These figures were a giveaway of Burger King in their children menu box, named, back them, "kid's meal". This promotion was launched in 1991 (although the figures are copyrighted 1990), and is the only one I remember. My parents never took me to this kind of fast food restaurants, so I just had a chance to actually go inside the restaurant once for a birthday party. I saw these figures and I remember thinking how cool would it be to have those figures. The way they were presented, their colours and their quality were astonishing, at least for a 10 year old boy. I cannot remember any commercial on TV, or any advertising in magazines, it was just once that I saw these figures.
Later I got some in a flea market. I saw them, and I bought them very cheap. It was only recently that I sold them. I liked them, but I was not very interested in collecting them. After all, you cannot collect everything. I took pictures of them for my shop, and that's what I show in this entry. Sorry for the bad quality of the pictures.
I have found some information about this promo in the U.S., but I am not sure if it was the same in Europe, or particularly, in Spain. Apparently there was a first batch of four figures, consisting of:
- Kid Vid: the leader of the gang, and the "cool" guy. Personally, I think it is the worst figure, since it does look very strange. There are no kids like this one, or, at least, I never met any.
- I.Q.: The smart guy in the gang wears some kind of long jacket with a bow tie, has messy hair and wears glasses. Three cliches in one. The figure is nice, It is probably the one I like most.
- Boomer: The girl in the BK Club is very fond of sports. She wears skates and has a pony tail. The figure is also nice, but the skates make it loose some stability.
- Jaws: The last member of the BK Club is a more generic figure, with no distinctive feature. Aparently he was always willing to eat a hamburger.
Later, the series was expanded with more toys and some more characters, exactly 4 children and a dog. I do not have any references of them, but these were:
- Wheels: A boy in a wheel chair.
- Lingo: Seems to be a smart guy.
- Snaps: A blonde girl used to take many pictures.
- J.D.: A dog with a helmet.
- Jazz: A girl whose passion was music. This was introduced much later, by the 2000s.
There was also a second batch of figures released, in which each character included some accesory, and then much more series where the kids played sports, or rode on insects, vehicles... the Kid's Club promotions expanded until the mid 2000s, with promotions every now and then.
Most figures from the first series are today unexpensive and easy to find. I guess there not so many fast food toy collectors out there compared to how many of these figures were actually sold (or given away) at the time.
FACTS and FIGURES:
- Name: BOOMER, JAWS and I.Q.
- Toy Line: Kid's Club
- Year: 1991
- Company: Burger King (U.S.A.)
- Size of the figures: Around 7 cm tall
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