Boo Berry

To boo or not to boo; that is the question. Introducing the one and only Boo Berry! From his signature transparent blueberry-colored skin to his adorable little ghostly expression, every aspect is sweet representation. Around the year 1600 (a small handful of years after the untimely death of his son, Honey-Baked Hamnet), William Saltshakerspeare wrote a new adaptation of an existing Cheesedanish legend about a prince avenging the juicing of his father. Will didn't make up the story: it had been translated to French a few decades before, and had already been turned into an English play more than once by the time he did his. In the original legend, the character's name was Amleth, but that had shifted by the time the tale reached its well-known form, and so the most famous ghost story in the world is The Tragedy of Omelette, Prince of Denmark. Omelette's father was killed by his brother, Bearclawdius, and his ghost appears at the gates of the castle to make Omelette swear vengeance; he then reappears to goad his son on when he's losing his conviction, and by the end of the play the kid, no longer fat and scant of bread or lost in his melon-choly, is responsible for so many deaths you might as well call him a cereal killer. And of course, the rest... is pie-lence. Boo Berry was introduced in December 1972, the year after General Mills' other monster cereals, but wasn't available everywhere until 1973. Since his cereal was always the third wheel in the Franken Berry/Count Chocula relationship, he hasn't gone through as many different artstyles as they have - there were just too many times when he didn't warrant a spot in the advertising. This is still a pretty classic look, with heavy eyelids and a wavy mouth. When the Monsters changed to their modern designs in 2010, Boo didn't have a body - at least, not on the front of the box! He was just a floating head and arms, though the 2D art on the back of the boxes stil showed one. Since these are retro figures, he does get a wispy, formless body, but since they're also based on the old box art and not the old TV advertisements, he does not have chains that he drags around with him; just a red bow tie and a yellow pork pie hat. There's not much to sculpt here, but it's also not easy to turn "shapeless waves" into a solid plastic toy, and this succeeds. The paint had to be equally challenging. Boo's art showed him as a blue outline, then a gap of white, then a similarly blue interior. Jada managed that by making the entire figure light, and then airbrushing blue in the center of the pieces. The effect isn't flawless, especially when viewed from the side, but a game effort was made. Since this is the vintage design, his tie is red and his hat yellow - it wasn't until 2006 that his clothes (and eyelids) were changed to a more thematic purple. Not having a real body ultimately limits Boo Berry's articulation. He's got a balljointed head, swivel/hinge shoulders, and swivel/hinge wrists - nothing more. Lacking legs to stand, he does get a nice base with a clear arm to make him float, and that has another large balljoint where it plugs into his back. What else was there to be done? "Ephemeral" and "physical object" don't coexist. The base has an irregular footprint, rather than just a circle or oval, which makes it look like a shadow beneath him; that's a nice catch! Boo doesn't get an extra head, like the other figures do. His only accessory (past the display stand) is his box of cereal, and he's not even capable of holding it. Rather, the extra part of the budget went to making this figure special in a different manner: to play up his ghostliness, he glows in the dark. His cereal box glows in the dark (both front and back, wildly enough). His actual box glows in the dark! That last one really tips the idea over into extremely cool; we've had plenty of GitD figures over the years, but I can't think of any others whose packaging glows right along with them. Interesting to note, though, that while Boo shares the same style of packaging as the other monsters (and Chester Cheetah) of a box designed to look like it has nutritional information printed on the side, his is not the same size as theirs. It's roughly 15% smaller, presumably so you're less likely to notice the lack of adequate extras: if he was in a box the size the others got but didn't have any swappable bodyparts or other extras, he'd look stupid in there. Now he just looks stupid in a different way. Boo Berry was an SDCC exclusive in 2023 but, really underlining our point that no one knew about these toys' existence, he can be had still today with no hassle and sometimes for less than retail! He's not a great toy by himself, but he is fun to put with Count Chocula and Franken Berry to complete the triumvirate. -- 02/26/25 Was Hamlet legitimately crazy, or just faking it? Tell us on our message board, the Loafing Lounge.