What fast food chain spawned cartoon character mascots, among them Onion Ring Thing & Secret Sauce Agent?

The Jack in the Box (JITB, born 1951) franchise created the JITB Bunch - the Onion Ring Thing, Small Fry (young boy), Hamburgermeister (old German man), Secret Sauce Agent & of course Jack the Clown - in the 1960s. The JITB Bunch were contemporaneous & comparable to Ronald McDonald & fellow McDonaldlanders, among them Birdie, Grimace, the HamBURGLAR & Mayor McCheeseburger.

Eventually JITB dispensed with the Bunch - except Jack the Clown - but not before selling rubber-vinyl-plastic figurines of them - now collectors items - in their restaurants. Also, Jack the Clown himself changed considerably in either the 1990s or 2000 to his current look. Retaining the same yellow cone hat, he went from blue pants & white long sleeve shirt to dark royal blue suit & red tie; green hair to plain ping pong ballish head; a stubby blue nose to one like a protruding black carrot; & a toothy smile & bug eyes to a stylized red mouth & blue circle eyes. Also, JITB went from selling figurines of the Bunch to those of Jack in regular getup as well as astronaut, karate & winter garb, the last coming with a dog sled.

Predominantly west of the Mississippi River, most JITB locations are in the Pacific & Mountain Time Zones. However, the 590 locations in Texas are second only to California's 940. Outliers are Indiana (3), Ohio (2), Tennessee (9) and the Carolinas (South 9, North 18).

Finally JITB is the only known American fast food chain offering egg rolls as menu items.