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Why I Don't Do April Fools On This Blog Anymore

The other day, I said I'd tell you more about April Fools Day on this blog, and why I haven't tried to pull one off for ten years. I also said I'd do it yesterday, on the actual day. Well, yesterday was also my first true relaxing day off in ages, and it all just got away from me. So, a day late, the story of April Fools Day 2007! (I did talk about it a bit last year, but I hope this will be the definitive account.)

First, the set-up: in the spring of 2007, McDonald's had Wizard of Oz toys in their Happy Meals for the first time. These were miniature versions of eight Madame Alexander dolls, and they proved to be very popular. The Oz community online at the time was particularly interested, and lamented that there were only eight of them—and the Wizard wasn't one of them. I had plans for another April Fools joke that year, but I ran out of time and resources (I still don't, and the window has passed, so I may tell you about it next year). Then I thought about the McDonald's promotion and the timing of it, and the perfect joke hit me. This entry was the result, and I was pretty proud of it. I even backed it up with pictures from the Madame Alexander website. And like all April Fools jokes I've ever pulled online, I make it pretty clear, if you click on any links, that it is a joke. So if you read the "article" I cite, you'll be in on it pretty quickly. If you take time to think about it, too, it doesn't hold up, as the lead time needed to make, package, and distribute the new figures, as well as the need to alter everything to push the next promotion pack another week, would be a logistical nightmare.

At this time, this blog was so new that I'd only had one previous attempt at an April Fools joke (this one here, as it happens), and it hadn't had much impact; most people saw through it right away. So I was completely unprepared for how much my little jest made. Before long, many Oz websites, message boards, and the like were reporting on it as if it were real news. Clearly, several people were not checking on my "source" article. Further exacerbating things were the ones who did look for more than one source—all of which had got it from me, so that wasn't a lot of help. When I finally got word out to some of the sites, and people finally found the "this is an April Fools joke" disclaimer, there was a lot of negative feedback, and I was in the doghouse with some people for a bit.

After a few days, however, things settled down, and all seemed to go back to normal—that is, until the next issue of The Baum Bugle, the journal of the International Wizard of Oz Club, arrived a few weeks later. There, in an item on the Happy Meal toys, was the news that the promotion had been extended! Whoops! I immediately wrote to the editor (I don't think I even finished reading that issue before I hit my computer), and there was a retraction in the next issue, but that just showed me how much impact the joke had.

After that, I decided my blog was too powerful and influential, and I shouldn't post any more April Fools jokes. And I haven't since then; instead, I try to post a warning every March 31. But some year, if the perfect opportunity presents itself, I just may try again.

About a year and a half later, and nowhere near April 1, McDonald's repeated the promotion, but this time there were twelve, and one of them was indeed the Wizard. No Mayor yet, but I did offer McDonald's and Madame Alexander a few ideas for future promotions right here. I would hope my all-too-successful April Fools joke had something to do with that, but I have my doubts.

A few years ago, thinking the whole thing had finally run its course, it reared its head again at the Winkie Convention (now known as OzCon International, come on over to Portland at the end of June for this year's edition!). I was on a panel about Oz blogs when the moderator posted my Happy Meal joke post and asked for the story. So I had to recount the whole saga again. But now that the definitive story is here, maybe that will be the end of it at last.

But I wouldn't bet on it!

Happy Meal Toys!

They've done it again: McDonald's latest Happy Meal toys are Lego Batman video game toys (cute, but nothing Laura nor I are interested in) and the return of the Madame Alexander Wizard of Oz dolls. They started last week, so Laura and I dragged my mother-in-law along last Saturday to enjoy a scrumptious (?) and nutritious (??) Happy Meal. Sure enough, we got Glinda and a Winged Monkey — actually, multiples of them, as we were really hungry and each got two Happy Meals. Then, before we left, Laura recalled her toy hunting adventures of last spring and asked the manager about the Customer Satisfaction box. At this particular McDonald's, it hadn't even been opened yet, so the three of us and several McDonald's emplyees had some fun digging through and seeing what we could find. Last year the set had eight toys, and I'd heard there may be ten this year, so imagine our surprise when we pulled out bags with the numbers 11 and 12! Yes, there are a dozen of them this year. In numerical order:

1. Dorothy (and since the packages are also labeled in French and Spanish, Dorothée/Dorothy), with a little Toto in a basket
   
2. Glinda the Good Witch (Glinda, la Bonne Fée/Glinda, la Bruja Buena)
   
3. Winged Monkey (Le Singe Ailé/El Mono Alado)
   
4. Cowardly Lion (Le Lion Peureaux/Léon Cobarde)
   
5. Wicked Witch of the West (La Méechante Sorcière de l'Ouest/Bruja Mala del Oeste)
   
6. Winkie Guard (Le Guard — I guess "Winkie" doesn't translate into French well/Guardia Winkie)
   
7. Tin Man (L'Homme de Fer Blanc/Hombre de Hojalata)
   
8. Scarecrow (L'Épouvantail/Espantapájaros)
   
9. Flower Munchkin (La Munchkin aux Fleurs/Flor Munchkin) — as I told Laura when I saw it, "There's Margaret!" as it looks a bit like Margaret Pellegrini, who played the Flower Munchkin in The Movie, and we've met now at two Oz conventions
   
10. Lullaby Munchkin (La Munchkin à la Berceuse/Arrullo Munchkin)
    
11. Lollipop Munchkin (Le Munchkin à la Sucette/Pirulín Munchkin), which does look a bit like Jerry Maren
    
12. The Wizard of Oz (Le Magicien d'Oz/El Mago de Oz) — so at least half of my April Fool's joke last year has actually come to be real!
    

This year, instead of a bag, the meal comes in a very nice box, which I have a few examples of now, including a still-folded one that the McDonald's manager gave me when I asked. (Laura has now asked our Canadian McDonald's contact about getting the Candadian version of the box.)

So, to get back to my adventure in acquisition, I reached for my wallet to pay for the ones we found in the box, but my wonderful mother-in-law told me to put it away. She bought them for me. Woo-hoo! She's going to get an extra nice present for Christmas, I think. (I just have to thinnk of what...) So now I have a complete set, two extra Glindas, and another Monkey. Maybe I'll see about getting another complete set that I can take out of the packages. They'd make great Christmas ornaments.

Hey, McDonald's and Madame Alexander, next time you do this — and with the seventieth anniversary of The Movie just around the corner, I have a suspicion you will — can we have the Munchkin Mayor, the Munchkin Coroner, Aunt Em, Uncle Henry, a Sleepyhead Munchkin (another reason to say, "There's Margaret!"), and some of the citizens of the Emerald City? Okay, thanks.

The Happy Meal toys are coming back!

The next wave of Madame Alexander Wizard of Oz Happy Meal toys is coming soon! I promise, I'm not kidding around this time.

More McDonald's Toys!

Oh, wow, this is big news! I just found out that because it's been so popular, McDonald's has extended the Wizard of Oz Happy Meal promotion by a week. To accomodate them, Madame Alexander has quickly commissioned two more dolls, the Munchkin Mayor and the Wizard. They'll start showing up in Happy Meals on April 20. Here's the picture:

For more details, including all of the logistics of how they're going to pull this off, take a look at the article here.

Ozzy errands

I'm about to go out the door to run a few errands, and it just dawned on me that they're ALL Oz related! That doesn't happen very often. First, I'm going to the Post Office to drop off my registration for this year's Winkie Convention. More by accident than design, this year it's turned into a big party celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the International Wizard of Oz Club, and I was sure hoping not to miss it, as I've been going to these things since 1980. Laura wanted to come to, so we looked at our options and did a little number crunching and figured out how to do it. After the Post Office, I'm heading to McDonald's to get a Happy Meal for lunch, and oh, yeah, I may as well get a Wizard of Oz toy while I'm there — not that I need any more, as Laura has been very persistent (see her reports here, here, here, and here) — and I'm now one character short of two complete sets.

Tomorrow will also be a bit Ozzy, as I'll be going down to the Emerald City Comic Con with Laura (she's there today with her sister). I'm going to try to get some more Oz (and/or Green Lantern) sketches for my sketchbook, and I'll also pop in on the Illusive Arts folks (who publish Dorothy) and my old friends Eric and David at Hungry Tiger Press, where I hope to buy their new edition of Ozoplaning with the Wizard of Oz. Maybe Eric would also be kind enough to autograph my edition of Adventures in Oz. Laura caught up with them even before the con started this morning, which is good.

More good Oz news to come this weekend, I suspect.