Fast Food toys in your future

For a while now I've been monitoring the various fast food web sites looking for new comicbook-related items, and well, the Arby’s site has been saying for a while that comicbooks are coming, but they never seem to get here. I might have to drive by the nearest one to see if the website is up to date.

With the popularity of the Transformers 3 movie out there, Burger King is currently involved in a Tie-in with the film, as they have in the past.

Meanwhile, McDonald’s is in the midst of a Star Wars/The Clone Wars promotion.

As we’ve already indicated, Dunkin’ Donuts is promoting Captain America, Subway is all over Green Lantern (finally) and 7-Eleven is pushing Cowboys & Aliens. I wonder if one of the other fast food franchises will also jump in on the Cap bandwagon as the DD promotion seems to trend more to adults than kids (not that I think that Cap is going to be a kid film).

Toys’ is Us!

Hollywoodland has gone toy crazy. Given the success of the recent slate of toy-based films (Transformers, GI Joe, et. al), many producers are looking for the next big cash cow:

Soon to be starring in his own feature-length film with Universal Pictures: Stretch Armstrong, the pliant, muscle-bound doll whose roots go back to the 1970s. Big Wheel, the plastic tricycle, has its own TV show in the works. Even the board game Risk has a deal for a film, to be co-produced by star Will Smith.

While more can be found in a recent article in The Wall Street Journal, this blogger is looking for one of his favorite childhood toys, The Outer Space Men to make it to the big screen. These toys have already had a very delightful graphic novel published about them and Eric Hayes who wrote the graphic novel.

If Hollywood was smart it would snatch up this property and adapt Eric’s wicked-cool story as the basis for the film.

We can only hope.

GI Joe Invades BK

OK, so the movie was for crap, but the toys are kind of cool. The set is eight items two vehicles, two figures, and four pieces of equipment. The first two toys are Storm Shadow and the Mantis Sub.

I’m not entirely certain that I’m going to go for the whole set (I made no effort to grab any of the Transformers) as I really didn’t like any of the toys. (Ironic, I liked that movie, but hated the toys, and I really didn’t like this movie but am going to get some of the toys — go figure.)

Anyway, here is a photo of the first two items:



While I understand that my 15-year-old nephew Tony-o loved it, I had a number of problems with the film. First of all, it is hard for me to take a film seriously when it is so totally obvious that no one associated with the film takes it seriously.

Perhaps I shouldn’t have watched it after seeing The Hurt Locker, and Black Hawk Down (on TV again). Hell, even the military Rangers from Transformers seemed like more of a sincere military unit than these Yabos.

I think that I would have liked it much better if it was set more in the real world and not so much “Star Wars.” Still, I wasn’t the target audience, Tony-o was, so, what do I know, eh?

And the Human Torch wraps it up!

OK, so I’ve been telling you folks that I’ve been going to my local movie theater to watch films (D'oh) and while there I’ve been tapping this “gumball” machine that has Marvel character toys in it. Well, tonight when I went to see both Public Enemies and G.I. Joe, and I managed to score the final figure in the first (?) set of toys, none other than the Human Torch himself.

One of my local comic shops has another gumball machine with a second set of Marvel characters of which I’ve already scored three of the eight figures. Each set has the characters come in a plastic egg an each figure needs to be assembled. I’m enjoying acquiring these toys, and some of my friends are also enjoying my hunt, as they are getting my duplicate figures.

Oh yeah, as for the films I say, Public Enemies was quite good (although I really liked The Lady in Red much better). As I was already at the theater, I figured that I’d stick around and check out G.I. Joe, and — even though I was really pumped after seeing the trailer — I was very disappointed in the film itself. It is very hard for me to take a film seriously when it is clear that the producers of the film don’t take it seriously.

Actually, I liked Transformers much better than this film (yes, both of them). As a matter of fact, if the G.I. Joe squad had been a little more like the Rangers from the Transformers films, I would have liked that film much better.

Ah well. Sometimes you hit, and sometimes you get hit.

Transformers the (giveaway) Comic

Say what you want about Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (and I’m planning on saying plenty when I post my film review), but they did something I consider to be very cool, and wonder why more films that have inspired comicbooks (and have been inspired by comicbooks) haven’t done, and that is to provide a copy of the comic in the theater for kids (even big kids like me), to read, enjoy, and then (hopefully) seek out and purchase in comicbook shops.

Now I realize that we all have long since realized that comicbooks are merely portable storyboards for potential films that are sold to people in the anticipation that these storyboard pamphlets will translate into a buzz of sorts that will then hook in an audience so that when the next big-budget blockbuster based on those storyboard pamphlets is released, you can then charge that same audience triple the price of the storyboard pamphlets to see an abridged version of what they already read in the first place, and then leverage that film into convincing those self-same folks into believing that they simply can’t live without t-shirts, toys, games, and Happy Meals again based around the characters in that film.

(Not too cynical, am I?)

Seriously though, with so many films these days dancing around comicbooks (again either inspired by or adapted into) You have to wonder why more comicbook companies simply don’t issue more film-related comics. Now I realize that back in the ‘80s & ‘90s Marvel, DC, and others did issue comicbook adaptations of films, but to my mind, those simply never worked, as they tended to be written well before the release of the film, and simply hit the big points of the film effectively capturing random static moments in the film and sucking all live and enjoyment out of the film-going experience itself.

No, what I am talking about is having a standard-sized comic that can be given away to the folks in line at the film that will work both as a cool collectible/giveaway and as a way to leverage that captured audience into going into a comicbook shop to buy more comics, and yes toys, t-shirts, and Happy Meals.

While the IDW/KMart comicbook that adapts the first 20 minutes or so of Transformers,, is kind of cool (even though it suffers from the exact same problem of the old Marvel/DC film adaptations that I spoke of earlier), is a very cool thing, and I’ll tell you why:

First, it was co-sponsored by KMart and second, it didn’t give a complete story, and as IDW is producing an on-going Transformers series, perhaps it will inspire some folks into heading into a comic shop to find the continuing adventures (As an aside, according to IDW, fan enthusiasm has caused the company’s movie prequel Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - Defiance is on the New York Times Best Sellers list for the second time.

I actually found the comic by accident, as the theater where I saw the film didn’t have the comic, but another theater did. Like I say, I really wish that more comicbook companies would do this, as it would (hopefully) help funnel people back into comic shops, and thus benefit the shops that purchase and resellthe comics to the film’s audience in the first place.

Transformers @ BK

OK, so I went to a BK over the weekend in the hopes to score some very cool Transformers, only the one I went to was apparently out of the figures (or simply refused to sell me them without the meal). Slightly disappointed, I looked at the figures, and was somewhat less than impressed.

To be sure, they might be cooler when you actually get one in your hands, but I just wasn't impressed by the look of them in the display case.

Perhaps I’ll just skip them, and wait for the GI Joe toys that I know are coming.



Have to think about this. Still, the movie is wicked-cool!

This Week’s Funnybooks

I’ve been reading the Avengers/Invaders mash-up this past decade or so (actually, it has only seemed that long with the ponderous and meandering storyline that Writer Jim Kruger has been trowling about. Seriously, after all this time, nothing of note has occurred (OK there were two minor linchpins that get pulled out at the end, but seriously, This whole thing could have been told in a Giant-Sized special, and told much better.

By comparison, let me tell you that I sat through two hours and 42 minutes of Transformers which had way less storyline than did Avengers/Invaders, but seemed to take up way less of my time. No I realize that it my not be fair to compare the two, but seriously, A/I (which contained characters that I love), just seemed interminable while Transformers (about which I care not in the least), was really enjoyable. The only thing that i can think of was that Kruger had a point to make and then decided what size sledge hammer he needed to pound it in, while Michael Bay simply wanted to entertain me.

Needless to say, I hate Norman Osborn with the whit-hot passion of an exploding sun (hate hate hate), yet I've been reading Dark Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis (who I consider to be a very talented hack — no offense Brian) but is certainly writing the Hell out of this series, and actually is making me care about Osborn as a person (and I totally hate Bendis for doing this. I want to hate Osborn, but for the first time in like 40 years, I actually feel sorry fo the guy — Osborn not Bendis)

Now that is seriously good writing!

Ms. Marvel is a hit-and-miss character for me, but the last couple of Spidey appearances in her book (#40 being the most recent) have been pretty decent, and I’m enjoying her storyine as we wind through the Dark Reign scenario. (Oh, can anyone tell me if the Moonstone/Ms. Marvel we’ve been seeing in the Thunderbolts/Dark Avengers is the same Moonstone from back in the day who was the bald chippie in the Avengers during the Celestial Madonna storyline? Just wondering.)

I want to see what’s up in Captain America (Yeah the Steve Rogers is back hype got to me, and while I still think that Marvel missed a way-cool opportunity to put Sam Wilson in the suit, I still want to be there when Cap comes back.

Also, while I’m still on the fence about the whole Timestorm thing, I can’t help but to point out that the 2099 Universe into which Spidey and Wolverine have been pulled isn’t the same one from way back when. Not sure if I’m liking this, but it isn’t entirely bad, and I want to see where they go with it (Plus it is way better than A/I)

Haven’t read the Sinister Spider-Man (staring Scorpion/Venom) or Mr. Negative minis yet, and well, I’m still POed about BND, but with #600 of ASM coming up, I’m hoping that they will put the whole thing to rest (Still, I’m not afraid that they are going to wait until #666 to put a fork in it, which will seriously wind my clock.

OK, time to get back to (paying) work.

Wolverine grabs a Slurpee!

Yesterday (or was it very early this morning? Who can remember). I posted a number of images of the 7-eleven Terminator Slurpee cups and figure straws. Then, while I was doing it, I recalled that I had completely forgotten to post the images of the 7-eleven Wolverine: X-Men Origins cups and straws, even though that film had come out last weekend (and I had acquired the items in question fully a week earlier).

As stated, I was unable to snag the Papa John’s Wolverine X-Treme Pizza, as the only Papa John’s that was close enough to me to realistically patronize, closed a couple of months back. I can’t tell you how glad I am that it was open when they issued their Spidey-pizza.

Well, I’m going to rectify that egregious error right now, by posting them here.



There were three cups in this set.



There were also three “figure” straws.



That is to say, each Slurpee straw had a detachable figure attached to it that could be removed from the straw itself, attached to a base, and then posed for display. I’m glad that they chose to do this, as the Iron Man figures from last year had a little trouble standing.

While I’m not entirely sure what other movie-related items will wind up at your local fast food eatery (other than the already announced Transformers and G.I. Joe), I know that I will — in all probability — spend the rest of these next couple of months scanning the web, and prowling my local fast food franchises to see what I can score.

Right now, I’m now looking for Star Trek / BK toys, which are currently available.

Fanboys & girls, start your engines!

Transformers at BK

OK, OK, truth of the matter is that Transformers were at BK, (Simpsons are there now, more in a later post), but I did manage to snag a couple of the Transformer toys, and as the movie was totally cool, and Marvel used to publish Transformers (plus there is a new New Avengers/ Transformers comic out now), I thought I'd make mention of them.

Plus Tom has been bugging me for this post.



Happy Now Tommy-Boy?



Sorry this one is a bit blurry, I think the picture is actually fine, but I was a touch “blurry” myself when I snapped it (if you know what I mean, eh?)