One of the toys I cannot forget from my childhood are three sets of basketball players made by Star Toys. I never had any of them, but still, here´s the story.
In 1991, Kellogg´s, the well known brand for breakfast cereals, decided to launch a new product in Spain. This product was called Chocos, and consisted of cereal crops with chocolate flavour and, more or less, the shape of a half sphere. I recall perfectly the package as well, all in dark green with the yellow giraffe in basketball outfit that was later replaced by a brown bear. I am not sure if the giraffe is the same giraffe called "Shorty" or if it was a new character designed specifically for launching that product.
Maybe because of the giraffe, the very first offer they had was a set of five plastic basketball players (to be chosen in one out of three colours/teams) that were made by Star Toys. Maybe this offer was only for Spain, since, I haven´t seen the plastic figures anywhere else.
The figures were standing in different positions, like throwing the ball, in defensive pose or driving the ball with one hand. Out of five figures, three had a basketball in its hands. Also interesting is that there are three white players and two black ones.
All five figures stand in a five-pointed star, with white borders and coloured inside in red, yellow or blue, and carry a sticker in its chest with the text "Kellogg´s Chocos", but this sticker very often missing. The base are marked: "(c) 1991 Kellogg Company" and "Star Toys”.
The colours available were red, yellow and blue. This three inmediatly made me think of Chicago Bulls, L.A. Lakers and Detroit Pistons, three of the biggest teams at that time, although, since there were not marked, they could also be other teams with similar colours... both from the NBA or the ACB (Spanish Pro League), or even National Teams.
I miss a green team, who at the time could have been the Boston Celtics, my favorite team of the early 90s.
Also during the early 90, Yolanda released a short series of "real" NBA players in PVC in a slightly bigger scale. This line is currently very sought-after, and difficult to find complete, since each figure came with a ball that with the time is easily detachable from the figure.
Read a longer article written by myself (in Spanish) in Figuras En Acción Nr. 18.
FACTS and FIGURES:
- Name: BASKETBALL PLAYERS (KELOGG'S PROMO SPAIN)
- Year: 1991
- Company: Star Toys (Spain)
- Size of the figures: Around 7 cm
Brilliant post and thank's for it!
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