Burger King film cells

[Guest]

[Almath]

Hi All

Is anyone collecting burger king film cells or have any spares for trade? I need a number six. I have many to trade.

Thanks

[kbmum]

What are these, and do you have a scan you could post?

[Nienna]

Cindy - there were 27 different film cell cards included in with the promo Burger King LOTR figures of the Fellowship available with a Kid's Meal, when the first film hit the cinemas here in the UK. I've just looked at my set and the date on them is 2001! 
Some were easy to get and others really difficult, and the one Almath is trying to get is of Legolas.
They run as follows ...
1/27, 2/27 & 3/27 = Saruman
4/27, 5/27 & 6/27 = Legolas
7/27, 8/27 & 9/27 = Ringwraiths
10/27, 11/27 & 12/27 = Gimli
13/27, 14/27 & 15/27 = Galadriel
16/27, 17/27 & 18/27 = Gandalf
19/27, 20/27 & 21/27 = Frodo & the Hobbits
22/27, 23/27 & 24/27 = Arwen
25/27, 26/27 & 27/27 = Aragorn

I have a full set of nine figures that are still sealed in their Burger King plastic bags, plus opened ones with the plastic figures displayed near to where I'm sitting. 
I don't know if I'll be able to get any decent photos of them though, as they're a bit of a pain trying to get the cells to show up properly!

[kbmum]

Thanks, Jules!  I did a search on eBay and it found nothing, and that made me more curious.   I don't recall seeing them at Burger King in the US.

[HPfamily]

I don't remember these either!! 
They sound pretty cool! Sounds like something
else I would HAVE to have if they were here in
the US! 

[Nienna]

Well, I've sorted out my set and managed to get half-decent photos of all of them, both as separate pics and in their Ultra Pro 9-pocket pages. They're standard card size with rounded edges and were definitely one of the better giveaways you get with the kid's meals. To get the full run of 27 different cells is normally expensive and difficult to do these days as I don't think there are many on ebay for sale - I've had mine since Nov '04 and that was late coming to them then!  There were 9 figures who had three different cells each to collect, so you were bound to end up with duplicates no matter what you did and as they were sealed, you had no choice but to open them to find out if the package contained the cell you wanted or not! There is a way of carefully opening them whilst they're still sealed to peep at the card, but 9 times out of 10 you just can't open the packaging wide enough to get a good look at the cell.  I bet you've come across them on ebay in the past ... they look like small books that you open down the middle, on the right-hand side is the plastic figure and on the left-hand side is the cell ... the packaging is a thin moulded plastic which is quite fragile, and they damage easily in the post unless they're packaged in cardboard boxes with bubble wrap rather than jiffy mailers.
Hey ho ... all good fun ... 
I think the US had the set of 19 BK figures, 18 of which were joined together as segments around the 19 piece which was the One Ring and these figures either spoke or lit up or did both ... they're quite cool and I imagine almost impossible to come across on ebay these days. Adam had me buy him a full set of them when he saw the set I got for myself, and he opened his set and put them all together ... some of the batteries must have gone flat as one or two didn't do what the should've done and I would expect that the majority of them won't work by now, as we've had them nearly as long as the UK BK figures.
It's gonna take me a bit of time to upload the pics to my photobucket account and then post them on here, but I don't think you'll be disappointed when you see them!

Almath - I have a spare of the Leggy cell you're looking for - if you'd like to PM me with your details we can sort out an exchange for it if that's okay with you? 

Back in a while .... 

[Nienna]

The card surrounding the cells looks yellow in the photos because I propped the cells against my computer screen and took the photos with the flash turned off - it is in fact parchment-coloured and the writing is black.
I've purposely left them large so you get a better idea of the detail in each of the cells. 
Enjoy!! 

[kbmum]

Those are nice.   I'm shocked, since I wasn't expecting fast food toys to look that good.

[HPfamily]

Those are excellent!!! 
I want some now!! 

[Nienna]

Cindy - the toys that they came with were really nice quality too and the packaging was colour coded for each figure with the name printed on the spines of the 'book' so you knew which one you were getting. Looking at them the figures appear to be hand painted as there are very slight differences when you stand them together. Cosidering how many thousands of these things must have been made back then, they really are super quality.
If I get time tomorrow, I'll take some more photos of the figures and the packaging and also ones I have that are still factory sealed, so you know what to look for on ebay! 
I've found that Burger King tend to do better quality giveaways than Maccy D and these LOTR figures were some of the best I've seen. They also did the talking Gollum figure which is also a fridge magnet and they're absolutely fantastic and my all-time fave fast food toy! The Gollums weren't giveaways, you had to pay for them when you got your meal, but I remember being cheeky and boldly marching up to the counter and just buying the toys without any food and the staff were quite happy to do that! 
Well, if you don't ask, you don't get! 

Jackie ... I somehow thought you were gonna say that!! 
I didn't mention it before, but the cards are numbered on the reverse on the top left-hand side of the card, with the One Ring printed on the top right-hand side and the NLC licensing info printed centre bottom - the individual photos I've taken were all done from this side so there's no mistaking which card is which. 

Glad you like them and believe me, they look even better in hand! 

[Almath]

Hi All

Sorry I didn't describe these a bit better. I assumed everyone had seen them before. Anyway Nienna has done a wonderful job of describing them.
They are a really nice set. Back when they first came out they were selling at around £80-£100 a set on ebay. I saw a set a few weeks ago at £45 BIN.

Hopefully below are pictures of the figures

[ferdinand_the_yak]

Oooooh! I remember these... I was pretty sure they were from BK in Australia. This was before i got into the LOTR movies. We got 2 and they were both... Legolases (fate, I hear you say? ) The packaging disappeared long ago (along with the film cels ) but I still have the 2 Legolas figurines

[Nienna]

Thanks for the pics of the figures Almath - saves me doing them! 
Was the £45 for a full set of figures or a full set of the cells on their own?
They were a difficult set to put together because of the duplicates you were bound to get, which is why most of us ended up with lots of certain cells and only one of others. 

Jo - BK may well have run the promotion in Oz and quite possibly in NZ too, but definitely not in the USA, which is why Cindy and Jackie aren't familiar with them.
Glad you still have both your Leggy figures!   

[Almath]

£45 was for a set of the film cells.

[Nienna]

£45 was for a set of the film cells.

WOW!! I know that sounds a lot but if you total up the number of meals you had to buy to get them in the first instance, then that figure is cheap! 
Actually, it's rather nice to know they've held their price after all this time! 

[ocdlotr]

Wow!...Those film cells are really interesting...thanks for posting the pics...got to look into finding them somewhere...mmm

[savage727]

Unfortunately U.S. Burger King's did not carry these cool looking film cells or figures.  I do not understand why.     I have seen them offered up on ebay over the years but have not seen any in a long time.   The only LOTR's items I remember our Burger King selling was the 4 Lighted Goblets and the figures that made a circle around the One Ring like Jules was describing.

[Nienna]

Maybe there were licensing issues regarding items what could be sold in each country? It's quite likely knowing how fussy NLC and the Tolkien Estate were when they were granting permission. 
The 'circle' figures were cool too (I've yet to see the light-up glasses first-hand) and I imagine were awkward to get a full set of 19, some figures being more popluar than others ... the number of meals you had to buy to get them was a lot too and once you'd got your figure, you hoped that the counter assistants would take pity on you and exchange the duplicates for ones you didn't have! 
The main problem with collecting the film cells that you had to open the packaging to find out which cell you'd got, so there was no way they could be returned and exchanged. 

[DaveH]

I am looking for card 27 to complete my set.

I have got the following cards for trade 1, 2, 3, 8, 12, 13, 14, 15, 18, 21, 23 & 26.

Thanks,

Dave.