A Wendy's Pic-a-Nic

Well, my life is now complete thanks to the release of Yogi Bear this past weekend. It was actually kind of sad how excited I was to see the movie. I'm happy to report that Yogi Bear did not disappoint. They made a nice family movie that really stuck to the spirit of the old cartoons. The new movie is funny, sweet and wholesome for the whole family. I even sprung for a 3D screening and the effects were really cool. Do yourself a favor and go out and catch a screening of the movie critics are calling "the crowning achievement since the advent of photography!" I should mention that said achievement grossed $16.7 million this past weekend and that said critic's quote was made up by me.

I should have gotten to this earlier, but we've been meaning to get around to Wendy's Yogi Bear Kids Meal. If you ask me, Yogi (and the public) really got ripped off when it comes to the Happy Meal department. I would have liked to seen McDonald's do a whole holiday promotion tied into the movie. The Happy Meal boxes could have looked like picnic baskets, they could have introduced some new Jellystone burger, and the whole restaurant could have been decked out in a red and white checker picnic theme. Oh well, what do I know. At least somebody had a Yogi kids meal, even if it was Wendy's - who never really seems to get the top notch properties for their kids prizes.

Wendy's is offering five different Yogi Bear movie prizes with their kids meals right now. The idea of the prizes is that they are supposed to be games and activities that kids and parents can do together. I would have preferred little toy figures, but good ol' Wendy gave it a nice try.

I stopped by my local Wendy's the other night and the kid behind the counter was nice enough to go back into the storeroom and crack open each of the cases and prizes and snag me one of each...well, he could only find 4 - but that was still awesome of him!

Here's what we got...

This first one ties into the movie nicely, even if it's execution is a little off. The Waterski Spin Top Maze tries to recreate a pivotal scene from the movie where Yogi tries to show off his waterskiing talents. In the movie, his efforts don't pay off and neither will yours trying to spin the tiny little top on this cardboard lake. The idea of the game is to maneuver the top around the various cut-out obstacles in the lake. It's a nice little memento from the movie, the top has a picture from the film on it - but as a toy/prize it falls a little short.

The Basket Fishing Game is pretty cool. It comes with a neat fishing pole with Yogi's picture on it and several little pic-a-nic baskets that you punch out of cardboard. Each basket has a different food item and points under it, so the idea is to take turns and see who can fish up the most points. Some of the food items are different Wendy's items, which I thought was a nice touch. Who doesn't want to use a fishing pole to snag themselves a delicious creamy Frosty!?

In the Feed Yogi game, you try to shoot different food discs into Yogi's mouth. You may have seen this disc launcher before, either as a prize in cereal of a birthday party goodie bag. I can tell you that this Wendy's version is somehow supersonic and we ended up shooting a Frosty into parts unknown on the very first try. We've still got the corn and the Jr. Hamburger though. Thank goodness!

The climax of the film involves the Baskit Nabber 2000, and this "3D Puzzle" is a pretty cool replica of the contraption Yogi builds. However, I have a feeling Yogi had an easier time building the real one that you...or any kid would have putting this puzzle together. It's basically a card stock paper model with one zillion steps to assemble. It literally took me an hour to put it together, but I gotta say it was fun and it now looks pretty cool sitting on my desk at the WWoB offices!

The last toy in the collection, that I haven't snagged yet, is the Yogi Basket Stack Game. It comes with a little Yogi figure with his arms spread out and you try and stack little blocks with food on it and hope not to topple Yogi over. This one looked the neatest and hopefully a return visit to the prize gods at Wendy's will secure me a Yogi Basket Stack game for my collection.

If you are interested, Wendy's will have the toys for a few more weeks before their Smart Links promo starts. You heard me, Smart Links???