[YouTube] Star Wars Ads/Promotions ('95-'05)

 

https://youtu.be/RR6rHWYYdoM

As I state in the video, I threw this together in about two days. I did spend a lot of that time scanning and photographing all of the images for this blog post and there are a lot of them. It's primarily about advertising and promotions from restaurants and grocery store foods, such as KFC, Taco Bell, Pepsi, and Kellogg's. A large portion of them focus on The Phantom Menace, though there are also some items regarding the special edition releases of the original trilogy.

Frito-Lay
The bags are on a wrinkled side and too large for the scanner. Most are simply ads rather than promotions though Doritos contained a game piece. There is also a 7" x 14" poster (to the right) that was likely created a variety pack but I'm not sure. Also, I'm updating this on May 19th as I found two more of the Episode III Lay's contest pieces.

Kudos/M&M's

Kudos released five products covering Episode I, III, IV, V, and VI (no II as far as I can tell). Each box contains a trading card that can be cut out and a chance to win a vacation. M&M's are simply bags branded with Star Wars of which I have two of.

Taco Bell/KFC/Pizza Hut

When the Phantom Menace released these three restaurants ran a "Defeat the Dark Side" contest where customers collects cardboard discs to try and win prizes. There is also a KFC children's meal box and I believe the boxed fish toy is from that.

 

Taco Bell

These are not part of the above Taco Bell promotions as they are celebrating the release of the original trilogy special editions. I've got three of the seven items they gave out.

Pepsi

There is a little overlap here with the above restaurants as I believe the plastic Pepsi cup is from one or all three of them. 

Kellogg's

For Kellogg's there is a VHS tape titled "The Making of Star Wars" that I'm unsure of what the promotion is from. The shipping box is from Battle Creek, MI which is where Kellogg's is headquartered and how I determined it was a Kellogg's promotion. Then there is a Apple Jacks Dark Horse comic book and a Crispix R2-D2 snack bowl.

Kmart
This is a Kmart ad for The Phantom Menace toys and clothing that I included for possibly no reason. My thought is that the child model holding the LEGO Naboo Starfighter could be a 6-year-old Cameron Monaghan. I've no idea if it actually is him but just thought it was a cool coincidence if so since he stars in the Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order video game. It's a nice ad regardless.

Lucasfilm

Last item is The Phantom Menace official soundtrack mobile advertising piece from a music store. The center pieces feature the same image on both sides while the characters spin around to reveal another picture. 

May the 4th be with you!

Year 4: April Update

As I noted last month, I try not to write anything negative here but the pandemic continues and the area I live is largely shut down through April. It feels as if nothing will ever return to the way it was but hopefully things will improve soon. I continue to work from home and have been going through some stuff to get rid of, and really haven't been gaming too much at all. Last weekend I completed the Fisher-Price video and aim to get some more "Let's Play" videos done next week.

Conventions continue to be canceled and video games keep getting delayed, such as The Last of Us Part II and Wasteland 3. There have been some new announcements too, like compilations of previous BioShock, Borderlands, and XCOM games releasing for Switch in May, and a new standalone XCOM game for PC coming April 24th. As much as I enjoy XCOM 2, I don't own its War of the Chosen expansion and I'm not sure if I'll grab this new game either. It's mostly about the time commitment as I know I'll lose many, many hours if I do start another XCOM. Currently the Switch and physical copies of Final Fantasy VII Remake have been hard to come by so if you're looking for one of those expect to see ridiculous prices. Just be patient as they'll be restocked eventually. In other game news Sony showed off the PlayStation 5's controller a couple weeks ago that is named DualSense.

Something I spent a few hours trying to get to work recently so that I could make a video is The Sims 2. There is an old project I'd like to show off but I just cannot get the game to run on Windows 10. Compatibility problems with old computer games is always such a hassle. My attempt was with the DVD release and I'm wondering if the digital version might be worth trying or if it would be the same. I do have old parts that would allow me to build a Windows XP or even Windows 98 machine, however, I don't want another computer and am trying to find where to unload old motherboards, processors, etc. The project was a video game neighborhood that I never completed but I think it's still worth sharing. I'll post a couple of screenshots I have of it here. Looking at them now I see things I could definitely do better and I didn't use mods so I just had to get the closest matches I could from the base assets.

I forgot to mention in March that Nintendo is working with LEGO on some unique Mario-themed sets. They aren't standard LEGO toys with mini-figures, instead the figures are larger and the sets have interactive parts with sound effects. The starter course is expected to release in August for $59.99.

If you have kids to entertain or just want some simple entertainment for yourself, I've continued to add many scans to the activities album on the Vault 1541 Facebook page. It's not all my typical favorites either, like Batman, Star Wars, and G.I. Joe. There are also Smurfs, Care Bears, Garfield, Woodsy Owl, and many other characters featured, and I have more books I'll get to when I have time. Thanks for reading and please continue to stay home and stay safe.

-Jonathan