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???

Classic Commercial Sunday - Roddenberry Rolls Over In His Grave Edition

Mermaid Memories

I was thrilled that somebody finally posted this commercial on YouTube. It's from December 1989:

When the Disney/MGM Studios Theme Park (now called Disney's Hollywood Studios) opened up in the Spring of 1989, one of the original attractions was a tour through an actual honest-to-goodness animation studio. Disney had opened up a Florida branch of their feature animation studio and after watching a brief film guests were able to walk through the studio and watch real people at work on real projects. Nowadays the attraction is a sad shell of it's former self as Disney closed up the actual studio years ago.

But, on my first visit that opening year I can very vividly remember standing there in the studio and watching a guy edit black and white pencil sketches of a rough draft of this Little Mermaid Happy Meal commercial. As a young film nerd, just getting to watch the actual process was a thrill and as a young Disney nerd I was already aware of how grand The Little Mermaid was to be to the animation world.

Everytime I visit the Animation attraction at Disney's Hollywood Studios, I think about the time 15 year old me stood there for the better part of an hour and watched the 30 second piece of film come together. I've searched for it on YouTube several times and was glad to have found it just recently.

Do You Like Your Burgers A Little Pink?

It's been a long time since a Grade A classic cartoon character has graced the oil soaked bag or box of a fast food chain kid's meal. (Except Snoopy, who's made the rounds at both Burger King and Wendy's.) Burger King is currently running a promotion for The Pink Panther 2 movie which is in theatres now. That's good news for people who like old cartoon characters and Happy Meal prizes! The new Pink Panther movie is not too much to get excited about. It's pretty much a watered down, dumbed down retread of the original film series which consisted of eight films between 1963 and 1983, plus an additional film in 1993. The problem with marketing a Pink Panther movie is that the character of The Pink Panther has very little to do with any of the films. In the film series, the Pink Panther is a jewel - a very large pink jewel to be exact. The cartoon character of the Pink Panther only appears in the opening credits and sometimes right before the final credits. Of course nowadays, The Pink Panther the cartoon character is far more well known that any of the details of the film series. However, Burger King has managed to work both the classic character and some aspects of the film into their Kids Meal toys.

On our recent "research trip" to Burger King we snagged a couple of the Car Crazy Clouseau toys. The cool thing is, this little car is similar to the one Inspector Clouseau drives in the new movie. What's odd, however, is the toy features the original cartoon version, of the Inspector - used in the older films and a cartoon series of his own. The Pink Panther 2 movie uses a new model of the Inspector to more closely resemble Steve Martin's appearance in the film. Either way, it's a cool little collectible that ties in with both the movie and the great cartoon star. If you even look closely above the bumper you can see the logo for the new movie!

As with any good Happy Meal, there's not just one toy but eight to collect. Burger King usually does a pretty good job and offering different kinds of prizes instead of just doing eight different figures or eight different cars. This insert from the Kid's Meal prize shows the other toys available in this promotion. (This is the best picture I could provide!) There's a pink bracelet and sunglasses, there's a couple of role playing toys, and there's even a Pink Panther figure with Kung-Fu grip! The one toy called Pink Panther Caper is a magic trick which comes with a plastic replica of the Pink Panther jewel that you can make disappear and then reappear. Well played, BK...well played!

Two Iron Mans Are Better Than One

As you may know, we are big fans of Movie Tie-Ins. Well, at least I am and the rest of the family has to go along for the ride. Yesterday we had to go out and run a few errands (including picking up our Disney World tickets) so I gave the kids a choice: McDonald's for Speed Racer toys or Burger King for Iron Man toys. It turns out Iron Man crushed Speed Racer in enthusiasm so we included a stop at our local BK for lunch. Expecting to get psyched for the Iron Man movie with some crappy little toys we were also met with an image of Indiana Jones as we pulled into the parking lot. It turns out BK didn't only whore itself out to Iron Man, but they are also in bed with good ol' Indy too. I'm a sucker for any menu item that is somehow tied into a movie, so while the kids ate their chicken tenders and apple sauce Joey and I were chowing down on Indiana Jones' Adventure Whopper...or something to that effect. Yes, it's just a Whopper with the addition of Pepper Jack Cheese, Bacon and some dark red tangy sauce but it comes wrapped in an Indiana Jones wrapper too! How can you resist! And I'm not really even into the whole Indiana Jones thang!


As you can see from the picture, the boys got Iron Man glasses that I guess are somehow supposed to make them look like Iron Man. Elias and Tanner really wanted action figures but they also aren't ones to pass up wearing superhero costume items. Most of the toys available in the Burger King Kid's Meal are figures but there is also a 3-D puzzle that looks kind of neat. It appears that Burger King is going to have Indiana Jones toys sometime in the next week or so.


Over at Mickey D's they are plugging the new Speed Racer movie with their Happy Meal. They of course have several different cars as prizes but they've also decided to make Speed Racer one of their boy/girl prizes. I assume boys are awarded one of the cars and girls receive "fashion items" like Speed Racer purses and vanity mirrors. An odd decision on Ronald's part, I guess they felt the movie just didn't have enough "Girl Power" to keep the little girls happy. Lame!

Sit On Some Fries!

A couple of weeks ago while traveling in parts previously uncharted by myself, I spotted a McDonalds playground that still had outdoor seating featuring the old McDonaldland characters. Today I loaded the kids up in the car for a tasty McDonald's lunch at that very same McDonalds some thirty minutes away from my home just so I could snap some pictures of these classic table and chairs. As with everything else this age, I'm sure they will be ripped out soon and replaced with something shiny and modern and boring. I'd love to find a Mickey D's that still had the Mayor McCheese and Big Mac climbing structures.

French Fry Happy Meal Guy

Hamburgers and Cheeseburgers

Grimace (sans pupils)

Female Fry Guy

American Idol Toys at McDonald's

Ronald's latest Happy Meal prizes are toys inspired by AMERICAN IDOL. Kind of an odd property to base a Happy Meal on, but I guess now that Disney doesn't want to be associated with the Golden Arches they have to come up with some creative ways to keep filling those Happy Meal boxes. Anywho...the first toy we got is a microphone with the American Idol logo on it. It's supposed to make your voice echo, but that feature doesn't work to well. After you sing a song in the mic there is a button to push to get the judges feedback...