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The Star Wars Midnight Madness Mega Event!

Wow, the last post on here turned out to be prophetic. I found out on Wednesday that the Toys 'R' Us in Times Square was hosting a special version of the Midnight Madness event -- the night where toy stores across the country open their doors at 12 AM to give Star Wars nuts first dibs on all the new Revenge of the Sith merchandise. I'm sure a few of you attended the event in your area, but at this particular TRU, it wasn't just about toys -- it was about costumed M&M's dressed as Star Wars characters, giant Darth Taters and enough "real" Stormtroopers to take down the city. Quite a night we had -- check out the four page report!

So yes, the Sith-craze has officially begun. The stuff is just everywhere. We've covered similar phenomena when Shrek 2 and The Hulk came out, but it's a little different this time, since I actually, you know, like Star Wars. I'll review as much of the crap as time allows, but let's start with a big one: tongue-coloring Star Wars Cheetos!

Yes, "Cheetos Twisted" snacks, all dolled up for Revenge of the Sith. Apparently, food companies at large were simultaneously handed research results proving that kids across the world are more inclined to eat things filled with dried food coloring...thus, the Cheetos turn one's tongue either "Yoda Green" or "Darth Vader Dark." Incredible. They've even got Chester wearing the black helmet and swinging a lightsaber on the package, along with a few other images the serve the church of sacreligion.

Illustrated above, moisture makes the cheesy twirls let go of their inner secret colors, staining everything they touch either green or black. What fun! Though I'm sure many will buy these for the novelty factor, I don't think every kid at school's gonna want a lunchtime snack that makes their mouth area look so dirty. As if Cheetos didn't leave enough messy residue already.

That's all for now -- if you participated in any of the midnight events or hit the stores over the weekend, let us know what you picked up! I plan on hitting TRU everyday till I land myself a red Royal Guard. Disgustingly, I'm pretty excited about doing that.

Posted by Matt on 04/03/2005. E-mail me!



Discussion Thread: 135 comments

Also, did you order your target exclusive vader from the target website yet Matt? I put my homepage as the direct link to it, instead of shipping in 4 to 8 weeks now it says 24 hours!

Chestnuts roasted by Mike @ 04/04/2005 5:05 PM

Got the last one in the store. Let me know if you want it, Matt.

http://www.batsbelfry.com/3401.jpg

bat@batsbelfry.com

Chestnuts roasted by Eddie Lightning Frog @ 04/04/2005 5:08 PM

Thanks for the coverage. I was one of the Biker Scouts at the event. Although I wasn’t the one with the neck showing. :P Hehehe.

Chestnuts roasted by Natasha @ 04/04/2005 5:10 PM

Wow…just wow. I suddenly realized that Lucas is going to need to buy another ranch to store his money.

He’ll just build more studios. You no doubt heard on 60 Minutes that he built a gigantic, expensive studio for ILM to move into on his ranch, then bought a larger area and abandoned that building in two months.

Chestnuts roasted by Mars @ 04/04/2005 5:46 PM

I like the Star Wars M&Ms with all the different bags. They r0x0R5.

Chestnuts roasted by Wilkersons_Revenge @ 04/04/2005 6:51 PM

Alright, you’ve convinced me. I’m excited about the new Star Wars. I was kind of pissed about it at first…bitter, I guess. But I feel the frenzy now.

In relation to the Kool Aid article from a few days ago-I saw a girl with a Kool Aid purse on Saturday. It looked like a bunch of packets stitched together, maybe three wide by one deep by one tall, but the packets were metallic and more the size of a Capri Sun. Definitely Kool Aid though. Wasn’t close enough to see what it was actually made of-if it was printed onto fabric or plastic or what. Still, pretty awesome.

Chestnuts roasted by Mara @ 04/04/2005 9:06 PM

Manimal: Thanks. I live in a small southern New Jersey resort town; the only place near me to get toys is K-Mart. I’ve got a birthday and a vacation from work coming soon, though, so I’ll hopefully have the money and the time to take a look at all the new stuff.

Oh, and I saw the "M-pire" M&Ms while I was running errands today in CVS. Way too cute. I was tempted to try the milk chocolate ones because the blue M&M was supposed to be Han Solo and he’s always been my favorite, but I gave in to the dark side. It was something new. I probably won’t again. They’re nifty-looking, but too bitter for me. :p

Chestnuts roasted by starwenn @ 04/04/2005 9:27 PM

great article. i was one of the jedi at the event (the younger bearded one). that had to have been one of the best nights of my life. however i left with nothing as most of my money was spent on that blasted costume i made.

however, the experience was well worth it.

Chestnuts roasted by darth nevoc @ 04/04/2005 9:37 PM

Sounds like YOU had a fun night. WAAAAHHH! I WANNA GO TO TIMES SQUARE TOYS R US AGAIN SO BADLY! WAAAAAHH!!

Chestnuts roasted by Dragonrider @ 04/04/2005 9:42 PM

DAMN YOU MATT!! I bought a Darth Tater. We went to the mall to get E.Claire’s portrait done (very cute by the way) and I took her to the Kay-Bee (aka: she was my cover). I saw Darth Tater there and….I guess your article got me all juiced up.
Saw plenty of Grevious bodyguards but no Imperial Red guard.
MANIMAL TALLY OF EPISODE III CRAP-1 Darth Vader
1 Darth Tater
1 poster
1 coloring book/activity book

Chestnuts roasted by The Manimal @ 04/05/2005 12:39 PM

I went to my local TRu for midnight madness..

Got the Holo Yoda, then got up early for the Lava Vader…

Then got pissed when i found out I could have
A) Gone to bed earlier
and
B) Slept in later..

And just ordered both online.

Crap.

You should have a Midnight madness survey:

How many people saw fully grown men push 10 year olds out of the way to get a blue royal guard??

* < --- That means "one" here!

Good times.

Chestnuts roasted by Tyler @ 04/05/2005 1:39 AM

I have a confession to make… I bought Darth Tater about 2 weeks ago, but haven’t opened him yet. :( I will tomorrow! I promise!

If I didn’t work at TRU, maybe this midnight thing would’ve been more exciting to me. :( I didn’t get to work the actual midnight shift, but don’t get me started on that…

But, ohh, the joy of being able to go in the stockroom and tear open a fresh box of figurines and pick through them before anyone else, and all by yourself. :D

Chestnuts roasted by Ryane @ 04/05/2005 2:09 AM

Matt – I forgot to ask, are the dark chocolate M&M’s vegan by any chance? I know some dark chocolate doesn’t have milk, but I was curious about these and haven’t seen/inspected them yet.

They probably aren’t. :(

Chestnuts roasted by Ryane @ 04/05/2005 2:35 AM

I’d say the Star Wars Legos video game is the oddest thing i’ve actually seen so far. I thought the commercial was a joke at first but i was dead wrong. I mean the concept of Star Wars legos is perfectly fine but basing a game off of it seems like a little too much. My fave Star Wars viedo games were the SNES trilogy and Masters of Tera Kasi (not sure if the name is exactly right) for PS-1. It was a 2-D 3-D fighting game with most of the main good and bad guys available, although Vader had to be unlocked using a code. I liked how the name of the sandperson (i think it was one of the sandpeople) was Hoar. Plus it was kick ass to blast someone with Boba Fett’s backpack misslie launcher and was always a fan of the move where Luke just chucks his lightsaber at his opponent. Well enough of my blabbing.

Chestnuts roasted by phunqsauce @ 04/05/2005 2:39 AM

You know, this is just…wow…

It’s almost sickening. People are going Star Wars retarded, and like in three months they’ll be shoveling this shit into a hole and having ridiculous clearance sales cause there is just TOO MUCH! I went to the M&Ms site and I was just dumbfounded and how whored out this movie is, and how they aren’t even like being modest. "YOU MUST BUY OUR SHIT OR DARTH VADER WILL RAPE YOU."

And yet, I just bought Star Wars cereal. God bless America.

Chestnuts roasted by Kris @ 04/05/2005 2:49 AM

Don’t know what to say that hasn’t already been said, but sounds like you really had a blast, Matt.

I’m glad you had such a good time and passed the fun on to us in a wonderfully massive article. :smile:

P.S. Darth Tater RULES!!!

Chestnuts roasted by Tetsu Deinonychus @ 04/05/2005 3:30 AM

Loved the article Matt, I never got into collecting the prequel toys, but for some reason Ep. III has got me excited. Bought 23 of the figures this weekend plus Anakin’s FX light saber. Yes it was an all SW geek-out weekend for me. Now I’m waiting for some Revenge of the Sith breakfast cereal tie-ins.

Chestnuts roasted by Dain @ 04/05/2005 4:51 AM

You should’ve seen my Wal-Mart. I work at one in California, and they rented out a horrible looking vader costume with round candy-like buttons for his chest plate, tennis shoes and no gloves! My DV costume from 2 years ago looked better than that, and it was a cheap piece of crap! Plus the guy in the costume was an openly gay employee. (I mean that as no offense to him. He’s a great guy that gets along good with everyone.) Plus for some reason they had him holding two lightsabers. One, the appropriate red, and the other Mace Windu Purple. So there ya have it. The gay, gloveless two saber-toting Darth Varder. The next day they needed a volunteer. Instead of doing it quietly as not to dissapoint the kids, they say over the loudspeaker, "If any employee would like to be Darth Vader, please dial 120."

Chestnuts roasted by JoJo @ 04/05/2005 5:55 AM

This is a great article because I’ll never get visit anything like this.

Let us hear you using the voice changer!

Death star gunners had cool hats!

Chestnuts roasted by dfgdfg @ 04/05/2005 8:00 AM

Being in the UK, we are of course denied any respect by any of the toy/confection companies: just asked M&Ms if the Dark Side sweets will be out over here, and here’s the reply I got: "Thank you for your recent e-mail regarding the M&Ms/Star Wars promotion which is currently running in USA.
We have no plans at present to introduce a similar promotion in the UK." I want that dark sweetness!

Chestnuts roasted by DantheMan @ 04/05/2005 8:14 AM

I don’t think the dark choc M&M’s would be vegan. They actually don’t taste much different than the originals.

To those outside the U.S. craving dark chocolate goodness, I’m sure one of us here could hook you up. :)

Oh, I hit Target last night…fever’s starting to wear off, but not enough for me to pass down the first G’s Bodyguard I’ve seen yet. Also got a couple of hot Jedi chicks. Didn’t see the Lava Vader or any of the figure/glass sets, because this Target wanted to hurt my feelings.

I picked up the cereal, tho. Will review this week.

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 04/05/2005 9:22 AM

Matt I can’t wait for a review of some of the new SW crapola. I’m going out again tonight to look for and get more!!! I’m an addict!

Plus I can’t wait to see what kind of trouble some of the new figures get into…(aka I’m Jonesin’ for a new figurine skit)

Thanks, as always, for the site Matt!

Chestnuts roasted by bad karma @ 04/05/2005 9:39 AM

I’ve been to the Toys R Us in Times Sqaure. The first thing I said when I walked through the door was "Happy Birthday Allison" (although it was 8 months until my birthday). But, anyways, this store is like your ultimate childhood dreams come true. Toys everywhere, and a whole section of Care bears.

Those Cheetos are nasty!! I just ate breakfast a little while ago (I’m @ college right now–Go Stockton!), and the Apple Jacks, orange juice, tea, and Blueberry Yogurt in my stomach just turned. Yuck. Sorry to be explanative of what I ate this morning, but its not that bad. Nah, I’ll be ok.

Hey kingklash, I had to watch a western movie for a writing assignment, and let me tell you, this movie was bad. I rooted for the wrong side too. I also thought it looked like the audio track was a little off, but I later found out that the movie was from West Germany, dubbed in English. It even had this classic scene in which a few of the pioneers in the film, including the token girl, were on a log raft being pulled down a trecherous river. It looked like they so used a blue screen, and the terror on their faces was so artificial. I could have done it better, and I’m not really much of an actor!!!!

As for Star Wars, brace yourselves–I’m not interested. The one guy I work with loves it, and told me one day "We have enough time to watch Episodes 4, 5, and 6. I wanted to die right then and there.

I don’t care much for sci-fi, but I LOVE Quantum Leap (though its not much of a sci-fi program). I LOVE Sam Beckett!!!!!!!! there, I said it.

Great work story (from my adventures in the video store)–my brother, who worked there before I did, and one of his best friends (who worked with both of us during two separate summers at the store) used to use rolled-up movie posters at lightsabers and yell "whoosh!!" in slo-mo. I wish I could have seen it firsthand, but they did a pretty good re-enactment at my house 3 years ago. IT was great.

Matt, the Cheetos look nasty, but I like M&M’s. Great article. Hope you feel better.:)

Chestnuts roasted by Allison @ 04/05/2005 9:46 AM

Darth Tater is nowhere to be found. I need to kill. I lashed out at every store clerk in town yesterday.

*sigh*

Chestnuts roasted by Bryan @ 04/05/2005 10:04 AM

Dammit! Here in Korea, there are NO toys to be seen….I was in Seoul this weekend though, and I saw a killer Ep. III movie poster up at a bus stop- this is a sign that at least I will get to see the movie when it comes out….even though I have no promotional tie-ins to help quench my thirst until that happy day.

Man, I am looking forward to this movie- there’s NO way this one can suck- they have too much great story to tell.

Chestnuts roasted by Muppet Baby @ 04/05/2005 10:11 AM

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This entry was posted on Sunday, April 3rd, 2005 at 7:50 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.