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Does a photo of the old secondary Monster Munch shape exist on the internet?

Started by beanheadmcginty, October 14, 2020, 10:37:54 PM

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beanheadmcginty

Quote from: gib on October 18, 2020, 04:14:22 PM
Well they seem to match your description. What flavour were the ones with this 'secondary shape'?

ALL FLAVOURS! All bags of Monster Munch used to consist of two different shapes mixed together. One was the current claw, the other was a sort of hoop with double parallel protrusions.

Shit Good Nose

Quote from: beanheadmcginty on October 18, 2020, 04:24:32 PM
the other was a sort of hoop with double parallel protrusions.

You sure you're not getting mixed up with the copy of my colonoscopy I sent you?

beanheadmcginty


gib

Quote from: beanheadmcginty on October 18, 2020, 04:24:32 PM
ALL FLAVOURS! All bags of Monster Munch used to consist of two different shapes mixed together. One was the current claw, the other was a sort of hoop with double parallel protrusions.

I don't want to sound mean but have you encountered anyone else who shares this memory?

beanheadmcginty

Quote from: gib on October 18, 2020, 04:57:27 PM
I don't want to sound mean but have you encountered anyone else who shares this memory?

Yes. Elderly Sumo Prophecy on the first page of this thread. One of the first people to respond. Automatically second in command of my burgeoning old secondary Monster Munch shape truth movement.

notjosh

Quote from: Replies From View on October 18, 2020, 03:54:36 PM
I understand.  I was just saying the whole Monster Munch conceit is a bit muddled.  Monster Munch should have implied snacks that monsters eat, just like you see in the advert when they are in their natural habitat eating processed maize.

Then Smiths got hold of the real life situation and they got it wrong and they started selling Monster Munch as monsters that you need to munch, which is fucking obscene but pretty much what Britain has always done really.  Swaggering in and changing everything instead of learning how various ecosystems actually work.

Maybe it's the same rationale that Space Raiders used to use:

QuoteThey came... From the darkest depths of the uncharted cosmos...
The Space Raiders.
Brightly coloured, bug-eyed, bad guys with really big brains and easily enough alien technology to take over our planet. The only thing that can stop the Space Raiders imminent invasion of earth is the sound of munchin' crunchin' snacks!
So finish off this pack and go get another... before it's too late!!

touchingcloth

Quote from: beanheadmcginty on October 18, 2020, 05:32:56 PM
Yes. Elderly Sumo Prophecy on the first page of this thread. One of the first people to respond. Automatically second in command of my burgeoning old secondary Monster Munch shape truth movement.

And I don't want to sound accusatory, but are you sure Monster Munch actually existed? I've never heard of it and it sounds pretty implausible.

Hand Solo

Quote from: beanheadmcginty on October 18, 2020, 12:54:02 PM
Yes I saw that photo, but I'm sorry to break it to you - that isn't anything like the old secondary Monster Munch shape. It actually sort of looks like a monster for a start. The old secondary Monster Munch shape was a nondescript ring with double parallel protrusions coming out of it that you could spend hours of your childhood speculating on what it was supposed to represent (I think the consensus amongst my peers was that it was supposed to be the big eye if the one-eyed monster).

Looks like we've got a Monster Munch-denialist here, lads.

What you describe sounds like the shape I posted with the tongue bitten off, did you have an older sibling who went through the pack before you?

More evidence:
https://pickled-jo.livejournal.com/931089.html



Monster Munch effect.

Bernice


Dr Rock

Quote from: gib on October 18, 2020, 04:57:27 PM
I don't want to sound mean but have you encountered anyone else who shares this memory?

That's my recollection and I remember them coming out. Didn't really keep up after that.

gib

Quote from: Dr Rock on October 18, 2020, 06:53:28 PM
That's my recollection and I remember them coming out. Didn't really keep up after that.

2 different shapes in the same packet?

Dr Rock

Yes, but it could be a parallel universe. Only one flavour at first.

beanheadmcginty

Can't believe the extreme level of Monster Munch gaslighting I'm being subjected to here.

Elderly Sumo Prophecy

Quote from: beanheadmcginty on October 18, 2020, 05:32:56 PM
Yes. Elderly Sumo Prophecy on the first page of this thread. One of the first people to respond. Automatically second in command of my burgeoning old secondary Monster Munch shape truth movement.

With you all the way, Skips.

Hand Solo

Remember when Curlywurlys came with Swastika shapes down the middle? Think they got phased out in the late 80s.


Replies From View

Looks like a duck billed platypus to me.  One that has been converted into a swimming aid.

beanheadmcginty


Shit Good Nose

Forgot to mention earlier in the thread I tried the vanilla ones.  Not as disgusting as you might think - just tasted like very sweet popcorn.  The only odd thing about them was that they came in a Monster Munch bag.

Replies From View


buzby

Quote from: beanheadmcginty on October 17, 2020, 02:41:43 AM
This is a wonderfully detailed history of Monster Munch and I really enjoyed reading it Buzby. But, and I don't want to sound unappreciative, what I couldn't help noticing was the complete lack of a photo of the old secondary Monster Munch shape.
It's even more remarkable that such a photo doesn't exist now we can see that photos of the old packets are ten a penny.
There were three shapes originally, one for each of the monsters. The one you are thinking of with the pairs of arms in each side was the one for Saucy flavour (the Blue Top-hatted monster had 4 arms). The other shapes were the Pink, lolling tongue monster (pairs of nubs at 12, 3 and 9 o'clock, curly 'tongue' at 6 o'clock) and the Yellow One Eye monster (4 nubs between 11 and 2 o'clock, representing it's eyelashes).

Unfortunately nobody thought to take pictures of the snacks themselves, so all we have left are some vintage packets and TV adverts (though there is one reddit user whose boyfriend has the unopened pack of Salt & Vinegar from 1987 that I posted in my potted history). They started adding the shapes onto the pack front illustrations when they were redesigned to remove the clear window in the monster's mouth in the mid-80s ,but by then Blue Top Hat had been moved to Sizzling Bacon which was a diamond with curved sides, and then eventually to Smoky Spiders. It seems the original idea of the shape being associated with the characteristics of the monster got binned and instead was associated with the flavour (though Yellow One Eye's shape moved with it to Cheese and Onion when Small Orange took over on Pickled Onion). Eventually PepsiCo binned the different shape idea entirely and just went with the 4-taloned 'claw' for everything.

Quote from: Replies From View on October 18, 2020, 10:46:37 AM
That looks like a proper pain in the arse to engineer and I'm no maize reconstituter.

That's some obsessive texture there, real careful detail, some overlapping even.  It almost looks like two pieces glued together if truth be told.  If you asked me to swear on oath I'd say I've no experience whatsoever in the maize reconstitution industry right but that looks like two pieces of sculpted Fimo or something carefully glued together for the advert to make children think their snacks will have unparalleled texturing.

That's what I'd say and I'd be speaking the godamned truth.
You can make maize extrusion dies in virtually any shape you like.

This video shows hundreds of different dies  with shapes far more complex than the pink monster's shape.

Jasha

Quote from: beanheadmcginty on October 18, 2020, 04:24:32 PM
ALL FLAVOURS! All bags of Monster Munch used to consist of two different shapes mixed together. One was the current claw, the other was a sort of hoop with double parallel protrusions.

Even chainsaw flavour?


JesusAndYourBush

I have much stronger memories of the other Monster Munch shapes (and surely there were more than 2??), but no memories of the shape in the photo at the bottom of the previous page, which if I believe this thread, is the more common shape?  I remember one was a sort of square shape with some small protruberances around it, but not the spider, it was more square and the protruberances were shorter.

EDIT: Like this.
EDIT2: And it wasn't that non-symmetrical thing further up the page with a bit broken off.  I don't remember any non-symmetrical Monster Munch.



Replies From View

If it doesn't resemble a monster then you must have dreamt it.

This is my new motto in life, I have decided.

Replies From View

Quote from: buzby on October 18, 2020, 09:37:31 PM
You can make maize extrusion dies in virtually any shape you like.

This video shows hundreds of different dies  with shapes far more complex than the pink monster's shape.

I broadly understand in the sense that I saw children using play dough squeezers when I was a kid and Monster Munches are like cross-section slices of that.  The way the shapes twist and turn and coil in on themselves I'm going to put down to temperature, torque and thickness, the three Ts if you will.


But look at the overlap on this sample:



I don't understand how that could be done in one of those dies.  Looks moulded or overlaid to create a more solid shape for the advert.

AsparagusTrevor

Quote from: Bernice on October 18, 2020, 06:45:23 PM
Rib n Saucy Nik Naks are pretty good.

They used to be amazing before they recently stopped putting a flavour in.

Replies From View

"Saucy" is a very aggravating name for a flavour.

"Ribby n Saucy" I could just about go with.  It's the combination of noun and adjective that sets me rioting.

Bernice

Yes I've thought this before. I think maybe they can get away with it if the-y applies not just to sauce, but also to rib. As in, these Nik Naks taste like Rib n Sauce, they are Rib n Saucy.

touchingcloth