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11 Unusual Products That Were Inspired by Movies
Having an interesting object at home that is inspired by a movie can be as important to true fans as managing to get tickets for the premiere of the movie. Unfortunately, in an attempt to increase their profits, production houses use merchandising, a technique that stimulates interest and entices customers to make a purchase. This is a common way of making easy money from fans that, as you will see below, is definitely not foolproof. Not only that, but in some cases it has even backfired because the products that were sold were kind of useless or simply not attractive enough.
Bright Side made a compilation of 11 very graphic examples of how far merchandisers will go to make a movie profitable. At the end of the article, you will find an interesting bonus about Star Trek, and the search for Spock.
1. Tauntaun sleeping bag
Maybe only true Star Wars fans will be able to recognize this one, let alone want to buy it… or not! A tauntaun is a fictitious creature that appeared in Episode V of the saga created by George Lucas. It’s a species of snow lizard found roaming the snow plains, that were domesticated to be used as transportation by rebels living on planet Hoth. Well, someone thought it was a good idea to create a sleeping bag shaped as one of these lovely creatures. It sells on eBay for the modest price of $300.
2. Burger King’s Dark Whopper
When Spider-Man 3 was released, Burger King made a special edition called the Dark Whopper, which was basically a good old Whopper, but with a pepper sauce. The Dark Whopper pack also included fries shaped like spider webs. But the Spidermania didn’t end there. Next summer, when The Dark Knight was released, Burger King did it again. The famous burger joint went for a similar approach, a Dark Whopper, that they claimed was now inspired by Batman instead of Spider-Man.
3. Transformers bath time shave kit… for kids
All kids like pretending to be adults, it’s something natural that they do when growing up. But what we still have trouble understanding is the logical relationship between a fake shaving kit and Transformers… Well, maybe transformable cars need to tidy themselves up from time to time as well. Who knows?
4. 2001: A Space Odyssey’s monolith mini replica
Who would have ever thought that one of Kubrick’s most iconic movies and one of the most popular sci-fi movies of all times would have its own line of toys. Or toy, and not precisely an action one. On April Fool’s day in 2010, the toy store Think Geek, led their audience to believe that they would release a mysterious toy based on the mythical black monolith of 2001, A Space Odyssey. The rumor became so popular that they actually made the toy, which by the way is just a black piece of plastic shaped like a rectangle. It does include a moon-shaped base, though.
5. A replica of Bella Swan’s engagement ring
We are all aware of how popular the Twilight franchise became after the books were adapted to the big screen. So much so that fans of the saga wanted to marry Edward Cullen. Well, it seems like their wishes might have come true. Or something like that. Now you can buy a replica of the ring that the famous vampire used to propose to his loved one. The original one is made with real diamonds and white gold, but online you can find imitations ranging from $10 to $90.
6. Avengers: The perfumes
Not really sure what the smell of a superhero would be like, but it kind of seems like after fighting all those epic battles against evil creatures, they might not smell amazing. Well, Amazon begged to differ. A line of perfumes based on the Marvel superheroes was released, maybe to cover up the smell of sweat caused by saving the world.
7. Comfy (and hairy) slippers shaped like hobbit’s feet
If you’ve always wondered what it felt like to be a true hobbit (you know, living in a hole, eating about 5 times a day, or more, and hosting house parties all the time), maybe this is the closest you can get to truly satisfy your curiosity. These Hobbit slippers are for sale on eBay for about $25 and seem to be very popular.
8. The Matrix Reloaded’s phone
After the release of Matrix, the Nokia 8110 became an icon. At the time, it seemed like the coolest phone in the world and everyone wanted to have it. But for the sequels of the movie that were released a few years later, Samsung signed a contract with the production house to make their own phone, which resulted in a real surprise, because it was completely different from what people actually liked from the first phone.
9. An action figure of Dennis Nedry, Jurassic Park’s IT guy
The overweight IT programmer, character Dennis Nedry from Jurassic Park (1993), is one of the most beloved characters of the Spielberg saga, not only because of his typical Hawaiian shirt, but also because of his ambitions and that unforgettable scene in which a Dilophosaurus attacks him by spitting acid straight into his face. The interesting thing about this is that he has his own action figure, but you can barely recognize him!
10. Oreo’s special edition of Game of Thrones
Game of Thrones quickly became one of the most emblematic series of our generation (and maybe even of this century) so it was probably just a matter of time before the producers created a plethora of merch alluding to the series. Among the products created were Oreo cookies with the sigil of the most epic houses from the series. This delicious, but clearly overpriced dessert, is a limited edition.
11. The Unofficial Hunger Games Cookbook
Let’s remember that, originally, The Hunger Games was a book, and only later on was it adapted to the big screen, which is more or less a common thing today. However, is making a cookbook with recipes inspired by a movie series just as common? I’m afraid not. But, somebody did it for The Hunger Games. It includes recipes from Peeta’s parents bakery and other extravagant and decadent recipes coming from the rich capital city. Weird? We’ll let you decide.
Bonus: Start Trek’s orange microbes from Planet Genesis
In the third movie of the saga, Star Trek: the Search for Spock, Captain Kirk’s son lands in a planet called Genesis that he is supposed to inspect. The planet is incredibly unstable, and any form of life that comes in contact with the planet will be subject to the effects of rapid aging and evolution. This, of course, also happens to any form of microbes, including the ones present on the surface of Spock’s casket when he was ejected from USS Enterprise. The microbes evolved until they became enormous orange creatures. Well, you guessed correctly: on eBay you can get the evolved orange creatures that were used on set, for $500.
Which object did you find most surprising on this list? Do you know of any other examples of merchandise that was sold to fans just to start a trend or to keep capitalizing on a movie’s popularity? Have you ever bought this kind of merch? Let us know in the comments and if you did buy something, post a picture along with a caption!
Preview photo credit 99983069 / eBay
