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LEGO Eggos, Mickey Heads, Fun Times.

Having grown tired of trying to dislodge the few remnants of toothpaste left out of a Spider-Man themed container of Crest every morning, I stopped by a pharmacy after work to get new teeth sludge. While there, I became instantly depressed at the sight of all of the unsold pre-made Easter baskets, now marked at half-price. I don't know why it depressed me so much. Maybe it's because I've always had this sick, twisted idea that pharmacies, toy stores and Wal-Marts hire poor old ladies to assemble these Easter baskets, which they assuredly would do with much love and care, and the thought that it was all for naught just makes me want to stand up, walk over and strangle you with twine. On the upside, it's been a tremendous month for your local grocer's freezer section, and below are three reasons why...

#1: With the phonetic similarities, it was only a matter of time before the "Leggo my Eggo" catch-phrase lost a letter and became almost-literal in this holy union of Eggo waffles and LEGO toys. I don't mean that to sound like I'm screaming; I've had to work with style guides from LEGO before, and they insist that you spell it just like that: LEGO. All caps. Let's just deal. The commercial for LEGO Eggo waffles is more amazing than the product itself, but that's not to say that this isn't the kind of marriage worth throwing rice over. As Kellogg's has now fully embraced the fact that their Eggo brand is capable of being tweaked in a zillion fucked up ways, it was only a matter of time before they called their pals in Denmark and said, "let's get retarded in heah."

Though theoretically the most brilliant and awesome idea ever, I'm sad to say that it's more of a gag in practice. The break-apart LEGO waffle pieces do not connect together in any real fashion, and in fact, they're not even designed to look like they would ever do that, so there's not even a lingering hope that you just suck and that other people are having no trouble making fighter planes and castle drawbridges out of waffle pieces. The most I could make out of mine was a little, boxed-in fort suitable for plastic green army men -- and while that's not impressive enough to curse at you, I should remind everyone that very few other brands of waffles even let you have that much. I'm more into these because it's ridiculously cute to have my LEGOs and eat them too, but if either company wants my advice, I'd be happy to give it: Don't tell people they can build things out of waffles when they can't at all really do that. Aim low, deliver high.

#2: Every time I've mentioned popsicles or ice cream on the blog, the thread comments invariably turn to a discussion on Disney's old "Mickey's Parade" brand, which spanned from fruit-flavored character-shaped ice pops (my favorite) to ice cream bars in the shape of Mickey Mouse's head. The latter is back, but not really. "Chocolate Ears Mickey" ice cream bars is not a name I'd be particularly proud of coining, but it says what it needs to, and the treats look remarkably similar to those heavenly desserts of yesteryear. Differences primarily include size (they're smaller) and facial structure (they're uglier), but these are tiny-sized gripes for such a big-time almost-resurgence. Hilariously, the box contains a big burst alluding to the fact that the bars are "better for kids," but I question what they're exactly better than, because one look at the nutritional label had me wondering why I didn't just drink half a bottle of canola and be done with it. Actually, I know why: Because canola oil doesn't have crunchy, chocolate ears.

Remember that thread from a few weeks back where I asked y'all to give me some Disney World vacation tips? Well, we booked it. Won't tell you when I'm going because THAT'S A SURPRISE, but I'll tell ya this: We went ahead and booked three nights at the Polynesian followed by three nights at the Grand Floridian, with Park Hopper passes for every day we're there. When the reservation was set and paid in full, I realized that we probably could've bought Disney World for half as much money as we're paying to stay there for a week.

During that process and ever since, I've been reading countless reviews of Disney World. It's my new thang. Digging just deep enough, I've found that millions of people enjoy old school Mickey-shaped ice cream bars there, only Disney's are covered completely in a chocolate shell, presumably to skirt any fast-acting melting in the Florida heat. I don't know if this connects to the Chocolate Ears Mickey bars in anything more than a superficial way, but I couldn't think of anything else to say. Well, just this: I wish they put together a bootleg version of the fruit-flavored character bars instead, because those rocked the house a hundred times harder than Mickey heads.

#3: Fear Factor Pop-Ups? Food based on Fear Factor?! Joe Rogan you crazy! Joe Rogan, you so CRAZY makin' the ice cream! I'm of the mind that Fear Factor has a little-publicized but more-than-modest fanbase in grade school boys who think it's fucking kickass to see people drink centipede blood on network television, and with that in mind, maybe a Fear Factor ice pop isn't as stupid of an idea as I said it was at the top of my lungs when we spotted them last weekend.

They're pretty hideous, though. Not in a theatrical way -- I just mean they're bad. Bad flavor, bad production. The watermelon pops (with blood-like gooey red filling) are okay, but the other ones just suck, and no matter how many lies they spread about the misshapen white gummi orb stuffed in each pop supposedly looking like a scary eyeball is going to change that. Really disappointing, but as I don't think Nostradamus himself could've predicted the sight of the official Fear Factor show logo in a grocery store freezer section, I'm halfway tempted to whop my cack out and make it do that trick where it looks like it's nodding with approval.


Random thoughts on shows/movies I've seen recently...

- Had to watch Nanny McPhee for a work-related project. Whatever, but it reminded me that I'm supposed to bone Kelly Macdonald before she gets old and fat.

- It's been a weird, weird season on The Sopranos so far, with stories unfolding and being taken back and generally making you wonder what the fuck the POINT is, but damn, it's still been one of the more purely entertaining seasons of the lot. Especially now that they've stopped with the stupid dream sequences. Seriously, does ANYBODY like those dream sequences?

- A friend and coworker's wife writes for Big Love, so I've been watching it. I question the decision to pair it with Tony Soprano of all people, and I'm still kind of lost as to why the show was ever conceived, but since every glimpse of Bill Paxton reminds me to watch Predator 2 as often as possible, I'll stick with it for now. Totally think they should've paid David Carradine a zillion bucks to play Roman, though.

- Read one of my thousand nature/science books last night, so I leave you with this fact: To get rest in a world where they can never literally sleep, dolphins do something truly kickass -- they let half their brain sleep at a time. No, seriously. For eight hours, they're totally awake. For the next eight, the left side of the brain is awake. For the final eight, the right side stands guard. How amazing is that? Why are dolphins so much cooler than me?

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Posted by Matt on 04/18/2006. E-mail me!



Discussion Thread: 86 comments

"Here’s something you might not know about me Joe Rogan. I smoke rocks."
-Tyrone

Chestnuts roasted by PRSense @ 04/19/2006 9:50 AM


Can’t say I watch Sopranos or Big Love, but on an HBO-related note, anyone know the fate of Curb Your Enthusiasm? Haven’t came across anything that seemed to know whether it’s coming back or not.

The Fear Factor pops thing seems a little late – hasn’t the show been cancelled?

Chestnuts roasted by lugnut @ 04/19/2006 10:19 AM


Rarely do I laugh outloud at work, becasue it is a place of dismal oppresion, but… "let’s get retarded in heah." That made me just about poo myself…

Chestnuts roasted by Michael @ 04/19/2006 10:21 AM


It took awhile but my memory is totally jogged on the character ice pops. I’m seeing purple Mickeys and orange Donalds in my mind, but that could be off.
I hardly knew Fear Factor was even on anymore. I used to enjoy it but I haven’t watched regularly in years. I do enjoy Joe Rogan’s roguish charm and the parade of "cocktail waitresses" (read: strippers) willing to debase themselves for ca$h money but the schtick eventually got old.
I don’t know where they’re heading with Sopranos anymore. I got accidentally spoiled to someone’s injury/death, but other than that I don’t have any idea how it’s all going to wrap up. I thought about it a lot about it and I decided on my fantasy ending: Since the shooting Tony is having his little existential crisis and Melfi senses her opportunity to turn his life around. She’s so enthused about the prospect that she stops worrying about getting her hands dirty because she thinks she’s doing the right thing, but in the end it becomes her downfall. I leave it to the writers what that means.

Chestnuts roasted by squee4242 @ 04/19/2006 10:53 AM


yeah, I saw an advert for those lego eggos on easter. I need them badly. They may cause me to be late for work; but who cares?

Chestnuts roasted by Geoffinsanity @ 04/19/2006 11:25 AM


fear factor pop-ups? i think i just creamed jeans.

Chestnuts roasted by Review the World @ 04/19/2006 12:01 PM


You think we might be a dream sequence? We might only be the sleepy thoughts of Chaka The Pakuni?

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 04/19/2006 12:03 PM


I think that if that were true, there would almost certainly be four line-dancing lime green giraffes in here. And I’ve only seen three all morning.

Chestnuts roasted by Jedoc @ 04/19/2006 12:06 PM


Anyone seen that chalky candy that’s shaped like Lego shapes and you can supposedly lock together to make stuff?

Chestnuts roasted by Glitter Godzilla @ 04/19/2006 12:09 PM


Lego Egos? I’ve seen everything now.

I had a Ben and Jerry’s "The Bar" the other day, remind sof my precious WWF Ice Cream Bars. Try it people!

Chestnuts roasted by Rixliss @ 04/19/2006 12:50 PM


YEEEESSSSS!

MICKEY’S PARADE POPS

Shaped like the cartoons themselves, I remember Donald being orange, Goofy being grape, and I don’t remember much else. Only the fact that these were long forgotten, filed away under the wrong folder name, in the wrong section, in a file cabinet in the very back of the "ready to discard" memory storage in the sub-basement of my memory.

And now there up front!

Chestnuts roasted by Fox @ 04/19/2006 2:25 PM


Wonka already answered Julie’s question about Bill Paxton being good in anything, but I have to add my own. Two words… Pina Coladaburg (yes, I know Club Dread was mentioned). Pure genius. I stand in awe.

Chestnuts roasted by Bludge @ 04/19/2006 2:28 PM


Glitter Godzilla – I’ve seen that stuff (I think it’s called Candy Blocks or something simple like that?) but never tried it. It looked impossibly hard on the teeth.

And I haven’t been up for very long (yes, I see that it’s 2:30pm, I take night classes dammit), so I’m still having to scroll up every so often to make sure I didn’t dream those Lego Eggos. That sounds like something I would have thought of as a little kid, got all excited and told an adult about, and had them laugh at me. I can’t imagine they could ever make them really buildable though. Waffles, by nature, are soft. Soft things tend not to "snap" together. But the box… it’s worth it for the box.

As for the Mickey ice cream: Holy. Crap. I needs me a box of those things. I don’t think I’ve had one since I was about six years old, but I sure had a lot of them then.

Chestnuts roasted by jazzy @ 04/19/2006 2:32 PM


I’m with the guy up above. The blog has been KICKING ASS lately.

Chestnuts roasted by Snickers @ 04/19/2006 3:13 PM


No exaggeration, I was at a convenience store/bait shop on my way to the lake one day and I saw a box of Mickey’s Parade Pops. This was just last summer, and they had expired sometime in 1990 or 1991. I found them under a pile of drumsticks, my daughter’s favorite. Looking at that expiration date, I decided that these people didn’t clean out their freezer often enough, and I dropped the drumstick back on top of the Parade pops. Now I wish I had bought them to see how they had faired over 15 years.

Chestnuts roasted by bloodybrilliantme @ 04/19/2006 3:31 PM


I’m going to Disney World next Monday for a week. I’m so excited that I’m somehow not at all excited. Like it’s too much for my body to handle. I don’t know. But I do know I’m on a mission to eat as much character related food as humanly possible. Maybe I’ll take pictures or something…. I duno, I’m too lazy to sort my thoughts right now. I just picture me (really fat) sitting in the middle of Disney World with chocolate and ice cream all over my face Augustus Gloop style. If that happens, I promise pictures.

Chestnuts roasted by Rebecca @ 04/19/2006 3:53 PM


I have those LEGO Waffles! They are tasty oh yes fuck.

Chestnuts roasted by Reid @ 04/19/2006 4:34 PM


You’ll have such a great time at Disneyworld, Matt. And I really want to hear more about this new Expedition Everest coaster in Animal Kingdom. I don’t like coasters that throw you around, but I heard this one is more like Big Thunder Mountain, with twists and turns.

I like Big Love ok. Whenever Ben and Margene interract you can see the fucked-up emotional train wreck coming. And that’s why I watch dramas, dammit. But my TV soul pines for Deadwood.

Chestnuts roasted by Welsh Rabbit @ 04/19/2006 5:36 PM


"Mr. Caracappa, you run a website with a small but loyal following, you work at Nickelodeon, and you make the best stuffed mushrooms in the state, what are you going to do now?"

"I’m going to kick you ass if you don’t get out of my bathroom!"

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 04/19/2006 5:48 PM


M&M’s usually makes a 4th of July bag filled with red, white, and blue M&M’s. But otherwise, you’re correct on no holiday candy until Halloween (unless you’re a fan of boxed chocolates for Mother’s Day next month).

BTW, They also made Superman bread to go along with the Superman PB. I’ve seen it at antique stores.

Chestnuts roasted by JLAJRC @ 04/19/2006 6:14 PM


I think most of our pre-made Easter baskets at work are pretty much gone. All that stuff went to 50% off Monday. But, those baskets… well, ours anyway, were total shit. We had one that was Nascar themed, with a Monster Garage hat in with it… Makes perfect sense.

Anyways, when I look at those baskets I wanna puke. It’s like everyone has lost all ability to think for themselves and be even the TINIEST bit creative and un-lazy. If that’s a word.

And some were just rediculously huge. I’m talkin 4-5 feet tall, no lie. All wrapped up in celophane and won’t stand up! Annoying.

I really need to get out of retail, it’s killing the love I had for holidays and makes me just want them to be over ASAP. :’(

Chestnuts roasted by Ryane @ 04/19/2006 7:14 PM


I agree — I don’t particularly care for the idea that a parent willing to spend money on an Easter basket for their child isn’t willing to put forth the effort of actually "building" it. I always got homemade baskets as a kid — sometimes they sucked, but they were always homemade.

The preproduced baskets are better for people buying someone else’s kids an Easter basket.

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 04/19/2006 7:19 PM


I bought myself a Ninja Turtle Easter basket, because I’m cool like that. It kinda sucks, but now I have a Ninja Turtle soccer ball, frisbee, kite, and water bottle. And I have a feeling that you don’t.

Chestnuts roasted by Jeff @ 04/19/2006 8:01 PM


Yeah, I guess they would be good for that, and they did have a couple decent ones in tin buckets – and I know tin buckets don’t replace Easter Baskets, but they were cute and reusable all year round, themed with popular characters.

The cheaper ones though… eeesh! We won’t even go there! :)

I just keep thinking of this one day I was at work, and this grandmother comes in with her grandson and apparently they (Grandfather was wandering off) were taking him shopping for his Easter gift. 10 feet inside the door, there were the premade baskets, and she says "Would you like one of these?" And I felt bad for the kid. I dunno… the fact he was along for the ride was kinda sad, but to ask if he wanted one of those was even sadder. Maybe it’s just me. But, everytime I hear of the premade baskets, I think of that kid.

Chestnuts roasted by Ryane @ 04/19/2006 8:13 PM


Matt- You work at Nickelodeon? Weird.

Chestnuts roasted by Reid @ 04/19/2006 8:24 PM


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