Spongebob Popsicles: evidence of declining quality assurance practices?

Spongey34 · Jun 22, 2012

In 2007 a Boing Boing reader shared the above photo of a Spongebob Popsicle that bore little likeness to the well-known cartoon character. (She sent in the photo after seeing myphoto of a poorly made Tweety Bird frozen novelty bar.)

Today, I came across this new photo of a Spongebob Popsicle. It looks even worse than the 2007 Popsicle! At first, I thought that the manufacturing quality had plumbed a new nadir. However, I now suspect that new Popsicle went through a melt-and-refreeze cycle, causing the massive deformation and discoloration we see.

For those tempted to chime in that the nature of frozen novelty bars makes it impossible to reliably produce them with reasonable fidelity to the original character design, I'd like to once again point to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle bar:

http://boingboing.ne...s-evidence.html

Ugly Barnacle · Jun 22, 2012

I used to be terrified of those things when I was little...the fact that it looks nothing like SpongeBob and the way his eyes are so beady and black made me want to run away when I heard the ice cream truck at the park. :run:

ooooooofy · Jun 22, 2012

I had one of those popsicles when I was at Niagara Falls! I was going to get one at the pool on Monday, but they were out of stock, so I got an oreo sandwich instead. :P Those pictures look nothing like the picture at the snack bar at the pool does. :eyebrow:

SpongeBobfan1987 · Jun 22, 2012

They changed the color and design of the wrapper from green with a large image of SpongeBob to blue and yellow with a smaller image of SpongeBob standing next to a SpongeBob Popsicle. I have had a few of these SpongeBob Popsicles before, they all seemed to have the sagging mouth and eyes that you guys are describing.

PatStar2000 · Jun 22, 2012

I remember at my local pool, I had my firt SpongeBob popsicle. I was really little, so I didn't know that the black eyeballs were gumballs. So, yeah, of course I spit it out. :yuck:

Cha · Jun 23, 2012

Never had one personally, but they do look creepy.

E.V.I.L · Jun 24, 2012

Those look really gross though.......

Spongebob Popsicles: evidence of declining quality assurance practices?

Spongey34

Dafano

Ugly Barnacle

I'm not really ugly, I just stink

ooooooofy

hello! :)

SpongeBobfan1987

"Fighting crime, trying to save the world..."

PatStar2000

heyo

Cha

I love SBM

E.V.I.L

I