“From the Past Friday” is a weekly column in which we trot out some hilarity from our collective fandom past. Sometimes it’s funny marketing materials, sometimes it’s name spelling curiosities, and sometimes it might just be a neat little trinket we still have kicking around all these decades later.
In light of the new Dragon Ball Super collaboration with Burger King, it made sense to bring things all the way back around to the beginning for our weekly trip to the past.
In May 2000, FUNimation partnered with Burger King on its “Big Kid’s Meal” offering. This promotion included seven different figures, each with a “pewter-like finish” that came with “a light-up base”:
- “Goku”
- “Gohan”
- “Vegeta”
- “Frieza”
- “Krillin”
- “Piccolo”
- “Super Saiyan Goku”
This promotion also included the potential for buyers to mail in the proofs-of-purchase from these figures to receive the “Dragon Ball Z: Z Warriors Prepare” VHS tape. At the time, this was the only way to obtain English dubbed Dragon Ball Z episodes 124 and 125 (then still using the edited numbering of “109” and “110”).
The original press release for this Burger King and Dragon Ball Z collaboration is mercifully still accessible courtesy of The Way Back Machine!
BURGER KING CORPORATION LIGHTS UP DRAGONBALL Z® PROMOTION IN U.S. RESTAURANTS
Three Week Program Offers Big Kids Exclusive Collectible Toys and Video
MIAMI, FL – MAY 23, 2000 – Burger King Corporation is teaming up with FUNimation Productions, Inc. to offer a BURGER KING BIG KID’S MEAL™ program featuring Dragonball Z®, one of the hottest international kids properties to come from Japan. The three-week promotion begins May 29 and features seven of the most popular Dragonball Z® characters, exclusive trading cards from the collectible card game, and an offer for a free video in participating U.S. BURGER KING® restaurants.
“Dragonball Z® is currently the top-rated series on the Cartoon Network and is a huge hit with big kids,” said Richard Taylor, vice president, USA marketing, Burger King Corporation. “Burger King treats kids like big kids by offering them exciting new properties like Dragonball Z® served up with great-tasting food that kids love.”
The story of Dragonball Z® involves Goku, his son Gohan, and a handful of friends who battle to save the Earth against the evil forces of the most incredible warrior race of all time. Other characters in the animated action adventure include Vegeta, Frieza, Krillin, Piccolo, and Super Saiyan Goku. The BURGER KING® premium program will offer kids each of these characters as collector quality toy figurines done in a pewter-like finish that come with a light-up base that serves as a holder for the official trading card. To add to the collectibility, the Super Saiyan Goku toy is finished with a gold tone pewter finish differentiating this character from the rest of the collection.
As an added element to the promotion, BURGER KING® customers will be offered the opportunity to receive an exclusive, free video by mailing in the proofs-of-purchase of seven Dragonball Z® toys. The video contains footage never before seen in the U.S. and will be available only by participating in this BURGER KING® limited time only promotion. Customers, who are not able to collect all seven Dragonball Z® toys, can also purchase the video at a special price. Complete details about the exclusive video offer are printed on the premium inserts.Burger King Corporation will be supporting the Dragonball Z® promotion with one :30 television spot that will air during children’s programming on national and cable stations. The spot was created by Lowe, Lintas and Partners and will begin airing on May 28.
Burger King Corporation and its franchisees operate more than 10,950 restaurants in all 50 states and 58 countries and international territories around the world, with more than 92% of BURGER KING® restaurants owned and operated by independent franchisees. Since the company’s founding in Miami in 1954, the BURGER KING® brand has become recognized for great flame-broiled taste and HAVE IT YOUR WAY® food customization. In fiscal year 1999, the BURGER KING® system has system-wide sales of $10.9 billion. Burger King Corporation is a part of Diageo (NYSE: DEO), the international food and drinks company, that includes such brands as Pillsbury, Häagen Dazs, and Guinness. To learn more about the BURGER KING® system, please visit the company’s website at www.burgerking.com.
This is a bit of a special era for me since I was graduating high school and Daizenshuu EX was simultaneously also really taking off. I’m old enough that I still had the tail end of “seniors could actually leave school grounds for lunch” in my life, so I remember heading out to grab some of these with a group of friends at that time. That all said, I wish I had a better personal collection of these — as it stands, all that I seem to have is one Freeza with its base, and one Gohan all by itself. There’s a good chance we have more kicking around in a box somewhere, but I ain’t digging for them.
And I don’t need to, because friend-of-the-site Albert — who will be the special guest for Episode #0542 of the podcast in just a few days’ time after this column’s release — has the entire run, and brought them over for a little photoshoot!
When I say “entire run” I also mean even the little pamphlet…
…and all of the cards that go with each figure. All things considered, they’re actually quite nice on display with everything included.
It may go without saying, but we’ll say it anyway: the commercials were incredible, too.
We have a whole “Burger King” page over on our wiki (!!!) and have already been mapping out this complete collaboration history anyway, so it was fun to see it come back around again for a new round of figures and give us an opportunity to revisit these oldest figures, too. Individual photos of each figure will be added… not just from this 2000 run, but also from the 2002 run!
