Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Double Bubble

Here's a follow-up to an earlier post featuring anthropomorphic characters on gumball machines:




I think I like the Raspberry, presumably playing the blues on his saxophone, best!

Friday, December 24, 2010

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Extreme Makeover: Mr. Peanut Edition

As any collector knows, half the fun of collecting is sharing your collection. So you can imagine my delight when earlier this week I was contacted by a representative of WomansDay.com, the online version of that classic magazine, and asked if they could use a a picture from my Mr. Peanut presidents coloring book in a story about food mascot transformations! Of course, I immediately agreed and was excited to see the article debut online here.

I'm sure readers of this blog will be interested in the article, although there was a dearth of mascots of the food with eyes variety. In fact, only Mr. Peanut and Miss Chiquita (Banana) made the grade. Although Mr. Peanut has changed over the years, his transformation was not as radical as that of Miss Chiquita. In a metamorphosis worthy of Ovid, she went from a banana-shaped beauty to a rather bland "woman with eyes." Where's the fun in that?

If you have missed out on Mr. Peanut's transformation, then check out these two new commercials from Planters featuring the new, Robert Downey Jr.-voiced Mr. Peanut:






Both videos courtesy of Planter's YouTube channel

I'm still not sure how I feel about this. I like the animation a lot, but I just never imagined that he would sound like Robert Downey Jr. I guess I would have thought he would sound more sophisticated, which for me means a British accent. I think Cary Grant would have been a perfect Mr. Peanut. Or possibly James Mason.

Still, I'm happy to see Mr. Peanut gaining renewed popularity. In fact, over 226,000 people, myself included, "like" him on Facebook!

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Herr Peanut

I couldn't resist buying these German-made Brentwood Peanut Flips when I spotted that sporty Herr Peanut on the front.


They're made with 32% peanuts. And 68% other stuff. Here's what they actually look like:

Basically cheese doodles with peanuts, not cheese. They feature non-genetically engineered corn. I guess just Herr Peanut was genetically engineered!

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Not Cool


Girls T-shirt spotted at K-mart.

Monday, July 5, 2010

Too Darn Hot


Tin sign found at the mall. That's about how I feel after this string of 95° days!

Monday, June 28, 2010

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

I spotted these ballpark snacks at Kmart recently and came back with my camera. I'm not a Yankees fan, so I wasn't tempted to take any of these home with me, but a pretzel with a Phillies cap would have been hard to resist.










Saturday, June 12, 2010

Gumballapalooza

It's been a long time since a new post here at Food with Eyes. I've got a lot of great posts saved up, including some contributed by readers. In the interest of getting things posted, I'm going to dispense with a lot of commentary. This should be no great loss, since the quality has been going downhill steadily. So without further ado, here is a series of gumball machines featuring anthropomorphic food:

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Mostly Happy Stickers

This set of happy kawaii stickers is by Lily.

Click for a close-up. Just one green apple has a frown.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

National Sticker Month 2010

Welcome to the Third Annual National Sticker Month here at Food with Eyes. To kick us off, here's a fantastic set of Food Friends stickers by Paperchase, presented to me by Maria of Curly Wurly.


Be sure to click for a larger view to fully appreciate these wonderful friends and choose your favorite!


Note to commenters - thank you to everyone who leaves legitimate comments! I'm sorry I had to turn on comment moderation, but I seem to have a large number of spam comments with deleterious links now.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Garden Party

I spent the day planning out my vegetable garden, so it seems fitting to present some veggie friends who may inspire you to do the same (or at least eat more vegetables).

This wild guy represents Cool Cukes baby seedless cucumbers:



This country onion is from Modern Produce Farms:


This sobbing onion is from Mortellaro - CryBaby Onions:


This disturbing pair represents Matarazzo Bros. Grape Tomatoes:


And this is Tasty, the spokestomato for Quality Sales Produce:

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Make New Friends...

But keep the old. One is silver and the other gold. If you were a Girl Scout like me, then you probably remember singing that song. You probably also remember selling Girl Scout Cookies. Back when I was a Girl Scout, your parents didn't just bring the order form to work one day and bring it home all filled up with orders for you. No siree. You went door-to-door selling them (apparently no one cared about child abduction in those days). I suppose some Girls Scouts liked doing this, but I dreaded it (not as much as I dreaded gym class, but enough). It was always the same. You'd ring the doorbell and whoever answered asked how much they were. I'd tell them $1.50 a box (this was about 1980), and they would proceed to complain about how much they had gone up in price, how few cookies were in the box, and what an overall rip-off it was. I suppose better salesgirls than me had ready answers for these gripes, but I had none. Needless to say I never sold many cookies and only once got the special 100+ box badge.

So a few weeks ago when a colleague brought their daughter's cookie order form to work, I didn't order any. Yes, I will admit it was partly due to resentment that today's Girl Scouts don't have to go door-to-door. But mostly it was because they're $3.50 a box now! There are hardly any cookies in a box, and it's an overall rip-off! I didn't regret my decision until the cookies were delivered last week. The cookie boxes were nothing special, but the cardboard boxes that cases of cookies came in featured fantastic cookie characters!

Looking at the Little Brownie Bakers website (one of two authorized Girl Scout Cookies bakeries, the other being ABC Bakers), I was able to find pictures of all eight characters.

Trefoil (aka Shortbread):
It's interesting to me that the Trefoil cookie is portrayed as an old lady, while all the other characters are young and active. It's also interesting to me (and rather alarming) that if I had to buy some cookies I would now pick the Trefoils. Thirty years ago when I was selling these I liked the Samoas best.

Do-Si-Do (aka peanut butter sandwiches):

Dulce de Leche:

Lemon Chalet Creme:



Samosa (aka Caramel deLites):


Tagalongs (aka peanut butter patties):

Thin Mint:



Thank U Berry Munch:


These new friends are surely destined to become gold. When cookie time rolls around next year I may even buy a box and you should, too.

***Please note that all images are the property of Little Brownie Bakers and Kellogg NA***

***Please also note that Girl Scout Cookies are a major fundraiser for a worthwhile organization. The cookies are not a rip-off and you should buy some if you see a Girl Scout selling them***

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Happy Birthday, Curly Wurly!

Happy Birthday Wishes to Maria of Curly Wurly today!


Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Super Sonic

Last month my husband visited South Carolina on a business trip and thoughtfully brought me back a cup from drive-in burger joint Sonic (we don't have one near us) featuring tater tot mascot Totty. I'm actually impressed he recognized this as food with eyes. To me it looks like a piece of shag carpeting rather than a tater tot. I probably would not have recognized it as such if it were not for Brandon of the Waffle Whiffer Zone posting a Totty bag on flickr.

Here's one side:


And the other:

And a flattened out scan:


Totty doesn't seem to be featured on their web site, but check out Tater Taunt for a somewhat less friendly version.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Mr. Pizz-Ahh!

For some reason I forgot to post this before, but last summer we got a flyer for a new pizza place in town. Now the last thing the town I live in needs is yet another pizza place, but this one caught my eye because of their great mascot, Mr. Pizz-Ahh!:


At my insistence, we went to check it out. After seeing the pizza available, it seemed Mr. Pizz-Ughh! had replaced Mr. Pizz-Ahh! so we actually didn't stay. But I did snap a picture of their delivery van:


I think he's one of the better mascots I've seen lately. And I love that his feet are subs (or hoagies as I prefer to call them). Perhaps we'll give him another try someday.

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Food Friends

Once again my sister Maria of Curly Wurly has outdone herself in the anthropomorphic food gift department! I haven't even finished profiling the birthday presents I received from her this year, and now there are Christmas presents to share!

First is this wonderful oven mitt from Paperchase featuring their adorable "Food Friends" design. Here's one side:

And the other:

Just look at all those smiling faces!

Next is a useful and super-cute folding tote bag. Here it is in its tiny pouch:


And unfolded:

A close-up of the pattern:


It's hard to decide which Food Friend is my favorite! I like the ice cream cone a lot, and the pizza slice. And the scallion. And the watermelon. And the pineapple...

There is also a set of stickers featuring all the characters, but I'm going to save them for National Sticker Month (April). Thank you, Maria!