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Buzz, also known as the Honey Nut Cheerios Bee, is the mascot the Honey Nut Cheerios cereal by General Mills. He was first introduced in 1979, alongside the Honey Nut Cheerios cereal. The bee did not have a name until 2000, when Kristine Tong, a fifth-grade student from Coolidge, Texas, won a national contest to name the bee, dubbing him "BuzzBee". The name was later shortened to Buzz, which was the submission that took second place in the contest. Buzz has also gone through several different voice actors in his career. He was originally voiced by the late Arnold Stang until 1992. He was then voiced by Oliver Wyman, Jason Marsden, Billy West and Charlie Schlatter. As of 2023, Buzz is voiced voiced by Sam Heyn.

History with the Macy's Parade[]

During the 90s, Cheerios started looking at developing the BuzzBee balloon for the Parade's line of march. There was just one problem; Parade organizers didn't think he had "enough of a personality to be recognizable," and later confirmed that if a formal application had been made, it would have been rejected. The cereal brand developed the character more, and by 1999, Buzz was deemed worthy of flying in the Parade.

The Honey Nut Cheerios Bee would later make his Parade debut that same year in 1999 being the only non-dog giant balloon to debut, to celebrate Honey Nut Cheerios' 20th anniversary. The balloon measured 37.2 feet tall, 33.5 feet wide, and 60 feet long, with a volume of 15,000 cubic feet of helium. He also became the first and only-ever bee balloon in the Parade's history, as well as the first-ever cereal mascot balloon (if one doesn't count Linus the Lionhearted, as Linus was created as a balloon due to his TV series and not his cereal brand itself). Additionally, the balloon would appear on the back of Honey Nut Cheerios boxes at that time.

In 2001, the balloon was given a special birthday tuxedo in honor of Cheerios' 60th anniversary, which was created by a handful of third graders from Beeville, Texas. After his flight that year, he was retired from the Parade, and a new balloon of the character has yet to be created.

Gallery[]

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