Pokémon 1999 Burger King Toy - Kabuto
This toy was released as a kid's meal toy in United States starting November 8, 1999 and lasting through December 28, 1999 at participating Burger King stores. This followed the release of the first Pokémon film, which started airing in theaters a couple days prior. This campaign occurred during the boom of the Pokémon craze and would go on to be one of the biggest and arguably most memorable fast food promotions in the country's history.
There were several different toy types during this promotion: keychains, launchers, light-ups, beanbags, rev-tops, squirters, and talking. There are a total of 57 unique toys offered in this line, though there are technically 59. Pikachu, who is the only speaking-type toy, has three variants, each with unique voice clips. Gold-foil cards were later offered, but as those were a bonus offer, they do not factor into this count. These toys featured popular Pokémon from the first generation with the exception of Togepi, who had not made its game-debut, was in fact a popular character from the animated series. In addition, each toy would also come with a collectible trading card, unique to this promotion. There were 151 in all, each featuring a different Pokémon for the first generation of the series.
Item Details:
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Each toy came packaged inside a plastic bag with a unique design featuring a Poké Ball. Inside, packaged inside a clear plastic bag, was a plastic Poké Ball with a clip attachment with the featured toy inside; it was this Poké Ball toy that caused controversy, but more information on that can be found below. Also included was a paper sheet that contained the toy's instructions on one side and a checklist of all the toys featured in this promotion on the other; this came sealed inside a clear bag along with one of the 151 trading cards released for this promo. Each card featured a particular Pokémon on the front side with trivia associated with that monster while the backside contained one of ten scenes from Pokémon: The First Movie. While the toys were not visible, each of the bags had a unique code printed on the bottom left corner. These codes indicate which toy is featured inside the bag, even the different Pikachu variants.
The Squirter-type toys are similar to water guns. It is to be fully submerged into water and if squeezed lightly, the toy will fill. After removing, squeezing the toy again will result in water praying out of a small hole on the toy's front side.
Controversy:
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During the middle of the promotion, there was a series of incidents where infant child were playing with pieces of the Poké Ball toy when it would become wedged onto their face, specially their mouth and nose. This caused the child to be unable to breathe and there were several close calls, but unfortunately, two children would suffocate. Due to the critical oversight and Burger King's slow delay to recall these toys, it caused a notable amount of criticism at the time and is occasionally recalled to this day.
Item Contents:
- Plastic Toy Bag (Packaging)
- Poké Ball Toy Clip
- Plastic Bag for Poké Ball (Packaging)
- Paper Checklist/Instructions Insert
- Trading Card
- Plastic Bag for Card/Insert (Packaging)
- Squirter Toy
Images:
Videos:
Links:
- Official Nintendo Announcement - An announcement from Nintendo's website (via Wayback Machine)
- Wikipedia Page Regarding Recall - The Wikipedia page detailing all the info about the Poke Ball recall
See Also:
- Burger King - Pokémon (1999) Promotion Guide - Our page documenting the release of this promotion, featuring all the toys, cards, etc.