For Shame: Bellhedz
Certain circles of Twitter are all, um, a-twitter about Taco Bell’s most recent foray into, quote, Urban Vinyl. Their kids’ meals now come with Bellhedz, of which you are cordially invited to collect all 32.
Seriously. This is happening. Not to say that I have utmost respect or tons of love or strong feelings whatsoever about dunnies, munnies, mighty muggs, bob-ombs, wibble worps, or bundledums (or whatever) but when Taco Bell starts taking cues—DIRECT FUCKING CUES—from everything you’re doing with product, packaging, and marketing, well, the party’s over. Right?
As a vinyl toy aficionado, I can attest that the QC on the printing/painting isn’t terrible. What they purport as 32 individual designs is, however, totally bogus, as there are 8 designs total that come in 4 colorways apiece. That, and there is something not-quite-right with the actual fabrication: it’s much heavier than a dunny, and could quite possibly be a solid injection-mold of PVC or some other ‘OMG-it’s-barely-vinyl’-vinyl product.
Either way, it’s bullshit. Blind-boxed, shameless, bullshit. BUT! At least you can have something to laugh at during Fourthmeal. Doot.
- Hateball
September 3rd, 2009 at 4:32 pm
But I love tacos AND vinyl. This is ruining 2 things for me.
September 3rd, 2009 at 4:40 pm
well there goes our Taco Bell deal
September 3rd, 2009 at 4:40 pm
These sex toys or what?
September 3rd, 2009 at 5:23 pm
Whatever. The party’s only over if you don’t shit in the jocks’ beer after they show up.
September 3rd, 2009 at 5:44 pm
In all honesty… Od establishments have been “blind boxing” sweet figurines for years… Anyone remember the mcdonalds x looney toons x dc superhero characters… Bugs was superman, petunia was wonder woman daffy duck was batman, and taz was the flash…. And u had no idea which one they “threw” into the happy meal box…
But I do agree the box art is too reminiscent of kidrobot…
Now mind you, I am a huge dunny fan… I also like fatcaps too… And its clear that kr is all about unique designs… And this seems much simpler… Dumbed down definitely
So the question poses itself… Is this really a. PURE ripoff of dunnys or is it just what they would normally do anyways with a slight kidrobot flair
September 3rd, 2009 at 6:04 pm
I thought it WAS a kid robot toy at first glance.
September 3rd, 2009 at 6:04 pm
@EuBoogie: It’s safe to say that their plagiarism is pure. Down to the font usage on the box. I have dozens of dunnies and the body looks like a bootleg, it’s that similar. The head, now that you mention it, looks like a sanded-down fatcap.
I hear you: cereal toys and kidzmeal toys are awesome. I love the shitty-rad quality of them. But this is just a more or less shameless ploy to get kids who eat volcano nachos for dinner to keep eating volcano nachos for dinner.
The paint apps, too, are downright insulting. I got a robot with a ‘good/bad’ switch and a Monkey with a gold tooth, smokey shades, and a $ medallion. Bling.
September 3rd, 2009 at 6:21 pm
You guys sound like a bunch of fags discussing happy meal toys and how it reflects back on the collectable toy industry.
At least I wasn’t the only one that first thought the name sounded pornographic… thanks Prolly.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Bell-head
September 3rd, 2009 at 6:25 pm
Are you guys sure Tacobell didn’t have Kidrobot develop these for them? I guess if they had they’d have used their name on it for the value… but just sayin’
September 3rd, 2009 at 6:28 pm
@ MPTC – supposedly KR legal is involved. They’re having a Dunny giveaway tomorrow with a flyer that they made to have the same layout with the dunnys that the paint apps were “inspired by” : http://kronikle.kidrobot.com/death-to-false-vinyl-rally/
September 3rd, 2009 at 6:40 pm
“Manufactured by Strottman International, Inc. Irvine, CA” No relation that I can find. But I’m just one of a bunch of fags, so there’s always that.
September 3rd, 2009 at 6:52 pm
I don’t mean to sound like an ass…but who gives a f**k. So Taco Bell ripped off Kidrobot. This happens all the time in so many industries. You guys have too much time.
September 3rd, 2009 at 6:55 pm
@hateball there are a decent amount of similarities…the packaging is dead and definitely looks like a Munny box.. the font they do use is similar to the “fourth meal” text they have here..
However, now that you mention the similarities in the body structure, I do have to agree with you (i guess i was more focused on the pe.. i mean bell head than the body)
and for some reason i feel that this one in particular looks exactly like bart simpson
September 3rd, 2009 at 7:21 pm
Which one did ya get?
September 3rd, 2009 at 8:13 pm
i have to agree with Cherry Hill and Mike Jones.
September 3rd, 2009 at 9:13 pm
How is this a bad thing? For less money than a toy you get an actual meal. You can eat and digest that albeit shitty meal and stay alive with the energy that act produces.
September 4th, 2009 at 10:46 am
I just got a red and a yellow robot! Sorry folks, I’m a collector and these do have a place on my shelf. They are very cool for something you get in a Kid’s meal! This won’t have any negative effects on the UV world… Kids are loving these. Let them have fun and lets get over ourselves!
September 4th, 2009 at 10:57 am
Zoe: I don’t think anyone’s really complaining that Taco Bell is making Vinyl toys to give away with kids meals, it’s that they blatantly knocked off various elements from Kid Robot toys and packaging in the process.
September 4th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
My point—if I had one—was that a copy of a copy of a copy is nothing more than a blatant copycopy. Ridiculous as some of us might think (or not think), dunnies are the fruit of—at their core—the hard labors of several actual PEOPLE, and for better or worse, they represent ‘vinyl toys’ to the rest of the world, which in turn affects other folks in that industry. As someone who knows several of these particular folks, and many others that work in the toy industry, I just saw it as a bummer. A cheapening of what they’re trying to achieve with their work. There will always be bad toys, and, to Taco Bell’s credit, a 99 cent bellhed is much easier and more accessible (and arguably just as cool) for a kid who doesn’t have 4.50 to drop on a dunny at urban outfitterz, but it’s still just sort of like watering it all down.
September 4th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
I happen to know a group of farmers, and many other folks that work in the agriculture industry. People who actually grow vegetables and fruits, the things that represent food to the rest of the world. The way that DOLE puts vegetables and fruits in cans affects the way that the rest of the world sees fruits and vegetables….
The copy of the copy is a great thing. It brings things to audiences who would otherwise take no interest because it removes the commitments to a culture. They water them down because they’re not intended to please vinyl toy afficionados, they’re meant to appease people that have no interest in vinyl toys. Subtlety in that situation is lost. Maybe this will bring in a new audience?
September 4th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
@zachg, All: Sure. And I never intended to try and come to the rescue of KR, as, quite frankly, I’m not a super-duper fan of what they represent to vinyl toys, either. BUT! Their effect on that industry is exactly the same sort of effect that TB will have on them, etcetera.
If Marvel wasn’t already such a powered-up altered beast on it’s own, I suspect that this conversation and the conversation surrounding Disney’s recent dealings with them would sort of converge. Either way. I was initially struck by the absolutely classless presentation and conception, and then—clearly—the talk sort of spun out of control from there.
The whole thing happens to be about toys, which, I think it’s safe to say, this blog is deeply polarized about, but if it were Walmart showcasing fleece MC jackets or Target launching an accessory line that happened to have a wacky eyeball for a logo, I think there would be a much less distractable thread running through the core.
September 4th, 2009 at 10:27 pm
i swear to god if my passion sells out like this one more time…