There is so much I love about October. Autumn is my favorite season and brings the cooler weather that I love, leaves start to change to brilliant colors, hockey season is fully underway, and I celebrate my wedding anniversary too! Oh, and then there is a little holiday called Halloween to cap it all off. It is my favorite holiday and I love the macabre, candy, and costumes that come with it. I also love that this is the one time of the year when I can enjoy one of the most notable breakfast-related memories from my childhood: the General Mills Monsters cereals. You know them, right? Sugary and marshmallow-enriched bowls of ghost-shaped puffs of grain? Processed foods aimed directly at children and endorsed by colorful monster characters? What bowl of bliss! So, the fact that I have vinyl figures of Count Chocula, Franken Berry, and Boo Berry to share as part of our Hallowpalooza countdown makes me very happy.
While I speak of fond memories of eating bowls of processed sugar as a kid, I have to admit that I maybe actually got to eat the monster cereals two or three times. My mother is a nutritionist and RD, so I missed out on all of things like this as a kid. That is until my parents got divorced and my brother and I pretty much had run of the grocery cart on Friday nights when my dad picked us up. So maybe not getting to have the cereal helped bolster the emotion, but I have always loved the GM Monster mascots. Back in the 1980s I was only exposed to Count Chocula and Franken Berry with regularity and Boo Berry on occasion. Heck, I did not even know that Fruity Yummy Mummy and Fruit Brute even existed until I was in college. Whether they were designed just to get kids to beg their parents to buy them caloric bowls of breakfast or not, I cannot deny the great designs and appeal of these characters. I love them much more for that than I ever did for the actual cereal (I can stomach Count Chocula, but I have never really liked fruit-flavored cereals).
So I am pleased as punch that Funko! has been a supporter of these characters for such a long time. We have seen several product expressions from Whacky Wobblers to Blox to these featured vinyl Pop! figures. I have the Blox figures as well, and since my wife won’t let me have bobble heads (they creep her out), I feel like I am building a nice little collection of the General Mills crew and am getting a very colorful display while I am at it.
Count, Franken, and Boo (no Mummy or Brute yet, but I hope they get to them) are made in the consistent style of the Pop! vinyl line, so you will know right away that they are very stylized. That being said, the figures capture the essence and spirit of the characters and their designs quite well. That is especially apparent in their expressions: Boo has kind of an aloof smirk, Franken Berry is smiling, and Count Chocula has the toothy smile that has graced countless cereal boxes for decades.
Being Pop! figures, these guys are devoid of any articulation save for a swivel head, but the good news is that their poses are fairly benign and completely appropriate. Their coloring is very strong and the boldness of the pinks and blues really bring out the characters. The Count has some gloss brown that looks nice on his suit details and hair, but it is kind of hard to create a bold hue of brown.
I think my favorite of the bunch is Franken Berry, even though my favorite of the characters is Boo Berry. You cannot deny the striking form he creates with his distinct design and hot-pink clothes. He almost looks edible. I know that might sound weird, but the combination of the colors and aesthetic of the Pop! figures makes him look like a big piece of candy. Candy that could be dispersed throughout his namesake cereal.
It is Halloween and you should be eating MONSTERS every morning for breakfast. I love the GM crew and I think these figures are a lot of fun. The Pop! style fits them perfectly, and I really hope that Funko will get around to making Fruity Yummy Mummy and Fruit Brute to go with them. I would love it even more so if they took a crack at making actual action figures of these guys. How much fun would that be?
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