ComicMix

Facebook comments:

Discussion (6) ¬

1. 
   Miles Vorkosigan

   January 13, 2009 at 11:55 am | # | Reply

   Well, I'm lost… Glenn, you wanna explain this? Because it makes no sense to me…Miles

   • 
     Glenn Hauman

     January 13, 2009 at 12:12 pm | # | Reply

     Found 'em on failblog, they're cheap foreign something-or-others. As far as explaining what they were thinking when they made them, damned if I know… "we have spare parts we have to get rid of"?

     • 
       Miles Vorkosigan

       January 13, 2009 at 12:21 pm | # | Reply

       I remember reading years ago that in China and Japan, really in SE Asia period, anything with Western characters, actors, comics characters, text, anything… was very popular, whether what was on it made sense or not. These make less sense than most. Zorro, Batman and Spidey all on the same thing? A Disney backpack with Superman on it? Weird.Mate, I've gotta go to the library. That means putting on proper shoes. Ta.Miles
   • 
     Russ Rogers

     January 13, 2009 at 12:22 pm | # | Reply

     Miles, these are pics from Failblog.org a site where people send in funny photos or video clips of various kinds of failure.The backpack looks like it came out of a factory that was making both Princess and Superman Backpacks and this backpack ended up going through both production lines by mistake.The Zorro Action figure was produced by someone who didn't know or care who Zorro, Batman or Spider-man are. It looks like it has Zorro on the title, Batman in the picture and a Spidey action figure in the blister pack!
2. 
   Miles Vorkosigan

   January 13, 2009 at 12:29 pm | # | Reply

   I get that, Russ, but it still approaches my brain and veers wildly off course. I can think of a number of reason for this, mostly having to do with having too much blood in my caffiene stream. Maybe a shortage of smoke in my lungs; ran out of cigarettes two hours ago, and just as well, I really do need to quit… Anyway, intellectually I know what it is or is supposed to be. But it's so bloody stupid that I can't accept it. Except as an idiotic mistake at the assembly line. Zorro. Batman. Spidey in the package. Dollar Tree. Gotta dispose of the evidence somewhere…Miles
3. 
   Vinnie Bartilucci

   January 13, 2009 at 1:45 pm | # | Reply

   Don't mock Dollar Tree. It was the source of the greatest "WTF" toy of pre-internet cyberspace – The Barbie Whistle Torch. The Duck-Billed platypus of toys. This thing was all the rage of the Compuserve Comics Forum back in the day. Take a plastic penlight, powered by two "AA" batteries. Extend the lightbulb of the light through a small spring like you'd find on those light-up antennae that we used to call "Deely bobs". But instead of illuminating little stars or something, it illuminates a pseudo-barbie doll head. Then on the other end, add a cheap penny whistle. I believe it was the redoubtable Nat Gertler who named them, but I've been known to be wrong before.They become beloved totems to the pre-internet age CISers. If they'd appeared today they'd almost certainly been elevated to a meme. A quick Google search of "Barbie whistle torch" found a number of articles about them. One from Neil Gaiman, who was there for the initial hilarity, in which he references a blog entry from Colleen Doran (complete with photo). This fellow seems to have stumbled across them independently, and used the name "The fulchau", as marked on the bags he found them in.And by the way…not being able to successfully write the HTML code linking to Epic Fail pictures so they show up as broken picture links on your webpage…is itself an Epic Fail.