Fruit Snacks Based on the Operation Game

Hey guys and gals look what I found in the snack aisle! Kellogg's and Hasbro have come together in an epic licensing deal to spawn Operation fruit flavored snacks! Yes the classic game is now immortalized as a fruit snack. Actually, I think it's kind of an odd move to make. Fruit snacks are one of those items that are usually based on cartoon characters, animals or other popular intellectual properties like super hero movies that kids are crazy about at that moment. For example, they come out with fruit snacks of Batman when a new batman movie hits theaters. Or, if a cartoon like Sponge Bob reaches popularity they make it into a fruit snack so the kids who like the character can now bite his chewy fruit flavored head off. But why the game Operation? Has it made a big come back recently with this new generation?

Here's the little lunch bag ready packs of Operation fruit snacks. When I was in grade school animal fruit snacks where all the rave. I remember a kid could achieve the lunch table equivalent of sexiest man alive just by having a pack of dinosaur shaped fruit snacks. But the most sought after fruit snack at my school was when they came out with SHARKS. Everyone wanted these bad boys. They had tiger sharks, hammer heads and the rare and elusive great white shark. It was really white colored. Not every pack would have one in it but if you got one then look out. Everyone at your table would beg you for it. In grade school cafeteria trading culture the great white shark was a rare currency that may have even fetched a whole cupcake. I believe Betty Crocker still makes shark fruit snacks, though I don't know if kids today are as obsessed with them as we were.

In other words, fruit snacks are often made based on things kids are very much into at that particular moment. So then why make fruit snacks based on the game Operation? I mean this game has been around for decades. There is no question that it is a classic and still popular. It's an iconic item that young and old can identify with. Still there isn't a cartoon or movie or any other media to deliver this brand other than the game. So it seems like a risky choice to make it into a fruit snack. I think Kellogg's was betting on the familiarity of the game's name and the character's face to make parents buy it. I still doubt that kids would beg for it though.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the game here is a brief description. Operation is a skill game produced originally by Milton Bradley starting in the mid sixties. Now it is owned and produced by Hasbro. It consists of an operating table with the picture of a man named Cavity Sam on it. Sam suffers from several made-up ailments that you have to extract from his body using tweezers. But here is the hard part. If the tweezers touch the sides of the hole you are pulling an item from then Sam's red light bulb nose lights up and a horrifying buzzing sound makes you jump out of your seat. It's pretty challenging for a kids game. There are also two kinds of cards that tell you what to take out and play money you can give for a successful procedure. But I never messed with all that crap. I was always having too much fun just playing with this game like a toy by trying to pull out each item without getting the buzzer. It's like that game Mouse Trap. We didn't want to mess with the recommended game play of taking turns and slowly building the contraption. We just wanted to set it up all at once and watch it go!

Getting back to the Operation game, the ailments (small plastic pieces) that Sam needs removed are all puns based on common phrases. There is Adam's Apple (an apple), Broken Heart (heart with a crack), Wrenched Ankle (a wrench), Butterflies in the Stomach (a butterfly), Spare Ribs (ribs), Water on the Knee (a bucket), Funny Bone (cartoon bone), Charley Horse (a horse), Writer's Cramp (a pencil), The Ankle Bone Connected to the Knee Bone (a rubber band), Wish Bone (a wishbone), and Bread Basket (piece of bread).

Starting in 2003 Hasbro added a new shape to the game after having a contest to come up with what it would be. The winner was Brain Freeze an ice cream cone in Sam's head. Pretty cute, huh? Plus, there has been a trend of making lisenced versions of the Operation game in which Sam is replaced on the table by a character like the Hulk or Spider-man.

One would think that a fruit snack based on the game Operation would have little fruit snack versions of these game pieces. Nope, you'd be wrong if you thought that. Because the fruit snacks don't feature a single one of the game pieces listed above. Instead there are six new things that I suppose were chosen because they would be easier to manufacture. In fact from the look of it maybe some of these shapes had been used in other fruit snacks and they already had the molds.

Here are the six pieces in the fruit snacks: Sam's Head (including the dated Moe Howard, Stooge haircut), A Frog in the Throat (a frog), Bird Brained (a bird), The Giggles (a smiley face), Dog Tired (a dog), and Ringing in the Ear (a bell). So you can see that even though these maladies aren't the same as the original game they are still puns similar to the real game pieces. So at least they are in the same spirit of the game.

And here they are. They are typical chewy fruit snacks and they taste pretty good. I'm sure this can be said about all snacks of this kind but it's a deceptive misnomer to call them "fruit snacks." The only thing fruit about them is some artificial flavoring. The front of the box even has a little apple logo claiming "made with real fruit." Indeed there is apple puree in the mix somewhere, but the primary ingredient is corn syrup and the third ingredient is sugar. So they should be called "corn syrup snacks." Even better call them "sugar gummy candies that we then made to taste kinda like fruit so we could call them fruit snacks." Listing that these are "Fat Free" is also kinda ridiculous since they are all sugar. I guess most people don't understand that excess refined sugar still contributes to making fat in the body.

The only nutritional plus side to these is that each pack contains the daily value of vitamin C. But obviously all the refined sugar is not the ideal vehicle to deliver vitamin C in. It'd be better to just give the kid an orange. If you think kids won't eat real fruit just put a Sponge Bob sticker on the side of the orange and they'll go nuts to have it.

The back of the box has artwork similar to that found on the back of a cereal box. I found this a bit odd too. The reason for cereal box games is that you have the box in front of you usually as you eat the cereal. So the game gives you something to look at while you eat. But these fruit snacks are going into a lunch bag and eaten elsewhere. I doubt that kids are going to sit next to the box as they eat the snacks. Either way I love the illustration so I ain't complainin'.

here are the items you need to find. Can you find them all?

This game on the back has a few more ailments listed. I like the Phone Finger. It reminds me of Nintendo-Itis, the nickname for the thumb cramp you get from playing too much video games. Time on his Hands is kinda dumb, but is it any worse than the others? Pulled Muscle is similar to the rubber band from the game and of course Water on the Knee is taken directly from the game piece of the same name. Why didn't they make a fruit snack of this one? I think they should have at least made ONE of the fruit snacks based on the original game pieces. But what can ya do?

In conclusion I guess Operation fruit snacks are interesting pop culture artifacts. They must be a limited time thing. Even though they are based on a classic game I don't see how this licensed fruit snack will become classic too.

-Daniel

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