Tag: advertisements

McDonaldland puppets in Balboa Park, and a mystery!

Years ago, McDonald’s gave a special treat to San Diego. The fast food restaurant donated two of their McDonaldland television commercial puppets to the Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theater in Balboa Park. The two puppets are now perched up near the ceiling of the puppet theater, in shadow behind the audience seating. I happened to spy them yesterday!

I learned that over ten years ago McDonald’s donated their old McDonaldland puppets to various established puppet theaters around the country. The Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theater received the famous, lovable Bernice, plus the horned pink creature in my first two photos. The theater affectionately calls the latter their “Pink Monster,” but little seems known about this particular puppet’s history.

Both of these McDonald’s puppets are quite worn after many years, so they now sit quietly, themselves watching puppet performances on the Marie Hitchcock stage.

Okay, here’s the mystery! Do you recognize the big “Pink Monster” puppet with horns? Was it in fact ever used in McDonald’s commercials? What was it called? If you do know anything about it, please leave a comment!

And now, meet Bernice! You quite possibly recognize her!

Here’s the photograph that I took yesterday…

Wikipedia’s McDonaldland page includes:

Bernice (performed by Tim Blaney and Tony Urbano) – A strange creature that was introduced in 1992 and that ate inedible things like the script in the three-part “Ronald McDonald Makin’ Movies” commercial.

You can find a great photograph of Bernice with Ronald McDonald on the RestaurantClicks website by clicking here!

As that website explains: The lovable Bernice appeared in TV commercials with Ronald McDonald for a decade, from 1992 to 2001… The main personality characteristic of Bernice remains her ability to eat anything. In one memorable commercial, Bernice eats the script and throws everyone into chaos.

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

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Predator: Badlands banners appear for Comic-Con!

Street lamp banners that promote Predator: Badlands are beginning to appear in San Diego for upcoming Comic-Con 2025!

Predator: Badlands will be released later this year, and will be the–can you believe it–ninth movie in the Predator franchise. Obviously, the film will be heavily hyped during Comic-Con.

A young android will be paired with a young alien Predator in the new science fiction action adventure. Interesting combination. The two characters appear in the Comic-Con banners now going up along sidewalks in downtown San Diego!

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Feel free to share!

Mario rides the San Diego trolley for Comic-Con!

Mario will be riding the San Diego Trolley during Comic-Con 2025!

The latest San Diego Trolley wrap for Comic-Con promotes the Nintendo Switch 2 and ever popular Mario games, including Mario Kart World, which launched on Switch 2 last week.

For 2025, this is the third Comic-Con trolley wrap design I’ve noticed so far. Considering San Diego’s international pop culture event is still a month and a half away, I reckon there will be many more to come!

Time to Power Up Your Play!

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Feel free to share!

San Diego gets ready for TwitchCon 2024!

Thousands of video live streamers and fans will soon be converging on the San Diego Convention Center. San Diego is getting ready for TwitchCon 2024!

This year, TwitchCon will be bigger than ever, and evidence of its popularity has begun to pop up around downtown–in particular the Gaslamp Quarter.

TwitchCon 2024 will run this weekend from September 20 to September 22. The San Diego Convention Center is already decorated for the event, as you can see from these photos taken Tuesday afternoon.

The TwitchCon Block Party will be held in the Gaslamp Quarter near the convention center on Fifth Avenue this Saturday, September 21, beginning at 7:00 pm. Head on down for three hours of food vendors, live music options, themed photo ops, plenty of spots to chill with friends, and more.

A bunch of advertisements concerning TwitchCon have appeared up and down Fifth Avenue. Here are two “glitchy” ones…

And check this one out. Find five marbleverse marbles and get free loot!

Gamers! This is really cool.

Bards & Cards at 936 Fifth Avenue will be hosting a free event. On Saturday, September 21, from 11 am to 4 pm, you can meet Briana White, the voice of Aerith Gainsborough in Final Fantasy VII Remake! Get her autograph and photos!

Briana White is also a Twitch streamer. She’s known as TheStrangeRebel.

Finally, if you’re a fan of Sonic the Hedgehog, go check out the Sonic the Hedgehog Speed Café at 910 J Street, just north of Petco Park. They debuted before Comic-Con and will remain open to the public until early November.

Inside they’ve got fun graphics for photo-ops, all sorts of Sonic merch, and really great fast food. Tonight I took home one of their Knuckles chicken sandwiches and it was tasty good!

UPDATE!

Next day, street lamp banners were appearing in the Gaslamp…

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Rings of Power found in the Gaslamp Quarter!

What would you do if you found a magic ring from Middle Earth? Would you place it on your finger? Would you eventually fall under the power of Sauron?

Well, some Rings of Power can be found in San Diego during Comic-Con 2024! You can see them near the Gaslamp Quarter, Historic Heart Of San Diego archway!

Some large, very cool looking building wraps are being applied to the Hilton San Diego Gaslamp across Fifth Avenue from the Hard Rock Hotel. They promote The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power on Amazon Prime.

I’ll take more photos as these building wraps approach completion and post them in an update below!

UPDATE!

The wraps appeared nearly finished the following morning. I took the following photographs under less than ideal light conditions, so I had to radically adjust contrast and brightness. But the darker images are fitting! After all, darkness will bind them!

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!

Abbott Elementary wraps appear on Petco Park!

Large building wraps that promote ABC television’s series Abbott Elementary are now being applied to the exterior of Petco Park for Comic-Con 2024!

Check out some photos that I took today. I’ll take more photographs in the days to come and will post them as an update below.

Abbott Elementary will have an “A.V.A. FEST” free-to-the-public activation behind the San Diego Convention Center during Comic-Con. The offsite will feature lots of fun and giveaways!

Have you seen the Abbott Elementary trolleys now running around San Diego? I posted pics of one here!

UPDATE!

Next day…

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!

Comic-Con building wraps, banners appear in San Diego!

Here we go! Comic-Con 2024 is a little over a week away, and gigantic building wraps and banners have begun to appear in downtown San Diego!

Late this afternoon I walked near the San Diego Convention Center and through the Gaslamp Quarter, and observed how many workers must have been very busy today!

First, I noticed the tall Park 12 high-rise near Petco Park has a humungous double building wrap promoting Nickelodeon’s Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which will be streaming on Paramount+ on August 9.

On the Harbor Drive side of the Hilton San Diego Bayfront hotel parking garage there’s now a big banner advertising the video game Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree.

On the San Diego Convention Center side of the same parking garage there’s an even bigger banner anticipating DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO. The video game is coming on October 11, 2024.

On the corner of the parking garage is this…

While walking near Gaslamp Square, I looked up at that new big video board and discovered a long advertisement for Those About to Die, a Roman gladiator series on Peacock that begins on July 18! NBCUniversal usually has their offsite here.

Look what’s going up on the Hard Rock Hotel! A wrap that celebrates SpongeBob’s 25th anniversary! SpongeBob Squarepants premiered on July 17, 1999.

Finally, I noticed a big mural at Happy Does on Fifth Avenue. It indicates that Paramount+ offsite The Lodge will be here!

Woohoo! Comic-Con 2024 is getting very close, so I’m taking Cool San Diego Sights into “Comic-Con mode” for the next couple weeks!

Don’t fret if you don’t care for this stuff, however. I’ve got San Diego photos that I’ll share after Comic-Con ends that many of you might like. Stay tuned!

UPDATE!

The following day (July 16) I took this photograph of the Hard Rock Hotel. I learned from a hotel employee that the interior will have a SpongeBob theme this year.

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!

Santa Claus, CHiPs and toys for kids!

What was Santa Claus doing in San Diego this morning? Good question!

As I waited at the Fashion Valley Transit Center for a bus, I spied Santa on the side of a box truck in the mall parking lot. So of course I had to walk over and investigate!

Turns out I had discovered a wonderful charity.

CHiPs for Kids sponsors an annual holiday season toy drive by the California Highway Patrol. The toy drive typically begins in mid-November and runs through mid-December, just in time for Christmas.

CHP area offices around California are where the unwrapped and unused toys are collected. The donated toys are distributed to families who are in need.

Santa on the side of a truck and the promised delivery of holiday cheer!

In late April!

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!

Giant videoboard in Gaslamp activated!

A gigantic videoboard, installed in Gaslamp Square, has been activated! Two huge LED walls are mounted high in the air, attracting the attention of people near the San Diego Convention Center, Petco Park and the Gaslamp Quarter!

When I walked past the videoboard this morning, at least one worker was still up a ladder finishing the installation.

Bright videos that were running included promos for the Padres, MTS, and our beautiful City of San Diego. Mixed in were several advertisements, including one for a popular baseball video game.

Gaslamp Square, located directly next to the Gaslamp trolley station, has become a hub for many downtown activities such as Comic-Con. Now this outdoor space will be even more lively!

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!

San Diego’s historic Balboa Theatre turns 100!

This coming Thursday–March 28, 2024–the Balboa Theatre in downtown San Diego will have been opened for 100 years!

Those walking down the sidewalk past the historic building might notice some intriguing graphics that celebrate the big anniversary.

Look at my first photograph, taken this morning. Beside the stage door on Fourth Avenue you can see promotional material from 1924.

The Opening Night of San Diego’s Newest Motion Picture House Finished at Cost of $800,000 would feature Lilies of the Field. The film’s stars, Conway Tearle and Corinne Griffith, would also make a personal appearance.

Over the course of a century, the Balboa Theatre has undergone many changes, all the while remaining an important part of life in downtown San Diego.

Read the fascinating history here.

Additional graphics along the sidewalk tell more of the Balboa Theatre’s unique story:

The Balboa Theatre’s Famous Morton Organ

…The organ has more than 1400 keys and is connected to a series of 2,000 pipes that produce the sounds of a range of musical instruments, including drums, trumpets, and a xylophone!

Because of its unusually ornate “wedding cake” console carvings and unique details, the Balboa ‘s is believe to be the first of only five Wonder Morton Organs ever built and one of only four that survive today…

Balboa Theatre organist Edward Swan, who provides organ accompaniment for up to 12 hours every day, claimed that the Morton organ was the finest he had ever played.

In 1929, the original Balboa Theatre organ was relocated to the Fox Theatre, now Copley Symphony Hall.

The 4-manual, 23-rank Wonder Morton Organ currently installed at the Balboa was constructed in 1929 for the Loew’s Valencia Theatre on Jamaica Avenue in Queens…

There will be a special showing at the Balboa Theatre this Friday to celebrate the big 100 year anniversary. The Flying Fleet, a 1929 silent movie that features scenes in San Diego, will be accompanied by the current Wonder Morton theatre pipe organ.

You can learn more about the event by clicking here!

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!