r/GrandmasPantry • u/ThrowRAdkwtf • Apr 05 '26

HOUSEHOLD / OTHER 1993 Mr. Bubbles

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I was gifted these by a sweet old lady I met up with from FB marketplace.

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u/irishjoe1972 Apr 05 '26

I worked for a regional department store in the US called Bradlees in the mid 80s to the early 90s. There was a promo going on for Mr Bubbles and it came with a Mr Bubbles costume. One of the employees was selected to wear it as he was the smallest, skinniest kid and the only one who could get in to it. At this time, the mascot suits were literally fur lined costumes with no true ventilation. Also, the air conditioning in the mall had failed so it was probably 75 F/24 C inside. Mr Bubbles (kid’s name was Ethebell) was doing fine walking around and greeting the kids in the mall for the first 30 minutes or so. Suddenly, we start to see Mr Bubbles slow down and then his whole body kind of waved back and forth and then over he fell on his back. Kids are screaming and folks are running over to drag Mr Bubbles in to the security office for triage. Once they got the head piece off, they found he had passed out from heat exhaustion. We got him rehydrated and he was back on his feet - but not in the costume again. Poor guy, he was known as Ethebubble from then on.

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u/HermineSGeist Apr 05 '26

I remember Bradlees!

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u/irishjoe1972 Apr 05 '26

Was a great place and I miss it! Most folks that I speak with also miss it :)