{{Zend_Text_Figlet::render()}} calls {{iconv_strlen}} prefixed with the @ error suppression operator.

If iconv is not installed, this causes the script to abort without displaying any error message.

As {{Zend_Text_Figlet}} is used during the Getting Started tutorial, recommend that it include an explicit check for iconv, or better yet, avoids the use of @

I've patched my own installation of Zend Framework to include the following inside the render method

if (!extension_loaded('iconv')) {
    throw new Zend_Text_Figlet_Exception('Zend_text_Figlet requires iconv extension to be present');
}