And they called it Peppy love.

Image credit: Nintendo

Back in the hazy days of the early 90s, Nintendo used puppet versions of Fox McCloud, Slippy, Falco and Peppy to promote its then-upcoming release of SNES classic Star Fox (or Starwing, if you must). After the campaign had run its course, however, the puppets faded from the public eye (though, not from our memories). But, what actually happened to them?

A SNES promo trailer for Star Fox. Watch on YouTube

Time Extension recently sought to get to the bottom of this mystery. And after following a few leads, including conversations with Star Fox programmer Dylan Cuthbert and artist Takaya Imamura - neither of whom had a clear idea of the puppets' fates - the publication finally discovered the, I am afraid to say, sad truth: the Star Fox puppets have actually been destroyed.

Japanese FX company Shirogumi, which created the puppets, gave the following and definitive answer to Time Extension: "The Fox puppets created at our company were made by gluing fur…