Foggle Friends

Foggle Friends is the fictional children's TV puppet show created by Tim Denson as well as its cast severing as the main antagonists of the 123 Slaughter Me Street series. The cos-puppets are seen and act as the main threat in the first Slaughter Me Street and it's retellings, however any other references to the show itself has yet to be seen outside of the poster. Most of the posters for the show features the Follower (Wollof), Greeter (Egret), and Hunter (Henry), despite the latter, Hunter, never appearing in the games until 123 Slaughter Me Street Super Retro.

History

Classic Era

In the first game, the puppets consist of three characters: the Follower, the Greeter, and the Waiter. The characters first appear on the Foggle Friends poster as seen in a cutscene where the player falls through the roof of the apartment and shines the flashlight on the old poster. There is also a report at the beginning of the game, briefly describing the puppets themselves and giving some background. These reanimated puppets will try to attack the player as they make their way down the apartment complex, with only the light of the player's flashlight to keep them at bay. The trio are seen again at the ending where the apartment catches fire and the three puppets slowly walk out of the flaming corridors towards the player seemingly not effected by the flames despite presumably being made of flammable materials.

In the second game, the cos-puppets from the first game are in a lifeless state as they are largely replaced by much more intimidating demons: the Seeker, the Stalker, and a new character called the Screamer along with an additional, mysterious demon named the Nightmare, who is implied to have made a deal with Tim Denson for the show to be successful. The puppets from the first game appear in the workshop, implying that they were the ones used for the show. While not a threat, the Follower, Greeter, and Waiter are moved to different parts of the house in different levels, with the trio ending up on the couch on the last level. It is also implied that the demonic creatures faced in this game were the inspirations to a couple of the puppets used for the show with Seeker resembling the Follower and Stalker resembling the Greeter for example.

Modern Era

In Evolutions, A remake of the first game, The puppet antagonists are once again Wollof, Egret, and Walter (Follower, Greeter, and Waiter), with the addition of Henry and Gomez (The Hunter, and a hand puppet that resembles the Nightmare). The designs for the characters now more closely resemble actual puppets with most of the characters appearing more like costumes puppeteers would wear (with some exceptions) strengthening the idea that these puppets are the characters used for the Foggle Friends show. In one of the Teasers a tape called "Wollof Show_Tape" not only establishes Foggle Friends Inc. but also gives a date that implies when the show might've been active, 1985. This game was also the first to give the puppet characters proper names.

In an early concept for the 3rd game, A lot of the cast would reappear again as demons Including a new character called "Mr. Pig" and the Nightmare would return as well (Who would have had a different appearance). The Follower, Greeter, Waiter, and Hunter would have gotten demonic counterparts, However the mockup models that were seen and used for them are out of date. Due to the status of SMS 3, a lot could be changed when it does eventually release including whether or not these demonic variants even make it in to the final game at all. It should be noted that their appearances from Odd Stories are non-canon as the show was not associated with IGS.

Spin Offs

In the Retro titles the puppets appear once again as antagonists. This series introduced the character that would go on to become Gomez in 123 Slaughter Me Street Retro. This series is also the first included appearance of the Hunter as a direct threat to the player. The only direct mention of the show is the poster appearing in the opening cutscene for 123 Slaughter Me Street Super Retro. The poster was changed slightly to replace Henry with Walter.

In Slaughter Me Street 1999, The Poster for the show is now a Relic that the player needs to collect. Although none of the puppets were originally in the demo (Aside from Gomez who made a physical appearance in the April Fools build and subsequent updates afterwards), a look into the Workshop does include recolored puppets that are largely Easter eggs or community jokes. This is also the first poster to feature more than 3 characters, Now having both Walter and Henry together and adding Gomez. This is also the first time the current spelling of "Foggle" is actually used.

Gallery

A teaser for the first game that would make up the Foggle Friends poster, featuring (from left to right) the Greeter, Follower, and the scrapped Hunter.

The Poster in the first game. It notably has the portion that would contain the Hunter torn off.

The Foggle Friends poster seen in SMS 2, Note that the Hunter is seen despite not making an antagonistic appearance at this point

The Foggle Friends poster as seen in 123 Slaughter Me Street Super Retro.

A Teaser from Slaughter Me Street 1999 featuring the Poster

Trivia

• All puppets and the show are most likely based off of the real-world Jim Henson's productions like Sesame Street and The Muppet Show with some small stylistic details from The Labyrinth and Dark Crystal.
• The puppets are referred to by the Reporter as "cos-puppets", which are not only a combination of the word costume and puppet, but are also based off of full-bodied puppets that would function in largely the same way as the puppets would have.
  • Despite this, Only one of the puppets do not appear to have this feature, Gomez who's based on a hand puppet.
  • The Hunter is also based off of Snuffleupagus specifically.
    • While non canon to the series, in Odd Stories the Follower and Waiter appeared as live-hand puppets rather than full-bodied puppets. The Greeter meanwhile, was an animatronic puppet that used a similar mechanisms to another one of the characters of the show, Cirrhosis.
• The Hunter has had a history of being scrapped due to various reasons, and has had a lot of speculation of when he would make his debut. This was due to never appearing as a antagonist despite appearing on most of the posters. He did however, make his first antagonistic appearance in 123 Slaughter Me Street Super Retro.
  • The Hunter appearing on so many posters may have suggested that the character had a "prominent" role in the show despite rarely showing up in the games themselves. It was only in 123 SMS Super Retro where the Waiter would properly take Hunter's place on the poster, Which was ironically also the Hunter's debut in an official Slaughter Me Street game.
• The names for The Follower, Greeter, and Waiter were revealed in a "Favorite mainline SMS antagonist?" poll on the official SMS subreddit. The names are Wollof, Egret, and Walter respectively. Later on the name for the Hunter would be revealed to be Henry and Gomez would be introduced as it's own character.
  • On Twitch streams rigging characters for SMS: Evolutions The names for the Puppet based on the Nightmare and Hunter were revealed as Gomez and Henry respectively.
  • Some of these names play off of their titles, Wollof is follow backwards, Egret is one letter different from "Greet" as well as being a species of bird and Walter simply replaces the "i" with an "l".
• On most of the posters the spelling is "Foggel", rather that "Foggle", however both spellings are interchangeable.
• In the original trailer for SMS: Evolutions, The puppets are seen being burned by the fire rather than just being "immune" to it like in the first game. These "Burned" puppets were intended to quash the idea that there were people operating the suits.
• While most of the puppets have a respective demon that seem to be the inspiration for their designs, Screamer is the only demon that does not appear to have a puppet directly based off it.
  • Likewise, both the Waiter and Hunter do not have a clear direct demonic inspirations the rest of the puppet cast has currently.
    • While Hunter did have a more demonic design planned for 123 Slaughter Me Street 2, it ended up being scraped. It's possible that should the design make it into a game, It would give Hunter a demonic inspiration leaving Waiter as the only one without a direct inspiration.