Flashback Friday: The Burger King Kids Club

The Burger King Kids Club. If you were born sometime between 1986 and 1996, you remember fondly the adventures of the Burger King Kids Club, a diverse group of friends with various interests who all shared a love of the BK. According to Wikipedia, Burger King forcefully retired these iconic characters in 2005, leaving many fans wondering where they went.

After exhaustive and extensive research, I’ve managed to locate each and every member for you, dear Kids Club fans. Here’s what they’ve been up to:

Kid Vid

Kyle “Kid Vid” Vickers enjoyed several good years as the leader of the Burger King Kid’s Club. Once the group was disbanded, Kyle tried to market his love of video games and technology, investing all of his BKKC earnings into the ill-fated Dreamcast console. Kid Vid ultimately lost everything and moved back in with his parents. He later found a position at the local Best Buy with the Geek Squad and one day got into a heated argument with, unbeknownst to him, the editor-in-chief of TechToday magazine, who was so impressed with Kid’s tech-savviness that he hired him on the spot. Kyle is currently based in Seattle, working as a consultant for Fortune 500 tech firms as well as writing freelance articles and reviews for IGN, Wired, Gizmodo, and CNET. Kyle still visits with the rest of the Kid’s Club from time to time.

Boomer

Bonnie “Boomer” Meridian finished up school, eventually attending Dartmouth on a joint soccer/hockey/roller derby/badminton scholarship. Early her freshman year, she discovered the wonders of Dungeons and Dragons role-playing. After having her scholarship revoked for missing a game (the D&D session was too lit), Boomer penned a heartfelt letter to the school newspaper shaming the university sports association into reevaluating their rigid zero tolerance policy standards on athletic extracurriculars. Boomer soon realized she enjoyed writing and joined the newspaper staff, all three on-campus drama troupes, and the university debate team. In 2010, she moved to Los Angeles where she worked several PA jobs to pay the bills, eventually becoming a writing assistant on the first season of UnREAL before scoring a full-time position as a staff writer for Grey’s Anatomy. Boomer currently lives in Culver City, Los Angeles playing on several kickball leagues in her spare time.

I.Q.

Not long after the end of the Kids Club, Isaiah “I.Q.” Quentin found himself embroiled in a tense legal battle with his parents, who were eventually convicted of stealing I.Q.’s BKKC earnings. By age 16, I.Q. was granted full emancipation and moved into his cousin’s garage in Salt Lake City, Utah, where he continued his obsession with chemistry while moonlighting as a used car salesman. After accidentally engineering a strain of marijuana that made the user’s hands glow in the dark, I.Q. got a job working special effects for a theater group before moving to Los Angeles, where he slept on Boomer’s couch for almost a month. While there, I.Q. again accidentally created a very realistic synthetic blood usable as both a stand-in for blood in horror films and for treatment with diabetes patients. He now has several existing and pending patents with the EPA, the FDA, and the CDC. I.Q. currently resides in Austin, Texas.

Jaws

After leaving the BKKC, Jamal “Jaws” Williams, 45 pounds heavier, picked up basketball as a way to lose all that burger weight. He had intended on joining the Harlem Globetrotters so he could play basketball while seeing the world, another goal of his. Unfortunately, life had a different path in mind. In March 2006, his older sister was killed on a military mission and Jaws quickly became a quiet recluse, spending all his spare time studying. He graduated from college and went on to attend Yale Law School, graduating in the top 3% of his class. In 2011, Jaws got a job with a law firm in Boston where he met Caroline Foxx on a tax case involving her food truck. The two fell in love and Jaws eventually quit the law firm to open up a restaurant and a vineyard, La Lengua, traveling all over the world in search of new and exotic flavors. Jaws and Foxx married in 2015 and currently live in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

J.D.

Unknown to many fans, J.D. was the most difficult of the group, refusing to be in the same room as his fellow BKKC members for photo shoots and commercials nearing the end of their run. Once the group disbanded, J.D. found work as a spokesman for Alpo though his tendency to show up to set inebriated quickly saw him replaced. On his last day, J.D. stormed off set, knocking things over, and biting a craft services employee. His last role was as an uncredited background actor in a deleted scene in the Garfield sequel.

Lingo

Banking on his fame as a child star, Lionel “Lingo” Garcia found success in his art soon after leaving the BKKC. Many of his sketches and paintings covering magical realism were bought for as much as $500,000 in Brazil, England, Portugal, and El Salvador and were featured at LACMA and MoMA. In 2010, he reconnected with Snaps and the two got an apartment together in New York City, though the relationship would only last for eight months. Lingo became an adjunct professor at NYU, resigning shortly into his third semester after a scandal with one of his female students which was settled quietly. In 2012, he moved to Silver Lake, Los Angeles, where he then reconnected with Wheels. The two dated for six months before Lingo unexpectedly broke things off and moved back to the East Coast where he became business partners with Jaws on the La Lengua Vineyard. He currently splits his time between a villa in Napa, California and a townhouse in Boston.

Snaps

Ashley “Snaps” Talbot graduated high school and went on to attend Sarah Lawrence, studying abroad every opportunity she got and always carrying her camera with her. Upon graduation, she volunteered for an extended tour with the Peace Corps in Swaziland, then moved to New York City to study under some of the greatest photojournalists in the United States. Snaps eventually won a Pulitzer for her photo entitled, “The Meaty King.” Snaps is currently retired (for now) in New Zealand where she runs a shelter for aging dogs.

Wheels

Wesley “Wheels” Elias, the shyest member of the BKKC, took his money and opened up an auto shop “Elias and Sons” in Daytona, Florida, with his father and brother. He took night classes at the nearby Bethune-Cookman University where he got an AA in auto engineering. Wheels eventually grew restless and took a trip to Los Angeles in 2012 to visit Boomer with whom he had become very close in their BKKC days. While there, he fell in love with a male celebrity (whose name he would not reveal) who he says, “sidetracked his ambition.” Wheels came out to his family who supported him, though his boyfriend was purportedly unready to settle down and the two broke up, leaving Wheels heartbroken and homeless. In 2014, Wheels soon became addicted to exercise, joining a local Crossfit gym where he would mop the floors in exchange for free training. Wheels finished his education, receiving a bachelor’s degree in Engineering with a minor in African-American Studies and Classics. Earlier this year, he married Raj Mahmud, his partner of three years. The two now live in Atlanta where Wheels works as a motivational speaker/personal trainer for disabled veterans.

Jazz

A late addition to the Burger King Kid’s Club (the early 2000s), Jason “Jazz” Zhou never felt as though he was really a part of the gang. Once the group disbanded, Jazz moved back to his hometown: Montreal, Quebec and began a journey of self-discovery that ended with him coming out as transgender. Jazz continues to enjoy his life and his music as the owner of a high-end jazz club in Montreal. In 2015, Jazz officially adopted J.D. The two share an apartment in downtown Montreal.

The chances for a reunion tour are not looking good.

Photo credit: FanPop