Q’Plah!

The obligatory post-comic-con, uh, post is forthcoming, but I'm a little buried in various … things … at the moment.

So, please enjoy this semi-relevant commercial from 1979:

I totally had one of those when I was 7, and my prize was a sheet of iron-ons. I remember being so excited when my mom put Mr. Spock and the science logo onto one of my T-shirts.

(commercial via David Markland on Twitter)

43 thoughts on “Q’Plah!”

  2. Well, that’s thoughtful of McDonald’s… they had the actor also do the commercial in KSL – Klingon Sign Language.

  5. I Sooooo Remember this! I’m still a little ticked @ my mom for NOT putting my iron-on on a t-shirt…and Now I’m ticked @ McDonald’s ’cause I just HAD a Happy Meal and they don’t put the freakin McDonaldland cookies in it anymore. Dang, they were good…now I’m bummed…and this comment is WAY too long. LOL sorry :oP

  7. I wonder what designer pioneered the ‘neon’ animated border of the late 70s/early 80s that you see in this and so many ads of the time:


     WGBH (PBS station in Boston)


     3-2-1 Contact


     The HBO intro, to a point…

  11. Wow! I totally remember these! Not the ads so much, but the Happy Meals! I remember getting a pretty nifty press-out-and-build cardboard communicator, which was pretty accurate, considering. Also some really bad cardboard Spock ears. Was there also a press-out-and-build phaser too? Neat find, thanks, Whil Wheaton! 🙂

  14. I don’t know what it was about iron-ons in the 70’s, but I just had to have one on every single shirt I owned. It didn’t matter if the shirt already had a design on it, I wasn’t happy until I had E.T., Yoda or Chewbacca plastered dead-center on my chest.
    On an unrelated note, I just want to thank you for your amazing work on “The Happiest Days of Our Lives”. I had the distinct pleasure of listening to it this weekend during a long drive to Seattle. I laughed, I cried…it was like listening to stories of my own childhood. You really have a gift for storytelling!

  15. At that time my mom was a huge trekker. This was a high point time for my family when the movie came out. I usually begged for Herfeys but when McDonalds got these I remember it all changed. I remember we got these after we went and saw the film. It was a pretty late dinner and I thought this was the coolest.. I kept that box for a loooong time. It is interesting that when watching that commercial it seems like I just saw it yesterday. I suddenly feel old *L*

  17. Jono Barel – STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE was the film that debuted the bumpy-forehead look for Klingons. Which is weird, since they only exist in the film’s first few minutes in order to provide a demonstration that V’ger is a serious threat (it vaporises their ships without trouble).

  22. I never had Star Trek iron-ons, though my mom did used to make cool dinosaur patches to sew over holes in my jeans. Yeah, I’ve got nothing to add to the topic, really… so I’m just going to sit here and be sad that it’s no longer considered socially acceptable for me to sew cool dinosaurs all over my clothes.

  23. I think they should re-do the Klingon happy meal. I have a kid, I could pretend it’s for him. It’s no concern of theirs that he’s only 5 months old.
    Off topic – did you see “Wesley” on Robot Chicken this week? I thought it was a shame they didn’t ask you to do the voice.

  24. I remember seeing that commercial on television – I was too old for a happy meal, but got a kick out of seeing a Klingon instead of a clown on a McD tv spot.
    My memory is that the production values were higher. Ah well, the rose colored glasses of youth.

  28. LOL. When this came out I was in the 6th grade. I was in trouble so my folks made me stay home while they went to see it.
    In retospect I think I got the better end of the deal, but I was pissed at the time.
    But my folks were asshats like that.
    When ST2 came out we were stationed in Germany (Yay! Cold War!) and our little base (very little) had a bootleg cable opeertaion deployed by the com squadron (yay, nerds!). When ST2 on VHS showed up at the exchange for $120 (yes, $120 for a VHS tape) in 1982 the exchange manager “lent” it to the com guys and they played it three times that night.
    I did not get to watch. Again, because my parents are/were arbitrary asshats.

  33. “Tubefilter says Day had an “entrance typically reserved for A-list movie stars” at her panel, where she announced Wil Wheaton was joining the cast.” from Io9.com “Who Won Comic Con’s Buzz Wars? Our 10 Picks”
    so, is this true?

  34. Wow, Qapla was my nickname from grade 8 until graduation because my real name means the same thing. My geeky friends were even bigger fans of Star Trek than me.

  37. Thanks for (finding! and) posting this.
    I was 8 when the movie came out…
    ))))
    ((((
    ))))
    (flashback lines)
    One day as we were lining up to go out for recess (or a class trip…or it was just hometime?), I was relating this very commercial to a few friends in line. I was a very quiet kid and hardly ever talked in class, but we were on our way out, and I got excited about the upcoming movie.
    Naturally, I begin speaking full-on Klingon (or what I could remember from the McSpot…mostly guttural gibberish) and gesturing wildly. Then our teacher, who had never raised her voice at me before, quite adamantly tells me to BE QUIET and settle down. It shut me the hell up, embarrassed.
    Yes: 8-year-old me got in trouble for speaking Klingonese in class.
    I’d been searching for this commercial for a *long* time.
    Thanks, Wil, you made my week.
    Milé

  38. Happy Birthday from someone who, when she read the cheesy, Born on this Day article in the newspaper was happy to see she shared hers with a fellow geek.
    -j

  39. Happy B-day from us at Fark. I was gonna submit a B-day thread in your honor, but I couldn’t decide whether to submit it to the Main page, the Showbiz page, or the Geek page. I got so confused I had to give up …until I go get some beer, anyway…

  40. looking forward to your post mordem
    i ran into someone who went to the con
    this person works for one of the many small production companies here in los angeles
    this person admitted that the con is now “the” networking site for hollywood
    they dont give a crap about the comics (except for possible future deals), and now, the con is filled with these people.
    this individual stated to me that the con should be split, so she and the other suits can have full access to the poor shlubs just waiting to be taken on the hollywood roller coaster.
    damnit…i want my con back
    oh, and i hear that the twilight moms destroyed day 1

  42. You know I vaguely remember the commercial but only because I wanted the meal but we didn’t have a McDonald’s in SE Alaska! *soft laugh* Made a child’s vow I’d get to eat one someday.

  43. How the hell I missed this post when it was first, well, posted is beyond my comprehension at the moment, but I am totally fighting off the urge to wake up my Mom (bear in mind, it’s sfter 1:00 AM here on the East Coast) and yell at her for not taking me to McDonalds for a Star Trek Happy Meal 30 years after the fact! I mean come on, the woman made me a freaking Trekkie in the first place by putting Star Trek reruns on all the time when I was a kid, so you would think that even she would be dying to run out and get me a Happy Meal just so she could steal my prize! You know what, for all I know, she probably did do that and has kept it a secret from me for all of these years. I’m dead serious, everything to her is a “collector’s item” and I didn’t find out until I was much older that she’d been pilfering my Happy Meal (effectively making them “Unhappy Meals”) prizes for years and had a huge box in her closet filled to the brim with toys that I never got to even look at, much less play with. Kind of a shame that she didn’t see the logic in stealing my Star Wars action figures or my Transformers, because those are worth a freaking mint now on eBay. Come to think of it, I never did find out what became of my Optimus Prime…oh, that’s it! First thing in the morning and I’m totally raiding her closet! lol

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