"Store Wars" is the fourth episode of Season 1 of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. While it's the fourth episode to air, it's actually the seventh in production order.
Plot[]
It's Madame Foster's birthday, and the friends are helping prepare for a surprise party. Mr. Herriman sends Frankie to get streamers, as he believes parties cannot occur without them. Frankie is about to leave for the mall, when Bloo tells her he wants to buy Madame Foster a birthday present. Frankie is reluctant, but she ends up taking Mac, Bloo, Wilt, Eduardo, and Coco to the mall. While at the mall, Frankie purchases the streamers and tells Bloo, Eduardo, Coco and Mac that they can go to one store because they only have time to go to one, being given five minutes. She doesn't tell Wilt since he is too busy holding the door open for other mall goers, making him pretty much out of commission for the rest of the trip. The gang heads for an electronics store, and Bloo decides that he wants to buy Madame Foster a vibrating chair, but Frankie tells him she can't afford to pay for it if he breaks it. Bloo gets Frankie to sit in it herself, causing her to fall asleep due to the comfortable vibrations. When she wakes up, she finds everyone gone, and worse, she realizes that she lost too much time and runs in a panic endorsed state to gather the friends and get them back to Foster's. She heads over to the clerk and asks where they went. The clerk tells her that the "little blue one" called him a rip-off artist and kicked him in the shin after being told how much the chair cost. He tells Frankie which way they went, and she takes off after them.
Bloo, upset that he couldn't afford the vibrating chair, goes around the mall to try and find a cheaper deal, but he fails to do so and, along the way, keeps calling people rip-off artists and kicking them in the shin after they tell him the price for the materials because he's a major cheapskate. While Bloo is off looking at stores, Coco applies for several jobs in order to get extra money, and Eduardo gets lost and is found by some security personnel. Frankie finds Mac, and together they find Eduardo and Coco, although Coco refuses to help Frankie out which causes them to argue for a short period of time. A state of chaos begins as security personnel begin chasing Frankie and the others; meanwhile, Bloo's behavior gets him in trouble with security because his shin kicking and cheap nature has convinced them that he's a shoplifter. Frankie eventually gets all the friends onto the bus except for Coco, only to discover that Coco is already on the bus waiting for them. The gang returns to Foster's, and Bloo gives Madame Foster one of the chairs from the bus as her birthday present since he couldn't buy the real vibrating chair. But then, Coco gives Madame Foster the real vibrating chair, calls Bloo a rip-off artist and kicks him in the shin, which ends the episode with Bloo saying "Ow, my shin!"
Running gags[]
- Bloo calling people rip-off artists, kicking them in the shin, and running away
- Bloo and Frankie calling Coco a "bird-airplane-plant thing"
Spoilers end here.
Characters present[]
Speaking:
Bloo, Chavez, Coco, Eduardo, Frankie Foster, Harold, Jones, Mac, Madame Foster, Mr. Herriman, Wilt
Non-speaking:
Clambake, Galoot Palooka, George Mucus, Keystone Blop, Sunset Junction
Trivia[]
- Coco's jobs at the mall include:
- Serving fast food
- Being an information desk clerk
- Being a security guard
- This marks the first appearance of Harold.
- Karma: Bloo's gift to Madame Foster is rejected and he gets a well-deserved painful kick in the shin by Coco for all the trouble he caused everyone, discriminating her for not having money, and being a major cheapskate.
- This is the first episode to be written by Lauren Faust.
- On the Complete Season 1 DVD Commentary, Mac and Frankie attempt to get Bloo to sign an apology letter for the incidents in this episode for Frankie to go back to shop, yet Bloo found a way to trick them into blaming Madame Foster for all of it. We also learn some things about Frankie, like the fact that she went to the prom with Wilt.
- On Boomerang airings in Asia, the Victorian Indiscretions scene was cut out due to "partial content".
- This was one of the episodes featured in Cartoon Network's livestream on their YouTube page in honor of the show's 20th anniversary.
Cultural references[]
- This episode's title is a reference to Star Wars.
- The Victorian Indiscretions lingerie store at the mall is a spoof of Victoria's Secret.
- The Seared store at the mall is an obvious spoof of the famous department store, Sears.
- The Pointier Image store where Coco buys the massage chair is a spoof of electronics store Sharper Image.
- A parody of Ikea furniture stores is where Bloo buys the couch cushion.
- Coco is seen working at Wiener on a Stick, a parody of Hot Dog on a Stick.
- Frankie says to Mr. Herriman "Here's your streamer, Bugs.", a reference to the popular Warner Bros. character, Bugs Bunny.