I'm Spider-Man

Ten years ago, when the Sam Raimi Spider-Man first appeared, and no one in the fast food franchise world wanted to touch toys tied into a comicbook movie, It was Carl's Jr./Hardee’s (a pair of sister chain that are predominately on the West Coast) that took the chance and went with Spidey toys with their Kid's meals.

Well, as we all know now, they did quite well, for when the follow-up film came out in 2004, it was McDonald’s that had the toys.

Well, any way. I recall that back in ’04 my good buddy John (“I may be dead, but I still own the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents) Carbonaro sent me a T-Shirt that was worn by the Carl's Jr. & Hardee’s employees during the Spidey promotion.

That first T-Shirt looks like this (yes, I still have and wear it)!

Well after a couple of rounds of fast food toys from the likes of McDonalds and Burger King, Spidey has returned to Carl’s Jr. and well, there is a new T-Shirt.

And, yep, I wear this one too. Now I just need to get a set of the Carl’s Jr. Toys.

Harddee’s has The Amazing Spider-Man

OK kids, we now have it, even though Disney/Marvel Studios/Paramount Pictures stupidly decided to NOT have any fast food toy tie-ins to The Avengers, Sony has hooked up with Hardee’s for a set of toys to the new Amazing Spider-Man film.

Unfortunately for this Spider-Fan, the closest Hardee’s is nearly 200 miles away, so it looks like that we’ll be acquiring the Spider-Toy set via ebay. While this does make it easier (and often cheaper) to acquire, it does prevent us from having any of Hardee’s very enjoyable foodstufs.

In fact, the franchise ie already running some commercials touting their tie-in to the Spidey film.



Hardee’s also is running a game-code tie-in and has a spot promoting that as well.

As you know, Hardee’s (& sister company Carl’s Jr) have already had previous tie-ins to Spider-Man back in in 1990 & 1999, as well as to the very first Spidey flick in 2002.

Personally, we can hardly wait!

More Fast Food Superheroes

As discussed, both Captain America and Green Lantern are currently visiting fast food locations this month, (GL is @ Subway, & Cap is @ Dunkin’ Donuts). As we also already know, Green Lantern is also staring in a big budget movie. (Other superheroes in theaters so far this year who also appeared in fast food franchises include Green Hornet (Hardee’s & Carl’s Jr.) and  Thor (7-Eleven), while Marvel’s X-Men made it to the big screen, for some reason there were apparently no toy tie-ins to this comic book flick (fast food or otherwise).

 The sixth and final Green Lantern bag (and bracelet)

Apparently all cold drinks from Dunkin’ Donuts this month come in a Captain America Cup.

Dunkin’ Donuts even altered its logo to reflect Cap’s presence at the Franchise.

Oh, the Cap cup is courtesy of a co-worker (Thanks Lauren).

A Hardee cup full o' Spidey

I just recently became aware of (and acquired), a Spider-Man cup that was issued by Hardee’s back in 1990. The cup (which also starred Captain America) was apparently part of a set of four (I believe), that also included a cup that co-starred The Incredible Hulk & She Hulk.

The cup has a short comic strip printed on the side where Spidey and Cap go up against Doc Ock. I’m including three pics of the cup so you can see (and hopefully read) the comic itself.

Pretty cool, eh? I guess this is just my week to acquire cool fast food super hero stuff. First a Green Lantern Cup, then the Cap car, then the Spidey head & figurines, and now this.

Spidey-Candy

Now here is a neat candy that I recently located.

Interestingly enough, not only did it contain a lollipop (that was not shaped like Spidey, but a “Thumbs Up”, but it also contained “Pop Rocks,” which are always cool.

Oh yeah, and the individual shot of the Spidey Figure that I got with the Hardees’ toys from the other say is below.

Old toys from Hardee’s

Back in 1990 Hardee’s offered up a quartet of Marvel superhero toys. These figures were of the “figures-in-vehicles” variety. Up until recently, I've only had one of the toys. Hulk in a bulldozer:

Then I acquired a second vehicle from that set: Spidey in a multi-wheeled car. 

Recently I picked up a third item from the set, Captain America in a car.

Now I have three of the four:

The fourth item is She Hulk in a car, and I’m still looking for her.

Interestingly enough, when I made this most recent purchase, the seller included a miniature Spidey figure with it.

How cool is that?

Fast Food Marvel heroes

I just recently acquired (at a very reasonable cost, mind you), a pair of very old (1990) Marvel heroes that were part of a Hardee’s promotion. I’m very excited.

Just for fun (and because I also own this toy), I’m going to include the image of another Hardee’s comicbook figure driving a car. None other than Mr. Archie Andrews himself.

How cool is that, eh?

Drink Up Ol’ Son!

Back in the days before ebay, when hunting up rare or exotic funnybook stuff, You would have to happen across it at a flea market, comicbook show, or have been lucky enough to have spotted it all on your own as you wandered aimlessly through your daily lives. These days, it doesn’t matter that you live on the other Coast, never saw it in the first place, or just got to the store too late to score one for yourself, as you can always simply go online and hang around long enough to find one (at a reasonable price) for yourself.



(As an unavoidable aside, I collected the Simpsons Burger King figures from the recent film,and managed to score all of them except for Abu, the Indian fellow who runs the Quickie Mart. I was going to go on online to grab one up, except that the cheapest I saw him for was for a couple of three bucks, plus another three or four bucks for shipping, and I simply wasn’t going to pay close to eight bucks for an item that I could have acquired for less than a dollar when it was out, simply to have a complete set. I figure that if I see it at a convention or elsewhere I’ll grab it, but in the mean time I’m not that much of a Simpsons fan to actually care.)

Anyways, to get back to my point I not only recently completed my Iron Man 7-eleven straw collection but my CAG buddy Liz managed to score the third Hulk straw as well. Well the Iron Man straws arrived yesterday, and I’ll get the Hulk straw the next time I see Liz at a CAG-CT meeting. I have to tell you that I kind of think that the straws are way-cooler than the cups themselves, I think it has to do with the little figures attached to each straw.



One of these days I’m going to have to do one of those Twisted ToyFare Theater Fumetti strips with these characters.



In the mean time I’ll just have to dangle this wicked-cool bit of fast food collectible that I’ve managed to acquire. Yep, it is a T-Shirt that was worn by Carl’s Jr. employees for the release of Spider-Man 1 (No one wanted to touch superhero licensing flicks because everyone believed them to be a dead issue. We all remember how that turned out, eh?). Anyway, there are no Carl Jr.s here on the East Coast, so my good buddy John (“Yes I own the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, you can call my lawyer and ask him”) Carbonaro, lives out that way, purchased a couple of them and shipped them back to me (‘cause he knew what I Spider-Geek I am).



So, that’s about it for now (except that I just learned that Hardees produced a set of Justice League Unlimited toys back in 2007 that I now have to hunt down. A collector’s work is never done!)