Resturant Collectables: Men In Black: The Series 1998 Burger King

After the unexpected but completely unsurprisingly massive success of 1997's sci-fi/comedy Men In Black it was apparent a new franchise was born! One that spawned, to date, two sequels a couple of toy lines and an Animated series, the latter of which will be the subject of this post! A fairly common practice particularly in the 1990's were the transformations of successful  movies into cartoon series, some were obvious and appropriate choices while others were bizarre and unconventional whereas something like MIB suited both mediums extremely well especially given its comic book roots! The series followed on from the plot of the first film and brought back many of the characters, albeit slightly altered versions, but didn't stick religiously to the formula of the movie though was in keeping with the same darkly comedic tone. The series was pretty well received generally and lasted four years which is pretty good run filling the gap between the first and second instalments, perhaps it was destined to end at MIB2 after that movie proved to be a major disappointment for fans and movie goers in general!


Despite the fact this show had a relatively successful four year run there wasn't any  tie-in toy lines produced! One had been planned but for one reason or another never saw production and so the only merchandise produced were a 12 figure set of Burger King premiums as well as several toys based on the animated series produced to advertise the second movie again from BK.
These toys promoted the show during its original run with 12 "Big" Toys (Two were made available each week) some of them were just fillers and nothing special but the good toys in the set are really good! here we will be looking at several of those toys:

Agent Kay: Grumpy but respected senior Agent and one of the founders of  the secret organisation known as the MIB Kay is very passionate about ridding the world of Alien Scum bags! He is the polar opposite of his young partner Jay but while he won't often admit it to his partners face he respects and trusts him possibly more than anyone!

This figure comes in three pieces firstly you have Agent Kay himself which is a nicely detailed 3" sculpted figurine which comes with a removable "slime" coating which can be placed on the figure to look as though he has been digested or regurgitated by "Mikey" the Alien which is made of a hollow and soft plastic  so that you can place the figurine inside him! All told this is a great figure set that is really well made and good fun despite the awkwardness encountered when trying to get the figure back out of the Alien shell!

Agent Jay: As the newbie Member of the MIB Jay is always looking to prove himself and gain the respect of partner Kay while trying to make light of often very dark and worrying situations though Kay often fails to find Jay's humour in any way comical remaining stony-faced despite Jay's best efforts at eliciting a smile from him!   

As with the Agent Kay figure set above Jay here comes in three parts, A very nice figurine of Jay that perfectly represents the character from the series, A soft plastic blue "slime" coating (which is the same as Kay's just a different colour) and a hollow soft rubber Alien in which to place the gooey looking Jay! Again this is a nice set which is well executed and fun to play around with!

Chief Agent Zed (with spinning Eyeball Alien variation): The head of the MIB is the gruff but fair Zed who over sees his agents activities from him office high above the  headquarters main floor! Everyone answers to Zed who isn't shy about letting his Agents know when they have messed up in doing so also allows them to redeem themselves by insisting they get out of his office and fix their mistakes!

Interestingly Burger King put out two slightly different versions of this figure one of which had a little light up creature housed inside whereas this one here comes with a spinning Alien eyeball hidden inside Zed's torso! Simply push Zeds legs together and his top half will split in two and the "Eyeball" inside will spin around! This is another nicely detailed figure though he is obviously wrongly proportioned (his legs aren't quite so short in the series!)

Zed is also rather larger than the Jay and Kay figures but he looks fantastic with his trademark stern look and folded arms overall he is a perfect representation of the Animated character and while it is uncertain as to why this figure depicts him as having an Alien within it makes for a fun little action feature!

Worm Guy Alien ("squishy" variation): If you are an Agent at MIB headquarters and you fancy a coffee in the break room you would have to share it with a group of  four lively and mischievous little Worm like Aliens! Every now and again these little critters end up joining Jay and Kay on their assignments and sometimes end up getting themselves into a spot of trouble and in need of some rescuing courtesy of the two Agents!  

As with Zed this Worm Alien here came in two slightly different variants This one has a squidgy brain shaped substance in place of his stomach whereas the other identical figure (which is painted white instead of the yellowish colour seen here) has a water squirting feature! Both are very nice looking toys however and decently represent these Aliens on screen counter parts who are among the most memorable characters from both the Series and Movies!    

Red Button Loop Blaster: At the push of a button (more specifically the "Red button") Agent Kay's smart looking Ford LTD Engages it's twin rear exhaust thrusters and zooms off at break neck speed!

This miniature vehicle and the "Red Button" Launcher might be quite plain looking in design however the "Track" section has some nice sculpted details depicting some freakish looking Eyeball alien crawling around it! It's a simple Loop the Loop track with a launch-able car but it works well enough if not particularly exciting looking!





Men In Black: the Series makes for a very fun spin-off show that while it takes the most popular and recognisable elements from the 1997 movie it also has plenty of original ideas! MIB:TS is one of the better animated cartoon series based on a 90's blockbuster; an original, slickly animated, really well written show but most importantly it wasn't a dumbed down and lightened up imitation of its source material unlike a great many other similar series!
Luckily enough if you happen to love the series and want some collectables these promotional toys are really very good indeed and make up for the lack of an actual tie-in toy line! These were well made, with fun and imaginative action features and gimmicks and as such these are a must have for MIB fans!