That Time A Giant Ketchup Bottle Robot Gave Me A Pickle Pin

 

Stay with me on this one, we will get there, I promise.  

So, the World's Fair used to be a thing, and more often than not, they have been called "Expos," but in 1982, it was still called the World's Fair, and was held in Knoxville, Tennessee.  Often, a landmark structure of some sort was built to commemorate the event (the most famous being the Space Needle in Seattle, or even the Eiffel Tower), and for Knoxville, a large observation tower was constructed, called the Sunsphere. And, it's still there to this day, hanging on.

Promotional postcard sold at the event, because no construction was completed to actually take photos of, at the time they were printed.

Your humble host was there--in fact, here is my ticket for one of the days (it cost $9.95 per day):

Technology is often a theme of World's Fairs, and 1982 was no exception.  Two major ingredients of the fair were two things that had completely taken over the world in 1982:  the Rubik's cube and Pac-Man.  In fact, there was even a giant motorized Rubik's cube that worked itself as it spun around, for people to gawk at and take photos of.

But there were also robots! In particular, the one we are here to discuss today is this one:

[Photo from knoxnews.com article]

In fact, the other day, I was reading this book:

And there, on the page, was this guy...and the memories came right back to me:

This is "H.J.," and I had forgotten all about meeting him at the Fair.  He was controlled remotely by an operator, who rolled him around (from not very far away) and carried on conversations with guests via a headset and microphone.  It was done exactly like the many non-humanoid droids in the first Star Wars: as giant remote-controlled vehicles.

But H.J. did another thing too! A small tray in front opened up, and dispensed a promotional pin to the surprised visitor!

This pin is about 1.25 inches long, and says "HEINZ" on one side.

And somehow, I've managed to keep from losing it, all these years!

Well, that's cool--end of story, right? Actually, no!  Our story is going to take a few more turns...

So, H.J. was a somewhat short-lived promotional mascot for Heinz--here is a promotional postcard put out at the time:

And here our first revelation:  this robot I met all those years ago was not H.J.! In fact he was.....H.J. 2! Gasp!

And here is their wedding photo, R2-D2 officiating.

Yes, the Heinz company had not one, but two of these guys! In fact, as the 1982 World's Fair was coming close to wrapping up that October, the first H.J. suddenly went missing on his way to a trade show in Cleveland, and H.J. 2 was quickly shipped off to fill in, leaving the 1982 World's Fair with no giant talking ketchup bottle robots!

The story gets even stranger (I did lots of research for this post), because A UPI-archived article from November 5, 1982 reveals the fate of the first H.J.!  No, he wasn't stolen by college students, or added to Pee Wee Herman's house! Instead, he was....left in the freight terminal of the San Francisco airport, where nobody paid any attention.

Yep, that happened.  There he sat, like the Ark of the Covenant amidst a sea of crates.  But fear not, our story has a happy ending! An "observant airline worker" located the missing oversized automated condiment container, and returned it to Heinz! The day was saved!  

And, as it turns out, it gets even better, because the Heinz company actually offered a reward for the return of their lost robot, which the airline worker received! It was.....

....two cases of ketchup.  You can't make this stuff up!