Read The 1st Edition of “Monsters With A Side of Fries” here.
You wouldn’t believe it (or would you?) but there’s quite a crossover when it comes to the fandoms of horror movies and fast food toys. Am I saying that statement with no sources to back up my claim? Absolutely. But this is the internet. So what do you expect?
In all honesty, I’d definitely say there was an era of fast food history where the Halloween season brought out some truly memorable toys. Whether you ate your meal out of a Boo Bucket or inexplicably had a plastic Chicken Mcnugget dressed as Dracula amongst your playthings, there’s a specific age group (and weight class) where Halloween coincides with cherished memories of disposable drive thru junk.
In a time where any and all nostalgic memories are covered, streamed, shared, and posted, Burger King’s Universal Monster toys from October of 1997 have been covered regularly. And if you’re into this stuff, why wouldn’t you? Besides the toys themselves being incredible in their own right, there’s archived content from placemats to commercials. And coverage stems from personal recollections that can always be a blast to hear. But what if I said (in Yoda’s voice) there is another?
Enter 1999’s Universal Studios Monsters from Jack In The Box.
Jack In The Box is an American fast food chain that most people apparently recall but nobody has eaten at. It seems as if Jack In The Box can be categorized as some type of Twilight Zone-esque experience, where the mention of the name brings familiarity yet no specific recollections. The “alien abduction” of fast food chains.
But Jack In The Box had a kid’s meal called, get this, “Jack’s Kids Meal” that featured these very Universal Studios Monsters. Now, there isn’t much information on these toys. The toys themselves aren’t dated. There’s no commercial to track down. No fond memories or personal recollections logged on social media. In fact, at first glance, you’d think these are simply the 1997 Burger King toys. Which, I assume, most do because look at them.
I found these toys years back through my limitless eBay wanderings. A whole set of these are pretty expensive (for what they are) and the visual of them being so darn similar to the Burger King toys without the nostalgic coupling rendered them redundant to me. But I found a good deal on them due to a listing error, it’s the Halloween season, and I have an itch to write about pointless trash. I could tell it was the garbage stars aligning in the dumpster sky, my friends.
The Monsters featured are Dracula, Frankenstein, Wolfman, Creature From The Black Lagoon, The Mummy, and The Phantom of the Opera. Now, they don’t have kooky nicknames like the BK toys (“Down-For-The-Count Dracula”) or come with a cool glow-in-the-dark sticker but when you’re throwing in a plastic monster with my burger and fries, who can really complain?
Dracula here looks spooky cool with his evil snarl and cloth cape. He has a lever on his back that you press to unleash his “vampire strike” as the directions call it. Personally it looks like he’s flexing, but that’s cool too, because Drac always came off as vain (or is it vein in his case?). Neither have the likeness of Bela Lugosi. But they do look related. Compared to the BK Dracula, I think this Drac stands on his own merits. Yet the coffin is what really brings BK Drac ahead. I would’ve done some sort of “bat-transformation” feature to truly set the Jack in the Box figure apart.
The Mummy is my favorite of the lot. Modeled after Lon Chaney Jr.’s rendition in 1942’s The Mummy’s Tomb, he comes with his actual tomb that doubles as a neat winding mechanism. You place The Mummy in the tomb, wind him up, and watch as he pushes his way out. Complete with slow shambling action! I was impressed with something as simple as this. A great representation of this classic monster. With no BK counterpart to boot! A true original that stands out.
Frankenstein comes with his ACTION chair (similar to the one in Bride of Frankenstein) in which you press the button on the back and, gasp, his head lights up green! Unfortunately, the light feature on both my Franken-figures no longer work. So enjoy my digital recreational effects. Out of all the toys, Frankie is the most similar to his BK brother. Same colors, scale, and feature. Frankenstein’s articulated limbs make him look awkward whereas the BK figure looks fuller and sturdy. The slab makes more sense to “shock” Frankenstein as that’s where he was brought to life via lightning. As opposed to the chair where he was chained during his imprisonment. Perhaps “breakaway” chains would’ve been a more appropriate action feature? Did I ever imagine the designers of these fast food toys would think someone would be criticizing their work on a desolate blog 24 years later? Forget the burger and fries, that is some food for thought.
The Wolfman was my favorite (and most feared) monster as a kiddo. Even though his action feature was redundant of Dracula’s (both “spring” out of “boxes”) I adored the BK figure and played with him for years. The Jack In The Box Wolfman is much larger in size and has an electronic howling feature! Gently moving his arms down brings his head back as he viciously howls at the full moon. Being 24 years old, my Wolfman seems to have lost his voice…but the novelty is not lost on me! The nostalgia appreciates the BK Wolfman but the Jack In The Box figure wins the overall wolf-war (warwolf?).
The Phantom of the Opera inclusion in this line is interesting to say the least. Generally speaking, he’s not the “go-to” when rattling off classic movie monsters. Especially when thinking of monsters to “toy-it-tize” and put in kids meals. That makes the toy unique in its own right. Upon inspecting it, I was wondering just what the heck this thing truly was as it sticks out the most amongst the other monstrous offerings. It’s a flippin’ harmonica. After the initial thought of “randomness” hit me, I hummed into it and appreciated the creativity. The Phantom has musical roots and the toy features him playing his iconic organ. My appreciation all came together over the course of about 9 seconds. I’m sure the six kids that had this annoyed their parents significantly. Besides, it’s not everyday you can say you blew The Phantom of the Opera.
The Creature From The Black Lagoon is one the best designed monsters in cinema history! That makes him perfect for toys. Even though the Jack In The Box Gillman is a pretty awkward toy it’s still the Gillman afterall. You may think he’s looking to give you double high fives after scoring an awesome three pointer in monster-ball (similar to basketball but obviously more monster based rules), I assumed they went for the famous publicity still of ‘Ol Creech from back in 1954. This Gillman is similar to his BK brother in that they’re both water squirters. Self explanatory for a water based monster, right? Well Jack in The Box Gillman has, like, a little water pump method? He doesn’t hold water…he needs to be fully submerged…then you pull his waist down revealing a long tube…push it back up and he squirts water out his mouth…but you can’t take him out of the water. He doesn’t work nearly as well as his BK counterpart (which functions more like a squirt gun because duh) but any Creature merch is appreciated..especially in 1999. Personally, to set this Gillman apart, I would’ve gone with a windup “swimming” feature when you place him in water.
———————————————————————————
Pros:
- Some great action features! While Frankenstein is redundant (but still fun), Wolfman actually howled, The Phantom is an actual harmonica (wut), The Mummy waddles out of his tomb, Dracula does a Hulk Hogan pose. A cool figure with your fast food is one thing, but having a neat feature along with it is just pickles on the burger.
- Variety of Characters! With 6 monsters to collect, casuals to die hard monster kids could find something to like in all of them. And I always thought the Burger King line could’ve used a Mummy.
- Good Lookin’ Ghouls! All the toys look like their monsters with colorful plastic and paint applications. The fact that you can see Karloff in Frankenstein or can tell the Mummy is Chaney’s Karis says a lot considering these are given away free in a hot greasy paper bag.
Cons:
- The Creature From The Black Lagoon drowns! He’s not as cool looking as his BK relative. And, as is, he’s awkward and his “water squirter” feature falls flat. Making him the weakest of the lot. And it doesn’t take much to beat a Phantom harmonica for pete’s sake.
- They’re all different scales! The Wolfman towers over everyone while Frankenstein is the smallest. Dracula looks like he can hug the Mummy’s Tomb. The obvious fact of being the Universal Monsters makes them a set, sure, but when displayed together they all look like an odd hodge podge. Whereas the Burger King figures look like a series.
Conclusion: Overall, the Universal Studio Monsters Jack In The Box toys are fun and unique in their own right. They’re a good representation of the resurgence and popularity the Universal Monsters gained in the late 1990s to the early 2000s. Although these monsters are cursed with the fact that they were outshined 2 years earlier at a much more prominent nationwide fast food chain. If these toys were precursors to the Burger King promotion, I’d say they’d be remembered more fondly (or remembered at all). But, instead, they serve as a forgotten sequel that simply wasn’t as good as the original.
Why Didn’t They Do That?: An Invisible Man figure that changes color under warm/cold water. Like, him in his red robe and bandages but then he turns “Invisible” (blue/clear) under warm water. Come on now.
—————————————————————————————————–
It seems nostalgia lined history has nearly forgotten these monstrous morsels of promotional plastic. Images online are mostly pulled from previous online auctions with a good smattering of images being of the Burger King toys instead. With the Jack In The Box monsters looking so similar and being distributed through a burger joint in the 1990s, I could see these being a subject of the Mandela Effect rippling throughout the mattering of myself and maybe, like, two other people.
On top of that, Jack in the Box released a second series of Universal Studios Monster toys in 2002! Information on those are even more scarce…with no promotional material or even a full set to be found for purchase anywhere at the time of this article. Not to mention the monster mixup when you’re researching the year, series, or figures themselves. It becomes quite literally a monster mash of misinformation. Regardless, there’s a specific cozy type of feeling when it comes to the Universal Monsters during the Halloween season. And perhaps, one particular evening, when the fog is thick and the moon is bright and full…I’ll venture across some 20 year old monster toys with the damp salty smell of french fries baked right into the plastic. And I’ll write about them for far too long all to add another tombstone in my cavalcade of comic culture.
ChrisDoesComics.com 
