#1078 MIX 'EM UP MONSTERS - GROPPLE, THUGGER and BLIBBLE (McDONALDS' PROMOTIONAL) (1989)

I got these three monsters over the years with no real intend to collect them. They must be so common, that they simply slided in lots of toys that I purchased.

They are giveaways from McDonalds that could be found in the Happy Meal boxes. There is some kind of disagreement on when they came out. The copyright is from 1988, and some people say the promotion was available in 1988. Others say 1989, and other webpages with a high confidence date the promotion in the UK as late as may/june 1991.Of course the promotion could have been available first in the US, then in some countries in Europe, then somewhere else... I guess there are some people tracking this kind of information as there are many McDonald's toy collectors. 

The collection comprised four monsters, named originally Corkle (light blue), Gropple (yellow), Thugger (purple) and Blibble (green). I have three of them plus the inlay/instructions of the fourth one in German language. In this piece of paper, we learn that the blue one (Corkle in the original) was named Türki (probably because of German Türkis, or turquoise, the main color of the figure).

The toys and the name Mix 'Em Up Monsters are a trademark of Current Inc. and are actually a by-product of a children's book with the same name, published in 1980. This book consisted of 8 pages, divided in three sections each, that could be turned independently, mixing the heads, bodies and tails of 8 different dragons. It was probably a best-seller at the time, according to the big number of books for sale (second hand) today. With 8 different monsters and three parts each, you could build up to 512 differtent monsters. With only 4 toys, it is only 64 combinations you can make.

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: GROPPLE, THUGGER and BLIBBLE (McDONALDS' PROMOTIONAL)
• Toy Line: MIX 'EM UP MONSTERS
• Year: 1989
• Company: Current Inc. Books, McDonalds (U.S.A.)
• Size of the figures: 7 cm approx.

#1049 KEES - FIAT PANDA and TY-PHOO JUBILEE TRAM (Around 1985)

Kees is a brand that Steven (from the Motorcade) showed me a couple of years ago, and I have this model thanks to him. He showed me this model in a picture, and was immediately interested, because I thought it was a Fiat Uno from the first generation. Unfortunately, after looking at it from all angles, I think it is most probably a Fiat Panda. The cast is not very good, as you can imagine from my previous comment.

The die-cast model has a plastic base, no interior, a relatively bad paintwork and paper stickers. It is a rather typical novelty toy of the early 90s. And among these, we could consider it a "good" one.

If this is so, its current value can only be explained by their scarcity. On top of that, the car is not marked anyway, so most of these go undetected in the Internet markets, and those who can be identified, are quite pricey. I don't think I will ever have more of these, I won´t pay so much money for such a model and having one piece is enough for me.

Another thing to comment, it that Kees seems to base many of their die-cast on Polistil models from those years, but I guess there is no connection between them.

I have here this nice advertising page presenting the main products that the company was offering in 1985, as well as other useful information for potential clients.

And because we have this advertisement sheet, we know that the following item is also made by Kees. It is a London Tram with Ty-Phoo Tea decals. Ty-Phoo is a British brand of tea, still on the market. I am not quite sure if this jubilee applies to the tea company, to the first service of the tram reproduced (in the back it says it started in 1885, but in the front it says 1905 (so, is it an 80 or 100 years jubilee?) In any case, it is a very nice model, specially in its cardboard packaging. I had to fix it a bit, but it looks nice now for display.

I tend to think it is a promotional item, as Kees is not mentioned in the packaging, and Ty-Phoo logo appears in quite a big size in the package. Antoher clue could be that there are many for sale on eBay and at very low prices, so most likely it was a giveaway from that brand of tea.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: FIAT PANDA and TY-PHOO TEA JUBILEE TRAM
• Scale: Around 1:64 / Around 1:120
• Year: Around 1985
• Company: Kees (Hong-Kong)
• Size: approx. 7 cm

#957 PIATNIK – AUTOS, EXOTISCHE TIERE & TIERBABIES (HYPO BANK PROMOTIONAL) (Around 1993)

 

Here a set of promotional card sets given by an Austrian Bank in the mid 80s. Bank giveaways are very common, they were made by millions and given to children in the International Savings Day (31st October) or some other occasion. However what is interesting for me is that the banks gave card sets on old coins, an adult hobby, although back in the days, some children were also brought into collecting coins by their parents. Today it is a rare hobby among young people.

Apart from that rare coin set, the most popular references were usually chosen by the banks: animals, cars... sometimes they chose a country-specific set, like animals from the Alps. Not a big variety in these.

The three sets shown in this entry have the same back design and the same boxes, but the title card from “Autos” has a different desing than the other two. Maybe this deck was older and Piatnik made a better offer for it, maybe they just got rid of some title cards on stock for this order, we will never know.

The year of the promotion is calculated after the cars in the Autos deck, I think the deck must be from 1991, maybe 1992, I think the newest cars depicted were released in 1990.

AUTOS + 2 Mini Puzzles

EXOTISCHE TIERE (This set was also presente in its "TIGER" version, see #337) + Zaubertrick

TIERBABIES:

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: AUTOS, EXOTISCHE TIERE & TIERBABIES (HYPO BANK PROMOTIONAL)
• Year: Around 1991
• Company: Piatnik (Austria)

#908 STAR TOYS - BASKETBALL PLAYERS (KELLOGG'S PROMO SPAIN) (1991)

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

#890 HOT WHEELS! – ATTACK PACK SAND STINGER and SLAUGHTER JAWS (McDONALD’S PROMO) (1993)

Hot Wheels was probably the most innovative die-cast manufacturer during the 90s, launching a big number of series and subseries with very strange and eye-catching features.

This is maybe one of those short lines that caused a greater surprise at the time, being even chosen by McDonald’s to provide them in their Happy Meal during a couple of months. Those were smaller and simplified versions of the ordinary, retail models, just to save costs and fit them to McDonald’s price range for their Happy Meal giveaways.

The ones I present are precisely those McDonald’s versions of two of the most common and easy to find models. These are the only ones I have, I found them recently and decided to finally buy them, I also had some chances before, but for some reason, I never considered buying them.

The feature of these monster trucks is that they really have a monster inside. When pushing a little down at the back, the car will reveal some jaws, eyes, tongue and other monster parts in bright colours and very cool designs. Great idea!

The line was discontinued very shortly after its release, maybe the retail price was quite high, or maybe it is something very weird that it never got to convince kids. It is not a car, the size is bigger (does not fit tracks or parking lots) than the usual 3 inches and it is not an action figure, so being something new and not quite compatible with other toys in children´s playrooms probably played against itself.

UPDATE 1 (Feb/2022): This is one more model from the same promotion. I got it from my friend Pablo from coleccionismo80-90.blogspot.com. One missing to complete the collection of four.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: ATTACK PACK SAND STINGER and SLAUGHTER JAWS
• Scale: slightly smaller than 3 inches, could be 1:87
• Year: 1993
• Company: Hot Wheels! (U.S.A.)
• Size: approx. 3’’ or 7 cm