Thirty-one of our bloggers had the opportunity to design personalized My Fruit Roll-Ups, plus they each gave away a free box to one of their readers. Not surprisingly, the concept of merging the popular snack with the excitement of personalization was a big hit.

Many of the reviewers have fond memories of Fruit Roll-Ups from their childhood: “Fruit Roll-Ups are definitely one of those lunch bag snacks I loved as a kid and now our boys love them too.” says one. “My brother and I were always ecstatic to have ‘real fruit and fun wrapped up in one’ in our lunchboxes for school.” remembers another, “Today’s fruit rollup creations have more exciting designs than ever before.”

One reviewer recalled the actual sensation of this snack “I loved how one side was rough, and the side against the plastic was so smooth. That smooth side was always the side you placed against your tongue - I’m sure it had more flavor.”

One blogger actually made fruit leather once, but is pleased there is an easier way: “Now, I simply reach for that little box in the store, and let Fruit Rollups take care of harvesting and hulling the fruit.”

Fruit-Roll Ups are definitely a popular snack. Explains one reviewer, “Recently my husband quizzed my daughter about most tradeable lunchbox items. We were surprised to learn that the hierarchy went something like: Ice cream [unclear how this is a packable lunchbox item, but whatev] –> trumped by Chee-tos –> trumped by Fruit Roll-Ups.”

While several reviewers mentioned that Roll-Ups are typically special treats, what made the My Fruit Roll-Ups even more of a treat is the personalization. One blogger summed it up nicely: “a new twist on an old, favorite snack” Indeed, another blogger concurs: “When I was younger, Fruit Roll-Ups came in different colors and flavors but other than that were pretty generic. That’s why I was surprised to see that you can now personalize them with an image and message to fit any occasion! How cool is that?”

The design process was easy. “Customizing and ordering our box of Fruit Roll-Ups was a snap. From start to finish, the process took about 8 minutes. Choose one of 419 adorable pictures, add a personalized greeting (24 character maximum) and place the order. That’s it. Easy as fruit pie.”

Most of the bloggers had their kids do the designs. One remarked, “If an almost 6-year-old can navigate through the design process, that says alot for ease of use, yes?” Another’s two year old picked the design: “Despite being only two she has quite definite opinions on things. She loved the funny noises the little fruit roll up creatures made as they set out to design her snack. She quickly picked a ladybug picture and the words, ‘Gimme 5!’”

“Quick, easy, painless. Did I mention it was quick? Seriously, I have never ordered anything that quickly.” enthuses one reviewer. “No technological know-how (except for just connecting to the internet, which you’ve obviously already mastered)” states another.

And the process is flexible: “The website is very responsive so if you want to adjust or change a detail on your work-in-progress, you can quickly do so. There’s even a place where you can save your designs to tinker with later on. And ordering is quick and easy.”

The notion of personalization is popular: “I have to say how much I like the idea of personalized anything. Especially when you have a child who’s going through a bit of a ‘mine, mine, mine’ stage.” says one blogger. Another reviewer lamented how in her childhood it was tough to find personalized items with her name: “When I was young, every very time we went into a drugstore, I’d scan the personalized-item area.” she explains.

Fortunately, My Fruit Roll-Ups are definitely customizable.

The only hard part was choosing which design to order from the many options (a “gazillion bajillion pictures” says one reviewer:) “At first it was a toss up between ordering birthday-themed ones or ordering ones to announce the upcoming birth of our 4th baby (I thought it would be fun for the kids to hand them out at school after their new sister is born)”

One blogger had a fabulous idea: “Get them personalized to tell your kids you love them every day, or to remind your husband to pick up his socks.” Other bloggers had similar ideas, minus the husband-nagging: “It would be great as a little extra ‘I love you’ note kind of thing as a surprise to hide in their lunchboxes.” says one, and “What about putting a special message to your kids to have each day in their lunch box? There are so many things you can do with these to really brighten up the day of a special kid.” suggests another. One blogger wrote that her mother used to write love notes on napkins. “When I heard about the new personalized Fruit Roll-Ups, those elementary school days immediately sprung back to mind. How great would it have been for my mom to combine our delicious fruit snack with her note of love?”

Amongst the many designs and uses for the My Fruit Roll Ups our bloggers chose include: science-themed, Brewers baseball (but then another blogger selected “GO CUBS!”,) Fourth of July, “It’s A Boy!”, farm party, promoting her blog, a butterfly, a ladybug, and a dragonfly, a baseball with flames shooting up from it, an image of a baby and a message that shall remain a secret, for the kids at camp a fish and ladybug design, “H&H Wrecking” and “We Can Destroy It!”, as a solution to the goodie bag dilemma, Father’s Day with a loud rooster image, beach theme and first birthday party.

The website is fun on its own. Many bloggers had similar stories as this one: “The kids had fun designing (but not ordering) more designs. There is a button so you can print out the designs you make.” Indeed, my house has a stack of potential fruit-designs printouts.

The website has sound effects. One blogger liked them: “while you’re at the site, little Fruit Roll-Up mascots are making little happy meep-meep noises - which I found amusing, but if you’re at work you may want to turn off the sound.” while another did not: “The boinging sound effect was okay at first, but got a bit annoying after a time. The boys loved the sound effects, though, and they are more the target audience.”

A few of our bloggers mentioned that while there are many design options, they would have wanted flexibility on color. One requested the ability to customize drawings in addition to text: “The design and ordering process is incredibly simple. And that was actually my son’s only complaint. He was hoping there would be a drawing pad option where he could click and draw a design of his own creation. He thought the designs on the site were OK, but there weren’t as many to choose from as he would have liked. He also was hoping to ‘print’ the designs on a fruit roll up color other than red, but unless we did it incorrectly, that is the only color available.”

Another wished for more space on her message, as well as the design flexibility: “I have ‘three wishes’ to share with the My Fruit Roll-Up Powers-That-Be: 1. I would appreciate just a little more space for my ‘message.’ 2. I’d love to upload my own logo/design/image. 3. Anything you can do to make fruit roll-ups healthier would be fantastic. Pump in more fruit and take out all the sugar and ‘bad stuff.’”

A third blogger noted both the health issue and color-issue: “It appears that the flavor of Fruit-Roll Up is the same for all orders. I would have loved to change the color. Back in my schoolyard days, there was a flavor that was [not artificial,] perhaps pear? or pineapple? It would be great to have that one available, and then with an “ink” choice that was similarly not artificial.”

One blogger hit a problem: her designed roll-ups turned up blank. But the company caught the error and phoned her. She explains “I was pleased that she called me rather than just shipping out 30 blank fruit roll ups…There are two pieces of good news here. The first is that you are unlikely to experience the same problem that I faced. None of the other reviewers had this issue, and the person who helped me said that she had never encountered this problem before. More importantly, if something does go wrong, their customer service is fabulous. And no, I didn’t get special service because I was reviewing the product. The person helping me did not know that I was a reviewer until the call was almost over.”

Aside from those concerns, the praise was high.

The most enthusiastic supporters of My Fruit Roll-Ups were the kids. While many of our reviewers had their children design the roll-ups, some ordered them as a surprise. One such reviewer received an overwhelmingly positive response: “‘HOW DID YOU DO THIS???’ ‘AWESOME!’ were some of the comments as they hesitated to eat something so cool. Now of course I can’t get them to STOP eating something so cool.” Another reviewer’s son gave similar props to his mom: “HOW DID YOU DO THAT MOM??!? THAT’S SOOOOO COOL!!!!

Cool, indeed! Check out My Fruit Roll Ups to see for yourself.