Robot Claw

If you’re keeping track, this is the 5th ‘Universes Beyond’ post and the 31st ramen-related post! What do we have today? This:

Pusheen is a character created in 2010 by an American illustrator. In the years since the fat fluffy cat has become heavily merchandised and there’s a large array of Pusheen items available today. Apparently he’s big enough he now has his own ramen!

You can clearly say the package is labeled ‘chicken ramen‘, but when I opened it I found this:

That’s not ramen! Those are pho noodles, and since I’ve never tried a chicken pho that I liked I was immediately suspicious of this incorrectly labeled product.

I followed the sparse instructions and – like most other instant pho soups I’ve tried – the noodles hardly softened. My suspicion only deepened since the smell was abhorrent, but I sealed it and let it steep another few minutes.

Eventually it was time to sample it and – surprise, surprise – the taste was reminiscent of weeds and the noodles had the consistency of elastic bands. A dreadful product, not even worth 1% of the $4.99 I paid for it. Pusheen can go to hell!

I was surprised recently to find that Walmart sells store brand candy bars. Made in Turkey, generically named and about half the price of the ‘real’ bars, they are versions of Twix, Kit-Kat, 3 Musketeers, Snickers and Milky Way. Naturally we had to try them, and here are our thoughts.

Twix bars have been around since 1967 and are sold in many countries around the world. Considering the real versions, Twix are probably my favorite of the five in this post.

In this post the left photo is the Walmart version, and the right is an official advertising shot of the actual bar. You can see their Twix knockoff is flatter than the original, the cookie biscuit is crispier and the caramel harder and chewier. The chocolate has a slightly ‘cheap’ taste to it – but the upside is the caramel is chewier and the biscuit tasty. Overall it’s very convincing to a real Twix and considering the cost a more than acceptable substitute. Thumbs up from both of us!

Kit Kats are now 88 years old and more widely available worldwide than any other bar in this post. They’ve also been sold in an astonishing amount of flavours: over 300 alone just for Japan! We once watched a documentary about the making of Kit Kats that revealed the wafer is the same as a communion wafer!

I can eat Japanese (plain) Kit Kats until the cows come home but I don’t much like the US versions (since Americans chocolate tastes strange to me). These knockoffs were the least impressive of the five we tried: the ‘wafer’ lacked the filling and the chocolate coating wasn’t consistent. Taste wise they weren’t good: since they’re basically just chocolate the sickly sweet taste was overpowering, and we couldn’t finish them. We both gave this one a thumbs down.

3 Musketeers (known as Milky Way outside of the USA) is so named since when it was launched 92 years ago it had three flavours: chocolate, vanilla and strawberry. It’s a brick of soft nougat thinly coated in chocolate and so light and fluffy they float in milk!

This Turkish knockoff was extremely convincing, even down to the swirly design on top of the chocolate. The nougat was notably stiffer than the real version, but this gave it a delicious chewy texture that in some ways is better than the original. Again we were surprised by how much we enjoyed this, and it’s another two thumbs up.

Snickers, named after a horse, was introduced 94 years ago and is now the best selling candy bar in the world. In the USA alone over 400 million are sold annually!

This one was extremely good. As with the Twix knockoff, the caramel was chewier (a good thing) as was the nougat. It had fewer peanuts than a real snickers which may be good or bad to you, but which I liked. The taste was just right, and due to the caramel and nougat texture I think I liked it better than a real snickers! KLS said this was her favourite of the five, and we both give it an easy thumbs up!

Lastly was the Milky Way bar, better known to Ozlings as a Mars bar. This is the oldest candy bar in this post: first sold an astonishing 100 years ago! When I was a youngster Mars bars were a staple of my diet, so I felt particularly suited to judge this knockoff.

Once again the caramel is harder, nougat less fluffy and chocolate thinner than the original, but what’s important is the taste and much like the Snickers knockoff this one delivers! It’s wonderfully chewy and dense, and the caramel and nougat helps offset the slightly unusual chocolate taste. This one is also debatably preferable than the real version and once again got a double thumbs up from us.

In truth, these results were greatly surprising. I had imagined the worst: half price knockoffs from Turkey?!? But Kit Kat aside, these bootleg bars ranged from acceptable to good and in two case arguably better than the originals. Maybe I should see what other knockoff grocery products have made their way into the local shops?

Watch enough anime or read enough manga and you’ll eventually come upon a scene where the characters eat at a fast food joint often called WcDonalds:

The almost-but-not-quite name of these restaurants is of course to avoid copyright, while telling viewers that they’re eating at McDonalds. It’s become somewhat of a trope these days, and apparently a version of WcDonalds appears in over 60 manga or anime series.

McDonald’s itself has embraced anime for several Japanese TV commercials, and of course these use the real name of the restaurant:

But now McDonalds has gone one step further, and actually embraced the WcDonalds name. Stores in America are right now participating in a month-long WcDonalds event where much of the food packaging and in-store branding (posters, ordering kiosks, even uniforms) now display a large yellow W in place of the familiar M:

Here’s all four sides of the bag you get when you order takeout during the event:

There’s a website (WcDonalds.com) where you can read manga and watch anime based around the characters on the bags. You need the QR code from the bag to unlock these, so here it is:

The manga and anime are cute enough for corporate advertising, but predictably tame. Here’s a panel from the latest one about two teenagers falling in love while sharing WcDonalds:

Disappointingly, the event is limited to branding and the manga/anime. There’s no burgers, toys, or anything to collect. Surely they could have made a ‘Big Wac’ or something? The only actual menu item that is limited to the event is this nugget sauce, which I’m told isn’t fantastic:

A true crime is the lack of any Ronald WcDonald character. I know they’ve turned their back on the world’s favourite clown but surely his bizarro-world brother could have made a triumphant return just for this?

This event is USA-only now but will apparently happen in 30 other countries as well. While they’ve obviously put a lot of effort into it (an actual WcDonalds store is opening for a limited time in LA!) I feel there’s potential for even more. Let’s hope it’s a success and we see Super Saiyan WcDonalds in the future!