Marvel at The Magic Kingdom

On Monday, August 31, 2009, the worlds of the Marvel Universe and the Magic Kingdom collided as The Walt Disney Company announced plans to buy Marvel Entertainment for slightly over $4 billion. Almost immediately, the Disneyana types were excited and the Marvel Zombies were mortified.

Will Mickey Mouse become the newest member of the X-Men? Will Wolverine become a star on Disney on Ice? Will Hannah Montana dress up like Dazzler on an episode of her series? Will they pit Marvel’s Hercules versus Disney’s Hercules? Will Pinocchio be accused of being a mutant? Will The Incredibles fight against and later with the Fantastic Four? Actually, I’d like that one to come true to tell you the truth.

Most critics of the acquisition fail to realize that the same studio that gave us Hannah Montana, Winnie the Pooh, Cars, Beverly Hills Chihuahua, and G-Force also gave us Gargoyles, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Lost, Scream, Kill Bill, Trainspotting, and Clerks. Needless to say, the initial reaction has cooled down compared to what happened upon the announcement. Now, a little clarity is in order. read more

We Built This City…On Cardstock

Godzilla taught us much about rage, kindness, and the need for a good urban planner. Who hasn’t wanted to stomp their own city after a bad day? Rather than destroying billions in municipal infrastructure, you can now topple an entire skyline by building it yourself, out of paper. For the cost of a few sheets of paper, an Xacto knife and your time, you can create New York or Chicago in miniature.

Wurlington Brothers Press for offering free downloadable papercraft model kits of several major landmarks of New York City and Chicago. Want a mini-John Handcock Tower for your desk? Done. Re-create Times Square? Its your ink cartridge…go nuts. read more

The Eco-Friendly Pizza Box

I was reading Scholars & Rogues and was impressed with the innovation in pizza boxes. ECO Incorporated seems to be pretty ambitious in their attempt to change the way people get their pizza. Converting the bottom of the box into a take-home storage container is brilliant. How many times you been left with 1-2 extra slices after everyone is full? I’m interested to see if this concept makes it to market.

Laughter? I like, totally love it!

Do you ever find yourself at a total loss of what to get someone as a gift?  Sometimes you don’t know a person very well, or sometimes you know them too well and can’t figure out something they need.

In the craptastic economy we’re in, its easy to forget that gifts aren’t always supposed to be something the person “needs,” but instead something that they selfishly want.   If figuring out what they want is too hard, giving them something amusing is sometimes better.

Let’s all just admit for a moment that life can be lame.  Life can be boring and hard and bleak at times.  Isn’t laughter the best thing you can give someone?  Wouldn’t it be great to find a product that can be somewhat useful and amusing at the same time? read more

Cell Phone, I Hardly Knew Ye

If you’ve been thinking about getting the rumored iPhone coming out this summer, or getting a slick new Blackberry, then you need to stop and consider what will happen to your current phone.  In the US, wireless carriers often subsidize the cost of a phone when a customer signs a new contract. Having signed a few contracts in the past decade, I’m guilty of getting a new phone for the most trendy gimmicks offered by carriers. Who hasn’t been sold on a cool color alone?

The US currently has about 153 million cellar phone subscribers. Only 10% of all broken or inactive cell phones are recycled each year. Do the math. The rest end up in landfills or incinerators.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is actually launching the National Cell Phone Recycling Week on April 6-12, 2009. The EPA’s pitch is simple. By recycling phones the raw materials can be re-used and save on the electric costs of manufacturing new materials, such as copper, plastic, and glass. By recycling, I’m helping save enough power to keep 2,035 households powered-up for the entire year. read more

The Weird Merchandise from the Watchmen

I had the pleasure of getting to see The Watchmen this week. Having never read the graphic novel, the film was somewhat of a surprise to me. Although the super hero film genre has been exhausted lately, I still found the movie a fun escape. As Spider-man, Batman, and the X-men have proven, each successful super hero franchise comes with a load of merchandise. Here are a few of my favorites:

Rorschach Ski Mask
This ink blot mask  is perfect to protect your identity while you’re robbing a bank…I mean fighting bad guys.

Night Owl Dark Roast
Super heroes have to stay up late. Of course they need an all organic coffee.

Dr. Manhattan Lunchbox
Send your kid to school with a lunchbox that features a glowing naked man on it. read more

Is Christian Salt Kosher?

“What the heck’s the matter with Christian salt?” Joe Godlewski asked reporters while sipping a beer in his Cresaptown, Maryland living room.

Apparently tired of seeing the Jews’ Zionist grip on the salt industry, Godlewski developed Blessed Christian Salt, the first kosher salt to be blessed by an Episcopal Priest and marketed to Christian chefs.

In his interview with Examiner.com (full article), Godlewski elaborates:

“This is about keeping Christianity in front of the public so that it doesn’t die. I want to keep Christianity on the table, in the household, however I can do it.”

I guess nobody told him that kosher salt isn’t part of some elaborate Jewish marketing scheme. Still, I’m more curious if the salt from an Episcopalian blessed salt mine still comes out kosher or if it creates some sort of weird inter-faith hybrid like Chrismukkah or Sarah Jessica Parker. read more

If you like the Shamwow, you should buy a this (NSFW)

Comedy trio, Invisible Engine, brings us the latest in infomercial madness. Thank goodness for these types of time-saving products.

Mattel gives Dora the Explorer a trampy make-over?

Nickelodeon and Mattel, makers of Barbie, are putting a new spin on the Dora the Explorer consumer products. The “problem” with the Dora franchise is that its geared towards preschoolers. This usually means that by around age 8, children lose interest entirely. Mattel, in an effort to extend the character’s shelf life, have decided age Dora in some consumer products to re-capture the girls from 8 to tweens. The new Dora will only exist in the toy-line and not on television, but the new look still has parents outraged.

Bloggers on the Huffington Post are calling the new Dora a “tramp” based the teaser silhouette of the character released last week. The silhouette left parents to believe that Dora’s long top would be a mini-skirt. After yesterday’s big reveal (she has leggings), many parents have calmed down, yet, still remained concerned. The president of Nickelodeon Viacom consumer products, Leigh Anne Brodsky, even spoke to the press to reassure the public that Dora isn’t going to change. The new look is for an interactive doll that plugs into your computer and aimed at tweens (think Teddy Ruxpin 2.0).

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Avon Derma-Full: Rejuvenates Face, Kills Us All

Either the failing economy has caused Avon to desperately reach out to the notoriously image-savvy gamer market, or they’re trying their hand at bio-engineering unstable chemical weapons. A commercial for Avon’s new skin care mask caught the eye of a few Resident Evil fans recently; as Avon’s new Derma-Full X3 facial serum bears a striking resemblance to the T-Virus, a product with side-effects of disorientation, respiratory failure, and zombie apocalypse.

With Resident Evil 5 coming out this week, this almost seems like an odd sort of viral marketing campaign. read more