Just some of these ice cream bars.
"Look, I'm a comic book. I'm a cereal. Did a Christmas album. I have an excellent theme song... and a so-so popsicle."
— Peter Parker, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Ahhh... ice cream. What prevents us from being parched during scorching hot summer days whenever the ice cream truck comes to the neighborhood. And looking at the stickers you see... that one of your favorite characters is featured as a popsicle!
Since the late 1980s or earlier, ice cream bars themed after cartoon characters have been popular as a feature of ice cream trucks and convenience store ice cream cases. Now kids can enjoy eating their favorite characters' heads or such. These often have a tendency to look only somewhat like the character when taken out of the packaging.
Subset of The Merch.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Digimon: Blue Bunny released an ice cream bar shaped like Patamon sometime during the turn of the millennium. It's long been discontinued and very little information about the bar exists online.
- Sailor Moon: Blue Bunny released an ice of Sailor Moon's wand around the time of the DiC dub's original broadcast. The vendors' sticker also advertised the show's U.S. fan club's phone number, 1-800-378-LUNA.
- Yu-Gi-Oh!: Popsicle released a blue raspberry and cherry flavoured ice of Yugi's Millennium Puzzle. It was discontinued some time ago.
- Hello Kitty: Popsicle has released one shaped like Hello Kitty's head.
- In Japan, the standard character popsicle is one that comes with some sort of sticker or trading card based on the series rather than being shaped like one of the characters. Aikatsu!, Yo-Kai Watch and Love Live! Sunshine!! are some of the series that have recieved these kinds of ice cream bars.
Comic Books
- Spider-Man: Popsicle released an ice of Spider-Man's face. It received a mention in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
- The Incredible Hulk: Hulk has an ice of his face.
- Batman: Blue Bunny released an ice of Batman's face, which has silver gumballs and a blue cowl.
- Iron Man: Iron Man has an ice of his face.
- X-Men: Wolverine has an ice of his face.
- Captain America: Blue Bunny appears to have released one based on Cap's iconic shield.
- Brazilian comic Monica's Gang had one of the title character.
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Comic Strips
- Garfield has two:
- First, there's one of Garfield's face with a bow tie that has sprinkles on it. It has Orange, White Lemon, and Yellow Cherry Ice flavors.
- There's also the more simplified Garfield Hunger Buster released by Tip Top ice cream in New Zealand and Pauls Ice Cream & Milk Ltd. in Australia.
- Peanuts: Popsicle released an ice of Snoopy's face that was a longtime staple of ice cream. This one doesn't have gumball eyes and has the stick on the side of his head.
- In the 80s in the UK, Lyons Maid released a Bananaman ice lolly, based on the character from The Dandy. It wasn't designed to look like him, but it was banana flavoured.
- Walls, meanwhile, had a Dennis the Menace (UK) lolly, which was strawberry and cola flavoured to match his iconic red and black jersey.
Film — Animation
- Shrek: Blue Bunny released an ice of Shrek's face with purple gumball eyes.
- Monsters, Inc.: Mike Wazowski's face.
- Given their simple character designs and immense popularity, the Minions have one.
- Madagascar: Private has an ice of his face with blue gumball eyes.
Live-Action TV
- Power Rangers: Red Ranger
Puppet Shows
- The Supermarionation characters appeared in ice cream commercials in their hayday, most of which consisted of the Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons casts using Lyons-Maid popsicles to save the world.
- The Fab 208 ice lolly bar was originally intended in The '60s as a two-for-one tie-in; the three-stage rocket shape in eye-watering dayglo colours was homage to the popular puppet shows of Gerry Anderson, tied with the radio station wavelength 208 (Radio Luxembourg, which broadcast on 208 metres medium wave, and after the demise of pirate radio was the only serious competitor to BBC Radio One). "F.A.B." was used in Thunderbirds in radio comms as the analogue of "Roger" for "message received"; this was used so often it inspired a Thunderbirds themed lolly. Adding the station ident of a groovy and with-it radio station simply reinforced the message and moved more product to a different demographic. Alas, time marches on; Lady Penelope has garaged her pink Rolls-Royce, Fab 1, for the last time; and Fabulous Radio Luxembourg 208 no longer broadcasts to Britain. But the lolly, now known simply as Fab, is still on sale in Britain.
Toys
- Bratz: Blue Bunny produced an ice of Cloe's face with raspberry and lemon-lime flavors. This bar was still sold well into the mid-2010s, well after the franchise's mainstream popularity died down. A version depicting Talia from the Lil' Bratz sub-line - with strawberry, lemon-lime and raspberry flavors - was also produced briefly.
- The Transformers has the Autobot Blast Bar from Hershey's Ice Cream. It is based off the Autobot insignia and has strawberry, lemon, and "fruity blue moon" flavors.
Video Games
- Sonic the Hedgehog:
- Blue Bunny has a blue raspberry- and cherry-flavored version of Sonic's head. The ice is particularly infamous on the Internet due to its inconsistent appearance. It's also one of the longest running Character Ices. It was first released in 1995 and is still in production. Over the years, the only major change has been the gumball eyes changing from black to green after Sonic Adventure. Of note, the bar's packaging was once changed to advertise the ultimately unreleased game Sonic X-treme.note
- Australia briefly had a Sonic ice cream consisting of milk ice and shock rocks. It was released by Toppa the same year that the Blue Bunny ice debuted and was a simple, bar-shaped ice. The commercial for the product starts with a "shocking" advisory warning, which might be intended as more of a pun than the fact that Sonic and Tails are physically torturing Robotnik.
- Super Mario Bros.: Popsicle has an ice of Mario's face. It's more stylized than usual, only being white and red. It's cherry flavoured and has a gumball nose. The ice has been discontinued.
- Angry Birds: Red from Blue Bunny.
- Pokémon has the Pikachu character ice from Popsicle. Unusual in that the gumballs serve as Pikachu's cheeks rather than its eyes. A Gengar model also existed around the same time. Many swear that other Pokemon shapes were available, but there's no proof of anything other than Gengar and Pikachu existing. It's possibly a Mandela Effect. People think there were pops of Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle, and Meowth. This is likely due to these Pokémon appearing in the ad alongside Pikachu and Gengar and there were 6 bars to come in the box.
Western Animation
- Butt-Ugly Martians: 2-T Fru T was released as a pop.
- Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers: Good Humor released an ice of Chip's face.
- Danny Phantom: Danny (in his ghost form) had a blue raspberry, strawberry, and lemon ice of his face, with green gumball eyes. The ice has been discontinued.
- Dora the Explorer: Popsicle released an ice of Dora's face. Similar to the Pokémon ice pops of Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle, and Meowth noted above, people believed there were ice pops of Boots the Monkey but is a Mandela effect.
- The Fairly OddParents!: Cosmo has his own bar called the "Cosmo Bar" by Popsicle. It is a strawberry- and lemonade-flavoured version of his head.
- Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: Blue Bunny released an ice of Bloo with black gumball eyes. Due to his simple design, it's literally his entire body.
- The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius: Popsicle released an ice of Jimmy's face. It has blue gumball eyes and is cherry cola flavored. The ice has been discontinued.
- Kim Possible: Kim has an ice of her face with green gumball eyes.
- Looney Tunes:
- Blue Bunny released an ice of Bugs Bunny's face with blue gumball eyes. The packaging was upgraded in 2021 to promote Space Jam: A New Legacy.
- Tweety has a Blue Bunny ice with blue gumball eyes.
- There also exists a Roadrunner bar from Blue Bunny.
- Blue Bunny also made one of Taz sometime in the 90s.
- The Mickey Mouse ice cream bars sold at the Disney Theme Parks. In 2018, they began being sold in grocery stores to celebrate Mickey Mouse's 90th birthday.
- There were also the Mickey's Parade popsicles in the 1980's, which were fruit-flavored popsicles in the shape of Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy, as well as the Mousketeer Bar, which depicted Mickey himself.
- Miraculous Ladybug: Blue Bunny has released an ice depicting Ladybug's symbol.
- ˇMucha Lucha!: A cherry and pineapple Popsicle in the shape of Rikochet's head.
- The Pink Panther: Two versions exist: the one from the 1980s by Merritt Foods and the newer one from Blue Bunny.
- The Powerpuff Girls: Blue Bunny released an ice of Bubbles' face and upper body. It was even being sold prior to the reboot's first broadcast.
- Rugrats:
- The characters were featured on rebranded WWE ice cream cookie bars from Popsicle.
- Popsicle also made a ice of Chuckie. It's a grape and raspberry flavored bar with black gumball eyes. The ice has been discontinued.
- Scooby-Doo: Blue Bunny released an ice of Scooby's face with blue gumball eyes.
- The Simpsons: Popsicle started selling an ice shaped like Bart's face in the 2000s. Despite the continuing popularity and legacy of the series, the ice has been discontinued.
- SpongeBob SquarePants has at least three versions:
- Popsicle released an ice of SpongeBob with black gumball eyes. Due to his simple design, it consists of his entire torso. The ice itself is fruit punch and cotton candy flavoured. Apparently this one has managed to become such an ice cream truck staple, that Nickelodeon has actually given their approval for a set of collectible figurines based on this beloved treat. While they were briefly discontinued in June 2020 due to supply shortages, the SpongeBob bar has since been re-released and remains an ice cream truck staple to this day. In 2023, the gumball eyes were changed into chocolate eyes, which was met with backlash. The official reason for this is because they were looking for a way to improve the product.
- Peters Ice Cream of Australia had their own version.◊ It has caramel and chocolate flavors.
- There's also this one◊ from an Eastern European country that... doesn't accurately depict SpongeBob. It looks more like a slice of Swiss cheese. Though, this could possibly be a reference to the "yellow popsicle" scene in The Smoking Peanut.
- Popsicle released an ice of SpongeBob with black gumball eyes. Due to his simple design, it consists of his entire torso. The ice itself is fruit punch and cotton candy flavoured. Apparently this one has managed to become such an ice cream truck staple, that Nickelodeon has actually given their approval for a set of collectible figurines
- Street Sharks had one in the 1990s.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Blue Bunny released an ice of Michelangelo. The bar got a complete revamp in 2019, with a new design of Raphael based on the design seen in Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. A home version of the new design was also released, albeit minus the gumball eyes.◊
- Teen Titans Go!: Beast Boy from Blue Bunny.
- The cartoon version of The Mask had one in 1997.
- Toad Patrol at one point had a line of ice cream products themed after the show called Toad Patrol Cream Pops.
Other
- There exists an ice of the World Wildlife Fund panda mascot that didn't turn out perfect in most cases.◊
- The WWE ice cream bars from Popsicle, marketed under various names. They had vanilla ice cream sandwiched between a hard chocolate layer and a cookie which had wrestlers "printed" on them. After they went away in the 2000s, CM Punk discussed them on an episode of WWE Raw as part of on-air contract negotiations with Vince McMahon, which got a big cheer from the crowd. The connection even led to an official t-shirt featuring a WWE ice cream bar featuring CM Punk's likeness, and he also held one on the poster for the TLC 2011 pay-per-view.
CM Punk: I want you to bring back the WWE ice cream bars... [crowd cheers] Look at that! I just made you a million dollars in ice cream sales!
- WWE never did re-release the official Popsicle-brand ice cream bars, but they started releasing WWE Superstars cookie sandwiches in 2019 through Good Humour (albeit five years after CM Punk left the company), which are still on sale today. These have ice cream sandwiched between two cookie layers, and feature a wrestler likeness printed on them.
- Playing into his connection with ice cream bars, CM Punk partnered with the Pretty Cool Ice Cream shop in Chicago to give free ice cream bars in custom CM Punk wrappers to attendees of his All Elite Wrestling debut on Rampage in 2021. They were just vanilla dipped in chocolate on a stick, but still, free!
- WWE never did re-release the official Popsicle-brand ice cream bars, but they started releasing WWE Superstars cookie sandwiches in 2019 through Good Humour (albeit five years after CM Punk left the company), which are still on sale today. These have ice cream sandwiched between two cookie layers, and feature a wrestler likeness printed on them.
- There are also original characters created for ice cream makers for usage as character ices, one example being Good Humor's Bubble O'Bill (which nowadays is only available in Australia from Streets Ice Cream).
- Spooky Month: While no actual ice cream exists of the characters, the Universe's Eyes t-shirt comes with a keychain mimicking the treats, with The Eyes of the Universe being depicted as a funky looking thing on a stick, complete with it being slightly melted.
- As part of their long-time sponsorship deal with the organization, Popsicle at one point produced a NASCAR bar which was shaped like a red racecar◊, with white gumballs for headlights.
In-Universe
- Dexter's Laboratory: In the episode, “Ice Cream Scream”, it’s revealed that Dexter wanted a very expensive Major Glory ice pop.
- One episode of Kirby: Right Back at Ya! has someone selling Kirby-shaped sorbet. This was part of the Evil Plan of the episode, where the villain then hypnotized everyone who ate the sorbet into thinking that Kirby himself was a sorbet.
- The real-world ice cream bar of Spider-Man's face, made by Popsicle, is referenced in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, where Spidey himself says it's "so-so".
- In the sequel Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, an apparently living variation of the same Popsicle very briefly shows up as a member of Miguel O'Hara's Spider-Society.
- Several The Sims games have the Freezer Bunny, a recurring Easter Egg, in popsicle form.
- In Pokémon, the Vanillite line are Ice-type ice cream cones, with the final from being a double scoop with two heads and even a "straw" to drink out of. According to the Pokédex, they are formed from icicles, and the "ice cream" is actually snow. The final from, Vanilluxe, occurs when two of the middle stage happen to melt close together and fuse; So, in-universe, they are Pokémon that just happen to coincidentally mimic ice cream.
- In the Homestar Runner toon "The Baloneyman", Bubs operates a baloney truck, selling sandwiches as if they were these. One of them is "the unrecognizable summer movie tie-in sammich".
Homestar: Which movie is it from?
Bubs: [takes a quick look at the 2 on the thing's forehead] The sequel!- In the Strong Bad Email "myths & legends", Bubs sells an ice-cream bar of the Bear Holding a Shark, which Strong Bad thinks looks more like Morgan Freeman.
- The Museum page has illustrations of Homestar, Strong Bad and Pom Pom as popsicles.
- In Rocko's Modern Life: Static Cling, Rachel sells ice versions of the Fatheads. Rocko comments on their wonky appearances, and is unable to tell whether his ice cream is intended to resemble Mr. Fathead or Mrs. Fathead.
- In the American Dad! episode "Who Smarted?", Francine tries to cheer up a depressed Hayley with "one of those fucked up Sonic the Hedgehog ice creams".
- WordGirl: There are a Word Girl and Captain Huggy Face ice pop. They have been May I Have A Word grand prizes for the bonus round of "Perspire".
- Spooky Month: Frank's van in "The Stars" is redecorated to look like an ice cream truck: some of the ice cream shown on the front reference the ice cream bars of SpongeBob SquarePants and Sonic the Hedgehog, and another is a bar resembling Sr. Pelo's Author Avatar. Frank also gives Skid and Pump ice cream made to look like themselves, with Skid getting his head on a cone and Pump getting his head on a stick.
- After Rooster Teeth started a line of "Pop Sick" merchandise, there were two shirts on the theme that fit this trope, a RWBY one with a Grimm and Red vs. Blue one with the show's logo.
