Category: Miscellaneous
The Cans
Way, way back in 1999, the world was in the middle of Star Wars mania. Everyone (including YOU) constantly thought about one thing and one thing only, and that was Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. During this heady tumult of fandom Pepsi introduced a set of collectible Star Wars cans.
And you better believe I collected them!
There were 24 cans in total (excluding the chase cans), distributed between four different types of soda: Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Pepsi One and Mountain Dew. The cans were exclusively available in the 12/24 packs of soda, with 4 cans only available in 24 packs. This meant to collect all 24 one would have to buy a minimum of 20 12 packs and 4 24 packs of soda. That’s 336 cans in total. Over four months!
In addition to the normal cans there were much rarer chase cans, including a ‘gold yoda’ can and a ‘choose your destiny’ can. Details of which can be found here.
As I said, I collected all 24 cans. By myself. By buying soda. I never traded, nor did I buy any online. Here are some shots:
Note the rich coating of dust. More on that later.
I also sent away for the ‘collectible’ display holder, which you can see in this shot:
<No Sio Bibble?
Even though it was almost 10 years ago when this occured, I can fondly remember the ordeal of completing this set. For starters, some of our local stores did not stock Pepsi One, which meant we had to drive a fair distance to a Wal-Mart to look for it. For seconders, around that time it seemed no one actually bought Pepsi One, so the few Wal-Mart’s that stocked it never seemed to restock their supply which meant the same character cans were on shelves for a long time. For thirders, both KLS and I hate Pepsi One, which means that in the four cases we bought a case, we almost certainly (and, I admit, shamefully) poured it down the sink.
But that pales next to the fact we both hate Pepsi as well. Note there are 8 Pepsi cans. Thats over 100 cans of Pepsi that were probably poured out…
I also continued to buy Mountain Dew after completing the set, and not just because I was downing 5 or 6 cans daily back in those days. It’s because I had a sort of mania to get the gold Yoda can, which (thankfully) died when I got the can holder and saw it didn’t have a space for a 25th can.
So where are the cans today you ask? Well, they are still proudly on display:
< It’s called a heirloom
Yes, that’s our laundry. The cans – in the holder – have a pride of place in our laundry! A lavish coating of dust graces each and every one of them these days. And even though I rarely think of them, even less often look at them, and not for many years before today have actually touched them, well even with all this in mind they are one of my absolutely favourite possessions 🙂
They don’t just represent vacuum formed licensed aluminium merchandise – no these cans are proof positive that we live in a day and age where dreams can still be chased, and wishes (excluding the wish for a gold Yoda, of course) can still come true.
[This story has an intriguing afterthought, which could possibly be resolved by someone in a comment. Logically I collected not one but at least twelve sets of these cans. I specifically and distinctly recall keeping a second pristine set. What happened to this second set? Did I give it to someone, perhaps AW or BFS? Or could it remain hidden in a box in our attic to this day? The mind boggles…]
Redeemer
Occasionally, we’re suckers for licensed cereal toys.
You know what I mean – either the little plastic cheap things they include in the box, or the slightly more elaborate items you have to mail-away for. Some examples include the following:
The item on the left is an Indiana Jones light-up spoon (of course it is). Free inside boxes of cereal available in stores right now. We got it from Cocoa Krispies (see middle photo). The image on right shows three plastic skulls hanging from our attic ladder. There is a motion activated red LED inside that makes each skull flicker eerily when hit. These were Pirates Of The Caribbean licensed items that were obtained from (if I recall correctly) Krispix. There were apparently three colours available – we only ever got red. We’ve had them for years now, and the batteries still work.
The more elaborate items require you to cut out tokens from the packaging and send a certain number in with a small cheque for S&H. Examples include:
The leftmost item is an alarm clock that projects the time up on to the ceiling. As you can see, it hasn’t even been opened (more on this item later). It required quite a few tokens if I recall correctly, but since the cereal was Raisin Bran (my favourite) we didn’t have to make sacrifices to earn them. The item on right is a send-in from Goldfish cookies; obviously some sort of easter rabbit-fish. We’ve had this one for maybe ten years, and I forget the details of the promotion. In addition to these two items I have a significant amount of Star Wars licensed send-away items socked away somewhere – lots of bowls and lenticular plates and some lightsabery things obviously made at the same factory that now makes the spoon shown above.
Here’s an example of a current promotion we’re going to send away for:
I love one of the disclaimers: “Actual item may vary” Happily, this wonderful adventure light only needs one token so a single box of toaster sticks (which KLS will eat) and $3.99 gets you the torch.
One of the good things about getting this crap stuff is the wait. You collect your tokens, fill out a simple form and send off some small cheque and then wait months and months (or in the case of the Pirates alarm clock, almost a year) and then one day it just arrives out of the blue. Fun!
Next I’ll share the pride of my collection: a lovely R2-D2 serving bowl:
< Sail Barge R2, anyone?
This beauty is about 30cm wide and as you can see comes with a base that can be used to hold the bowl. But there is more to this item than you may think, for the base has a pressure sensor and a sound chip in it so when you lightly push down (for instance, when someone removes something from the bowl) a cacophany of R2-D2 sound samples explodes from the speaker in the base. It is simultaneous delightful and annoying. I’ll always remember the day this beauty arrived for the box it was sent in was much, much bigger than the bowl itself. I probably had long forgotten about even sending away for it, so it must have felt like Christmas opening the package and removing this treasure.
“Have I ever used it?” I imagine you asking? Silly – of course not! Such items must remain pristine to preserve their value 🙂
As for the Pirates alarm clock. As you saw, it is unopened. In fact we still have the box, instructions and even the batteries that came with it. And it’s free for the taking! The best comment to this post gets it for Christmas this year, so feel free to share your own stories/opinions of the joys of mail-away cereal redemptions at the end 🙂
(As an addendum, could this be the most otaku post ever on this blog?)