Fake April Fools' Day Product Sparks Demand For Real Version
Of all companies, ThinkGeek should know that you never taunt a sci-fi nerd with something movie related unless it really exists. Yesterday the company revealed its annual page of fake products to trick customers, including squeezable bacon spread and a "Unicorn Chaser" soft drink. The best product of all, however, was this Tauntaun sleeping bag (check out the tiny lightsaber on the zipper pull!), which sparked so much demand that the company is looking into selling it for real.
Today, ThinkGeek modified the product page to add this note:
Due to an overwhelming tsunami of requests from YOU THE PEOPLE, we have decided to TRY and bring this to life. We have no clue if the suits at Lucasfilms will grant little ThinkGeek a license, nor do we know how much it would ultimately retail for.
You can sign up on the ThinkGeek fake product page to be emailed "IF available" in the future.
"Tauntaun Sleeping Bag" [ThinkGeek] (Thanks to Rob!)
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Comments:
Took me a bit to realize what it was at first. Once I saw the intestines lining the inside, I knew it was The Empire Strikes Back.
I don't know if I would buy this though. I have the red 8-bit tie from them, but I can't see myself sleeping in one of these. Not even when I go camping.
If this gets made in queen size I will so buy it
That's pretty cool. I bet they could at least sell that one pictured on ebay...
LucasArts will want an arm, a leg, your left nut, and your firstborn too.
And that's just the preamble before they sign the contracts!
Much like Under-Roos and cartoon sheets, companies fail to realize that many men are geeks at heart, and wouldn't mind having a pair or two of Superman/Spiderman underwear. Honestly, if I could get Star War sheets like I had when I was a kid for my King size bed, I would buy them. If a girl is really turned off by kid style sheets, how can you expect her to like you for who you really are?
@Radi0logy: You know what I would buy? A sleeping bag designed to look like a coccooned settler from Aliens, with a chestburster hand puppet sewn into it. That would be awesome.
Well. It would.
LucasArts strike me as precisely the type of company which will see the good humor in this, and which will waive its typically extravagant licensing fees in exchange for the goodwill of the very people who have sustained it over the course of these several decades.
@CargoHolder_GitEmSteveDave: I've been looking for transformers sheets for a while. My wife said no though. :(
Yes! Want!
I just hope that Lucas lets them do it. And doesn't sue the pants of them for producing that one.
MY son has sported my old school Transformers sheets a time or 2. Transformers Sheets Also I still have a pillowcase from 78 of Superman.. Superman Sheets
Funny, I found myself yesterday saying "I'd buy this in an instant for my kids, if they sold it for real." I'm going to sign up.
@CargoHolder_GitEmSteveDave: I just want those really thin pajamas that I had as a kid sized for a large man. I hate the thick flannel grownup kind. And they better have the Masters of the Universe on them.
My husband and I were just discussing how we would both love to be able to still get Under-Roos - in grown-up sizes.
I would totally buy the Tauntaun sleeping bag. In a heart beat!
@pockygt: Also happened with the personal soundtrack t-shirt last year. I keep looking at that and wondering if it's worth picking up.
Think Geek, the font wont to flaunt tauntauns, taunted Star Wars vivants causing a bouffant demand of the eleventh detente. With savant gran entente they gallantly sought to quell the want of the flaunted tauntaun lest the gaunt vivants' want should haunt them on a jaunt with their aunt to a Vermont restaurant.
If you wash them, will you still be able to say "I thought they smelled bad on the outside?"
That is pure awesome.
i wanted the bacon spread. i think it would sell better. honestly i cant believe it doesnt exist yet.
This happened to them last year, I think it was their drum t-shirt or the personal soundtrack t-shirt that they ended up making for real. TG's got some fun stuff....
@Ubik2501: If I saw someone wearing that, I'd give them major nerd points for owning it. And then I'd probably punch them for being fucking annoying and blasting sounds when they walked into a room.
"No - no words. No words to describe it. Poetry! They should've sent a poet. So beautiful. So beautiful... I had no idea."
My maiden name is Taunton....
A few years ago, they did a grow-your-own 1up mushroom. They couldn't figure out how to engineer a real one, I guess, but they do sell replicas that you can put in the soil to look real.
@CargoHolder_GitEmSteveDave: Not just men. There seem to be plenty of us wimmenz on this thread who would love it and the male geeks who buy them.
@Chris Walters: Why the hell can't these companies come up with these ideas!! Walk through Wal-Mart and your choices are red.. blue.. green.. and spongebob. Come on!
Anyone want to start a sleeping bag company with me?
@Chris Walters: you could always put the idea up on etsy's alchemy page and see if anyone wants to make you one.
@tcolberg: Don't get me wrong, I'd sleep in it, no hesitation. But having three young Star Wars fanatics in the family, I'll never get the chance.
@CargoHolder_GitEmSteveDave: learn to sew? sheets aren't that hard and a quick google search turned up a half dozen places that sell various prints of star wars fabric. use the selvage edges as the sides and all you need is a hem on the top and bottom
@utensil42: Hell yeah! I wouldn't mind a pair of Wonder Woman underoos. And two appendages up for the Tauntaun sleeping bag, most definitely.
@h3llc4t: One of my friends has their wi-fi shirt. My jaw hit the ground when he told me he had it. Never seen him wear it though.
It is funny how many of think geek's april fools stuff gets turned to real stuff. Isn't the 1up mushroom real now?
@humphrmi: with a whole family... you actually just need a tauntaun shaped tent. of course you'd have to use it inside so the neighbors won't call the cops about the large dead animal in the yard
@margotenenbaum: bacannaise is actually vegetarian.... i was so disappointed by that fact [it isn't available near me yet so i haven't tasted it]
@hunter3742: people already use the sarcasm tags... websites just need to implement code that USES them
@Nighthawke: The larger challenge will be getting it past the CPSC if they really intend to sell it for kids. The lightsaber zip-pull will probably have to go since choking hazards are the first things to get products recalled.
@margotenenbaum: John Stewart tried some last month: [www.thedailyshow.com]
(can't get it to embed, not sure if it's possible)
This happened with the 8-bit tie a few years ago. I think April fool's day is just an excuse for them to show some of their experimental items without fear of them being laughed off if they're garbage.