them, and together with Animal the wave is pretty strong. But the standout of the wave is the Statler/Waldorf set. 
Not only do you get two fully articulated figures, but you get a balcony with individual chairs for the pair. And despite their, let’s say “unusual,” body types, they manage to get into their chairs and stay seated quite well. The size isn’t chinched at all, so everything looks scale-accurate. All of this for the price of a regular figure seems a little nuts in these days of climbing toy prices, so I definitely appreciate the value in this particular package.
Statler gets the better articulation of the two, with DCUC-styled hips that allow him more lateral range than Spider-Man. And Spider-Man he ain’t!
Waldorf has a V-crotch, which I don’t care for much, but at least he has swivel-hinge knees which allow him to get in a seated position without getting the splayed-leg Barbie thing going on.
With a V-crotch you don’t get any lateral movement at all, so Waldorf can only look on in envy when Statler does his ninja routines.
The balcony itself comes in three pieces out of the package that slot together firmly. Both chairs are size appropriate and they do fit in them snugly so they won’t slip out. As much as I love Animal and his drum kit or the lab dudes, this is by far my favorite of the wave just for the massive amount of personality in these old heads and the fact that they come with a ready-made playset to heckle the rest of the Muppets.
You can buy the entire wave at Big bad Toy Store