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Current promotions for Star Wars Episode I in 3D

Posted in movies, nostalgia, Pepsi, pop culture, soda, Star Wars with tags movies, nostalgia, Pepsi, soda, Star Wars on February 13, 2012 by Paxton

Star Wars Episode I in 3D started on Friday. I plan on seeing it this weekend, so I’m very excited. It reminds me of the innocent times in early 1999 when I was awaiting the initial release of the movie. That pre-Episode I buildup was so much fun. This week, I’m going to take a look at some of the promotional stuff companies like Pepsi and Hasbro did for the first Star Wars movie since 1983.

Today, let’s start with the most recent stuff being used to promote Episode I in 3D.

There have been several posters released for Episode I in 3D. You can see the wide quad poster above. There’s a more traditional vertical version of that quad. There are also some cool looking character posters that have been released. Here are three of them (click image to see BIGGER).

As you will see, Darth Maul seems to be the character they are focusing on for most for these promotions. See several more posters at Geeks of Doom.

Pepsi is really being understated about their Episode I in 3D promotion. Currently, they have bottles of Lipton Raspberry Tea with Darth Maul’s face and a blurb about the movie. Other flavors just have the movie blurb. Check them out.

Darth Maul is also on the large cans of Raspberry Brisk. These are a lot harder to find. I’ve only seen the actual cans of Brisk once, but they didn’t have the Maul can. It looks awesome, though.

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5 Reasons why the 1987 John Byrne Superman kicked ass

Posted in 80s, comic books, nostalgia, pop culture, Superman with tags Cavalcade Comics, comic books, DC Comics, nostalgia, pop culture, Superman on January 11, 2012 by Paxton

Last year I talked about the 25th anniversary of the John Byrne mini-series Man of Steel. That 1986 mini-series was a post-Crisis on Infinite Earths reboot of Superman which updated his origin and character and served to make him a little less powerful and thus, more interesting.

The reboot led to a revamp of Action Comics, a renaming of the old Superman book to The Adventures of Superman as well as the launch of a brand new Superman book. The new Superman book as well as Action Comics would be written and drawn by John Byrne. The Adventures of Superman would be written by Marv Wolfman and drawn by Jerry Ordway. And this month, the post Crisis Superman reboot celebrates its 25th anniversary.

Here is a DC in-house ad advertising the launch of the new Superman titles.

The three issues that started the reboot and featured in this ad are Superman #1, The Adventures of Superman #424 (previously titled Superman) and Action Comics #584. This reboot was a pretty big event and DC advertised it to the hilt.

For the most part, I wasn’t a fan of the Marv Wolfman Adventure issues, but I was a HUGE fan of the Byrne Superman and Action Comics titles. His art and action packed writing style made Superman fun to read. I still have many of the original issues.

Anyway, in celebration of the 25th anniversary, here are 5 reasons why the John Byrne Superman titles kicked so much ass.

Superman vs Legion

Superman got into fights with EVERYONE – Under John Byrne, Action Comics essentially became a free-for-all. It turned into a team up book starring Superman and another character (a la Brave & the Bold for Batman). Within the majority of those issues, Superman wound up getting into a fight with his co-stars, usually over some misunderstanding. But Byrne drew the fights with awesome jaw cracking detail. The regular Superman title was the same way with Supes fighting the Legion, Metallo, Supergirl and a giant mutant ape.

Superman fights 1 Superman fights 2 Superman fights 8

Superman fights 6 Superman fights 7 Superman fights 5

Superman fights 9

Superman didn’t always win his fights (Bizarro, Metallo, Superboy, Rampage, Supergirl) – So, as I said, Superman fought a lot. And surprisingly, he actually got his ass kicked…a lot. At least every other issue featured a panel of Superman getting either smacked in the face or being hit so hard he flies through the air. Check out the myriad of comic panels above showing the Man of Steel on the receiving end of a Bronx haymaker.

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Dirty Harry turns 40 years old

Posted in movies, nostalgia, pop culture with tags anniversaries, movies, nostalgia, pop culture on December 24, 2011 by Paxton

(Via jmillerdp)

Dirty Harry opened on Christmas Eve, 1971.

Here’s the theatrical trailer:

A collection of vintage milk PSAs

Posted in 80s, commercials, nostalgia, pop culture, TV with tags commercials, nostalgia, pop culture, TV, vintage on August 26, 2011 by Paxton

I loved milk commercials when I was growing up. There were tons of them and they were shown all the time. And there were so many versions of the ads that it was endlessly interesting.

So on this Friday, I’m going to show you a bunch of my favorites.

Let’s start with one of the most iconic. The one directed by Michael Bay. The “Aaron Burr” commercial.

Next up are the “Milk it Does a Body Good” commercials. These are the ones I generally think of when I think of milk commercials. There were two versions of these. The first was a series of musical numbers featuring kids and random images of things flying all over the place. Things like animals (cows, penguins and kangaroos).

Check out the awesome 80s randomness of this ad featuring a lot of kangaroos. Seriously, kangaroos on pogo sticks and tap dancing kangaroos.

Here’s the “cow on the moon” musical PSA.

…and here’s the penguin version.

The other version of the “Milk it Does a Body Good” PSA involved kids talking to someone about the benefits of drinking milk. As they talk, they transform into an older, taller, better looking version of themselves. There were even two versions of this ad, one in which the kids were talking to someone else and one where the kids were looking in the mirror talking to their future selves. All of these commercials are filmed in front of a gray backdrop that looks like a crinkled up curtain.

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A Cavalcade of Collector Cups

Posted in advertising, fast food, McDonald's, movies, pop culture, Star Wars, Tron with tags fast food, movies, nostalgia, pop culture, Star Wars, Tron on August 12, 2011 by Paxton

I’ve talked about fast food collector glasses before. But that article covered collector glasses made of actual GLASS. There are also a plethora of plastic collector cups. A few weeks ago Nerd Lunch talked about super hero cups. So, I thought I’d throw my hat in the ring and talk about a few of my favorite collector cups that have been given away at movie theaters and fast food chains.

I have each of these cups in my collection right now.

This is the Capt America The First Avenger Tri-Color Coolatta Cup. My boy CT from Nerd Lunch discussed this back in July. There are three sides/sections. Each section holds the red (cherry), white (vanilla) and blue (raspberry) flavors of Dunkin Donuts Coolattas. You can see the second side here and the third side is here. The cup is sitting next to the stars and stripes donut that also promoted the Capt America movie. They were both good, but I won’t lie, after consuming both for breakfast it felt like Cap and the Howling Commandos were fighting World War II in my colon.

This was the collector cup given out at movie theaters in 2000 to promote the first Singer X-Men movie. I like the tapered base of this cup so it fits in your cup holder. Many cups now don’t do that. And check out the web address of the movie with all of those dashes. http://www.x-men-the-movie.com. Hello late ’90s.

Everyone remembers the Star Wars cup toppers from 1999 during the whole Episode I merchandising frenzy. There were 12 cups and figure toppers you could collect from KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut. Well, those toppers were based on an earlier promotion for the Star Wars Special Edition in 1996-97. It was a set of 4 and featured C3PO, R2D2, Vader and a Stormtrooper. There were two versions of this set. Above left you can see the set that came from the Las Vegas FAO Schwartz store. They had setup their own version of the Mos Eisley Cantina including themed ICEE drinks (like Jabba Juice). I had visited Vegas in 1998 and was able to buy these at the store. Click the image to see it bigger and to see the commemortive FAO Cantina cup. The other version of this set on the right came from Pizza Hut and Taco Bell stores overseas (I don’t believe they were offered in the US). The toppers were exactly the same but instead of the FAO cup it had a blue cup with a picture of the character on it (see the Stormtrooper above). You can see how these influenced the Episode I cup toppers. For obvious reasons, only the R2D2 was reused in the 1999 Episode I promotion.