Let's Go Shopping With Punky Brewster

 Also you probably recall, "Punky Brewster" was a classic 80s sitcom about a spunky young orphan girl who gets adopted by the Commandant from Police Academy and together they get into primarily low-stakes hijinks. 

For example, how about a simple shopping trip for groceries?  Low stakes, yet ample opportunity Punky to get up to shenanigans.  But what's most interesting for me is to check out the retro 1984 foodstuffs.  Like most TV shows they needed to hide specific logos and brands but it's always fun to try to ID some of your favorites.  

In order to hide logos, it looks like the production team mainly just turned items backwards and upside down.  In the circled box behind Punky you can see a cereal box with a free coupon for a Dairy Queen sundae.  This was a promotion by Kellogg's around this time.  But take a look at the box next to it.  Recognize it?

What we have here is a box of Star Wars C-3POs cereal with a special offer on the back for "Sticker Trading Cards."  A quick Google search tells me that most of the time, the back of C-3POs had a cut-out mask of one of the characters but I guess at some point Star Wars fans demanded more and they got it.

Cap'n Crunch was on fire at this time, so much so that he could just give away fistfuls of cash.  Not enough to get Punky's attention though as she passes right by the "Win $1,000 Cash" promotion on this box.  Not sure what variation of Cap'n Crunch it was but I'm pretty sure it would have stopped the 1984 version of me dead in my tracks if I had been there.

And finally we get a look at some classic, square yellow Oscar Mayer lunch meat packaging.  They've changed their look over time and you can still find some similar packages in stores today but there's no yellow like "80s yellow."

There also may or may not have been some Ecto Cooler in the background at one point but this was well before 4K video so we may never know for sure.  Mysteries of the grocery aisle abound so it's important to stay vigil.

Big Time

 They say everything is bigger in Texas but do "they" mean cereal too?  "Bigger" can be relative, especially in the cereal aisle where birds, rabbits, cavemen and leprechauns all compete for your attention and a place in your shopping cart.  In order to stand out from the crowd you need to do something big.

 And then along comes our old friend Cap'n Crunch with something we didn't even know we wanted: "Cap'n Crunch's Texas Sized Crunch Berries."  It's been way too long since we've had a Texas themed cereal and I was surprised at what a welcome site this was.  The "Limited Edition" breakfast treat boasts Crunch Berries that are three times bigger and has the Cap'n decked out in his Texas dude duds.

Depending on your familiarity with Crunch Berries, these may or may not seem "Texas Sized" to you.  I have to admit I was a little unimpressed at first glance.  I guess it's been awhile since I've had a bowl of the Cap'n's delight since they didn't seem all that big to me.  I assume that regular crunch berries are three times smaller but I honestly didn't want to expend the extra effort or cash to buy a regular box for comparison.  That would be a lot of cereal to get rid of.

So in order to give you a better idea of their size, I've included some State Fair of Texas tickets for perspective.  You can also see here how much bigger the berries are than the regular Cap'n Crunch pieces (do they have a name?).  This also got me in the mood for the inevitable "Deep Fried Cap'n Crunch" which must be coming to the State Fair at some point, if it hasn't already (like the Deep Fried Froot Loops I tried awhile back).

While you chew on that, let's head to the back of the box.  Sure, the "Texas sized" Crunch Berries might have been a disappointment but the Cap'n makes up for it with some Texas themed activities for your morning meal entertainment.  Apparently the "Tex-A-Tron XL" is the machine that makes the bigger Crunch Berries?  Regardless, it's up to you to unscramble the names of famous Texas locations in order to fix it.

If Crunch Berries aren't big enough for you then there are plenty of things in Texas that are.  Before you drink the milk, take some time to find your favorite Texas "big things" in the Cap'n's word search.  Not a bad way to start the morning.

Is Texas the only state in the country to have their own cereal?  Probably not.  I assume there's some kind of "California Something Or Other Granola" out there somewhere but I'll take the Cap'n over that any day of the week.

Bag in Time

It was 1996 and the Marvel machine was a mere shadow of what it would become.  Movies were just a pipe dream then and cartoons were king.  The spotlight didn't fall on the Avengers as much as it did Spider-Man, the X-Men and the Fantastic Four.  With small screen success comes attention from powerful people.  And who's more powerful than Ronald McDonald? 

...which brings us to the Marvel Super Heroes Happy meal.  Now, a more ambitious blog would have a complete breakdown of each of the Happy Meals Toys and perhaps a little bit of information/trivia about them.  I don't have that.  What I do have is two of the bags used at the time for the promotion (see pic above).  I bought them for less than a dollar on eBay and then promptly forgot about them.  But when they arrived in the mail today, the happy-go-lucky heroes, with they're word jumbles and brain teasers, inspired me to pop them in the scanner.

The first bag gives us a scenario that involves the visible Invisible Woman who seems to have had the tables turned on her.  Her friends are the ones who have disappeared.  Can you help her find the Hulk, the Human Torch, Jubilee and Spider-Man?  If not, then maybe connect with a smiling Wolverine and help him with his word puzzle.

In yet another Spider-Man/X-Men team-up, Spidey has shot some webs to stick it to his three mutant pals.  Can you figure out which line goes to the (still-smiling) Wolverine, Storm and Jubilee?  Admittedly, it took me a few attempts.  

Grab the scissors and paste and head to the side of the bag.  It's time to put these panels of Spidey in the "correct" order.  Although the avant-garde side of me would insist that there are multiple "correct" orders and Spider-Man's unique skill set could lead to any number of routes up and down that building.  Regardless, let's check out the next bag.

Next up is a game of observation.  Find the differences between the right and left side of the room.  I'm assuming the obvious ones like Thing/Hulk and Spider-Man/Wolverine totally count.  But honestly, it's more difficult finding things that actually do match on each side of the room.  Maybe it's more challenging when you're working through a french fry coma.  

The other side is more of a group shot of the gang along with a low effort word jumble.  It's interesting to note that there only seems to be three X-Men on each bag and only 3/4 of the Fantastic Four.  It's always curious to see odd character pairing like this. 

If you've been lamenting the lack of mazes on these things, then lament no more.  The Thing needs to find the Hulk through this rock wall place.  If you've got a spare 6 seconds, give it a try.  

You might have noticed the mention of a "Marvel-ous Offer" on the both of these bags.  Let's turn the bag over to the final side to see what it could be:

If you like Marvel Super Heroes Happy Meals, odds are you probably like Spider-Man Magazine.  All it took was a $1.50 for shipping and handling and this order form from your Happy Meal bag, and two issues of those bad boys would eventually be mailed to you.

So there you have an impromptu look at two 25 year old happy meal bags.  If they were to do this promotion today we might still see the Hulk and Spider-Man but the rest would unfortunately be left out in the cold.  Here's hoping that another round of hit movies get these guys back on the lunch menu.