Diggin' Mr Mix From Nesquik!

This is Mr Mix, my old hand puppet, issued as a special offer from Nesquik back in the late 1960s.

Mr Mix's reign as star of Nesquik telly ads and Nesquik packaging icon was brief - spanning the mid-1960s to the early 1970s - but I liked him, and my Mum sent for the puppet for me. Wasn't I lucky? I also wanted an Esso Blue dealer puppet, but they were never produced. Shame!

Mr Mix was a happy little chappie, but he didn't do a lot. He simply enthused over Nesquik in the telly ads and twirled about a bit, stirring milky drinks. He lacked character on-screen, but he was a great companion in puppet-form. I went through a phase of digging up the back garden with an old dessert spoon, and my Mr Mix puppet was happy to help, and seemed to share my fascination.

We both retired from that occupation many years ago, but my Mr Mix still bears some traces of good old 1960s garden soil.

Bless him.

 

Mr Mix on an advertising sign from the 1960s. Roll Up! Roll Up! - a 4d Animal Bar with every tin of Nesquik. Animal Bars were lovely little chocolate bars for us tiny tots. You can still get them. All this reminds me that, back then, we common English folk used to pronounce Nestlé's without the accent on the last e. We simply called it "Nestle's". I didn't know how to sound that accent until the 1980s!