Taco Bell Yoda you speak of

I mentioned yesterday the Taco Bell premiums of 1996 and thought I would show the under three toy from the set. I have since given away all my other toys from this set, which makes me think it wasn't really worth all those Taco Bell lunches back then to get them. Makes me think of all the crazy stuff I still do for toys today and if any of it is worth it.



This little PVC figurine always reminds me of the Yoda from Empire, I think this will always be my generation's Yoda and not the one that hopped around in the prequels.

Back to the Fight

Okay first I have to note a couple of things.

1) Yes this is a Happy Meal Toy, of Obi Wan's Jedi Starfighter. I want to say it's from the Clone Wars Cartoon, since I do not remember this configuration from the prequels.

2) After watching Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution the other night, it will probably be the last time I get a Happy Meal in my life.



The current Happy Meal campaign is Star Wars and I think some other property that escapes me cause it's not as important as Star Wars, well actually this campaign should be wrapping up soon if it already hasn't. Back in the day I used to go crazy and try to get all the Happy Meal Toys I could and instead of just buying them flat out I would get them with a meal. I've said time and time again how Taco Bell ruined me during their Star Wars toy run.



I hadn't planned on getting any of these, I had tried to get the Burger King Star Trek set, but gave up after a couple of trips. My stomach couldn't take it anymore and they never had the ones I wanted when I tried to buy them out right. Back to these, I was strolling along the information highway and peeped a picture of the Yoda from the set, believe me it looked cool, so I thought I would try and get one. What I got was this guy, not bad, and after I opened it really was a lot of fun. If they haven't used this key concept on Hot Wheels, they should. They could build the spring into them like they did here, it would be awesome.



Now why no more Happy Meals (at least Chicken Nuggets)? Chef Jamie Oliver did a demonstration on how Chicken Nuggets are made during his new show Food Revolution. He did proceed his demo by saying that they are not made this way in this country. You know what? I don't care, cause after seeing his demo just thinking about those little golden nugget shaped chicken piles makes my stomach queasy. The demo didn't work on the kids he was showing, and he declared it a failure. Well, Mr. Oliver you convinced me, so demo one, nuggets zero.

Not that I eat that much junk food anymore, but when I did I used to enjoy the nuggets. I'm not naive, I realize they are processed and ever once in a while I feel is okay, I don't eat these everyday. I would probably be dead by now if I did, but I cannot shake that demo from my head, I wish I could find it online to show you. Another thing I cannot shake is that the school officials did not let their younger kids use knives and forks to eat with, they served items that could be eaten with their hands or a spoon. That just seems crazy to me, I remember using and getting knives, forks and spoons when I was Kindergarden through High School, that just blows my mind.



So some closing thoughts: This toy is pretty cool, smaller than I thought it would be, about the size of a Hot Wheels car. I'm now just realizing that to get this type a toy a kid has to choke down some junk food, sure they offer healthy snake alternatives now, but come on I don't think kids will eat sliced apples with their Happy Meal. I could be wrong, I hope so. Also, I wish Chef Oliver the best of luck with his Food Revolution. May the Force be with him!

Batty-Meal Toys!

Well since we didn't see much in the way of "Happy Food Time" toys from any of the Junk Food Dealers with the last Batman movie (except overseas, those lucky bastards!) I thought I would throw up... err, put up some pictures of some past toy goodness in this installment of... Food for Toys!

So here we are the year is 1992 and Batman Returns has taken the box office and had it's way with it (okay so I exaggerate a little here) but it was definitely a Batman Summer! Michael Keaton returns as the Dark Knight and two new villains are lurking about Gotham, the Penguin, played by Danny DeVito and the Catwoman played by Michelle Pfeiffer.

I'm going to go off here a little bit and say Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman was the best part of that movie. She easily ranks up there as on of the best Catwomans in history. Meeeeoooow! And the cat suit redefined many a Halloween costume for years to come! My favorite scene... all of them! Okay, the one where she blows the crap out of the department store!

So McDonald's hit with what I like to call a small but powerful one, two punch. Four Happy Meal toys featuring Batman, Penguin, and Catwoman, plus four collector cups with Batman frisbee lids. What a nice compact little promotion they had gong. It was really cool as well that they did up the restaurants with large promotional banners of the characters, it was like eating at a McDonald's in Gotham City!



So what did we get, besides unwanted pounds and a legacy of cholesterol? The Catmobile that when rolled wagged that kitty's tale, the Penguin Mobile, roughly modeled after the characters duck mobile from the movie, the Bat Ski Boat, sort of... did it have treads? Plus my favorite from the line the Batmobile with launching Batmissile action, so you can recreate the scenes when Batman ejects from the Batmobile in a sleeker missile like version to squeeze through some tight alley ways... wait a minute... Batpod...Batmissile... huh.




That was one of the greatest summers ever... not just because of fast food toys, I got other reasons, I'm not that geeky. But the Batty-meal Toys certainly enhanced it a little!

UPDATE! Looks like the Bat Blog has some news about the Lego
style Batty Meal toys!

Flip'n Yoda

Bill, eclectorama's resident proof reader and now contributer, has donated this find to the archives of eclectorama. This is from the Burger King Star Wars promotion a few years back. I remember trying a couple times to score some really cool toys from this promotion, but after a couple times through the drive up window and not getting any of the cool swag I was trying for at the time I gave up. Plus I'm sure I did my heart well by cutting my losses and moving on from another junk food for toys binge.

Fast forward to now, and Bill finding himself at a garage sale finds this little sweet Yoda that when wound up does a flip. I have to admit, I'm a sucker for wind up toys. There is something so basic yet fun about winding these things up and watching them do their stuff, no batteries required!

Bill also picked up another one of my favorite characters from the original films, but he is going to have to wait for a future post to be revealed.

McBatman

Today you are getting two for the price of one since I've been away taking some Flash 8 courses. Enjoy.

Back when Batman: the Animated Series was on the air McDonald's had a Happy Meal promotion featuring some of the characters from the cartoon. There really isn't anything to special about these toys and they can be found pretty easily on Ebay, garage sales, or at flea markets. I actually ate a Happy Meal and lived to tell about it to get this Batman along with some of his friends. As I post more I'm sure I'll astound you with more tales of Junk food for toys.

Like I said there is nothing really special about this toy, except that he is a pretty cool action figure that was packed in a kid's meal in 1993. This has to be one of my favorite Batmans though, and I have several. I think I ended up with the whole set except for the Joker Mobile. I just couldn't handle another Cheese burger or Chicken Parts meal. Not to long after this they did the same thing with the Spider-man cartoon and I would hit the drive threw once again looking for my Happy Meal Fix. The Spider-man and Batman are about the same scale which makes it that much cooler. One thing that isn't cool is now I have to loose weight from all that crap I ate in the Nineties. Happy Meals aren't that Happy are they? At least I have the toys to go along with my high cholesterol.