Two Iron Mans Are Better Than One

As you may know, we are big fans of Movie Tie-Ins. Well, at least I am and the rest of the family has to go along for the ride. Yesterday we had to go out and run a few errands (including picking up our Disney World tickets) so I gave the kids a choice: McDonald's for Speed Racer toys or Burger King for Iron Man toys. It turns out Iron Man crushed Speed Racer in enthusiasm so we included a stop at our local BK for lunch. Expecting to get psyched for the Iron Man movie with some crappy little toys we were also met with an image of Indiana Jones as we pulled into the parking lot. It turns out BK didn't only whore itself out to Iron Man, but they are also in bed with good ol' Indy too. I'm a sucker for any menu item that is somehow tied into a movie, so while the kids ate their chicken tenders and apple sauce Joey and I were chowing down on Indiana Jones' Adventure Whopper...or something to that effect. Yes, it's just a Whopper with the addition of Pepper Jack Cheese, Bacon and some dark red tangy sauce but it comes wrapped in an Indiana Jones wrapper too! How can you resist! And I'm not really even into the whole Indiana Jones thang!


As you can see from the picture, the boys got Iron Man glasses that I guess are somehow supposed to make them look like Iron Man. Elias and Tanner really wanted action figures but they also aren't ones to pass up wearing superhero costume items. Most of the toys available in the Burger King Kid's Meal are figures but there is also a 3-D puzzle that looks kind of neat. It appears that Burger King is going to have Indiana Jones toys sometime in the next week or so.


Over at Mickey D's they are plugging the new Speed Racer movie with their Happy Meal. They of course have several different cars as prizes but they've also decided to make Speed Racer one of their boy/girl prizes. I assume boys are awarded one of the cars and girls receive "fashion items" like Speed Racer purses and vanity mirrors. An odd decision on Ronald's part, I guess they felt the movie just didn't have enough "Girl Power" to keep the little girls happy. Lame!

Here They Come... Here Comes Speed Racer Toys

The summer movie season is just around the corner and that means the summer movie merchandising is here. Product tie-ins and other movie goodies can get me excited about a movie that I have no intention of seeing! However, I am looking forward to the new Speed Racer movie and we all know how much of a fan I am of free prizes in cereal boxes. So, free Speed Racer prizes inside specially marked boxes of General Mills cereal? Sign me up! I haven't watched an episode of Speed Racer since I was probably 8 years old, but I do have fuzzy warm memories of the cartoon. When I was in the first and second grade Speed Racer was on WDCA Channel 20 every afternoon at 3 & 3:30. We got off the bus somewhere between 3 and 3:30. So everyday I would race home from the bus stop, grab the afterschool snack and then head on down to my friend Ryan Tripp's house to watch the second Speed Racer before a solid hour of Scooby-Doo at 4 & 4:30. That was television my friends! (And...Yes, my friend Ryan's mom was later involved in a certain White House scandal that made her famous!)

So, anywho...this new Speed Racer movie looks pretty cool. It's bright and colorful and looks like it will be alot of fun plus it stays true to the original series which is always a plus in my book. I had already seen Speed Racer fruit snacks at the grocery store and today I saw the toys starting to pop up on the shelves at Wal-Mart. The free cars inside the cereal happened to be inside two brands of cereal that we eat in our house, so we picked up a couple of boxes. Unfortunately we didn't score the Mach 5 (Speed Racer's white car) but we did get these two other cars: #33 and #12 Hydra Cell. That means absolutely nothing to me either, but after the movie I'm sure we'll know who they are. The cars have the ol' pull back and go action which allows them to speed off on their own after driving them backwards on the floor a few inches. For cheap little cereal premiums they work pretty good. They are fast and provided an evenings worth of entertainment for my kids (and I).

Speed Racer hits theatres May 9. You can look for additional tie-promotions with Target, Lego, Puma and yes...the coveted McDonald's Happy Meal.

back of the cereal boxes