Dave’s Cool Toys Blog

Archive for October, 2008

Link.

I came across this horrible misrepresentation of a toy today. It’s the Banzai Wild Waves Water Park . A savvy consumer, David Ng scanned the “Water Park’s” box and took a photo of his children standing next the actual product to show how extremely misleading the product shot is. Many manufacturers spend a great deal of time and money making their product look as good as possible, but this obviously goes well beyond that and purposely tries to deceive the consumer. Apparently, the box also claims that you may not return the item to the store you bought it at (try and stop me!)

I checked on Amazon for this item and the photo there (at left) was a somewhat more realistic version. Clearly the children in this shot were photoshopped in. Probably at the last minute to avoid prosecution. The box also states “product may not be as appears on image”. Well that may well protect them legally, but that statement opens the possibility of putting anything you want on the box! One of the many strengths of the Web is the ability of consumers to get the word out about poor quality products, and they certainly have done that at Amazon.

For a fascinating look at the difference between advertising photography and reality check out Fast Food: Ads vs. Reality.

So you’ve got about ten Mr. Potato Head‘s sitting around your house. You’ve used all the eyes (even the “angry eyes”), ears, mouths, even the pipe (if you have one). Maybe you even have Darth Tater.

But now you’re bored with the accessories you can purchase. What to do? I know! Bacon!

That’s about all I can figure this guy was thinking when he created this excellent Mr. Bacon Head.

Incidentally, I think I’m linking to the original photo of this guy, but I couldn’t be sure.

And… while I was bopping around on the web, looking for other Mr. Potato Head items, I found this cool little article and pictures of Walt Disney Imagineers working on a giant Potato Head Animatronic.

I also came across the most amazing story (I couldn’t link to it because this is a G-Rated blog and some of the comments were not).

The photo you see here is not an octopus hat for a Mr. Potato Head. It is a picture of Louis the octopus at the Blue Reef Aquarium, in Cornwall. He was given a Mr. Potato Head for Christmas and he loves it so much he will become agressive and attack the net when workers attempt to remove it from the tank. He’s even learned to get food out of the secret compartment in the back.