Before I begin today's post, let us take a moment of silence, and remember those who serve and have served at home and abroad; and those who have died in wars past and present.
As we move through 2013, the Millennium Museum honors its first Memorial Day. I've never really called it a "holiday" as such, because to me the word signifies happy celebrations. As far as holidays go, Memorial Day is a solemn occasion.
To that end, I looked at the current "general" banner and thought of ways to recognize the day. My first impulse was to take away most of the frills and keep everything simple; accordingly, the main font here is Times New Roman rather than the usual Copasetic.
I will keep the Copasetic on the tags, as that's part of the blog's overall look.
Normally, my policy is never to use pictures taken from the Internet, because that sort of defeats the purpose of looking for new Items. I only do it here because I didn't have time to track down, buy, and wait for this doll to be shipped to my house. My thanks to whoever took the picture I'm borrowing!
So...Millennium Salute G.I. Joe. As you can see in the picture, he wears what appears to be a U.S. Marines dress uniform, complete with cap, gloves, and ceremonial rifle. Pushing down on a "switch" on his back triggers his "salute" action.
Besides the rifle, he also carries a special "2000" badge that you can wear or display. These accessories could have significant impact on Joe's market value: if he's in his box, but is missing the accessories, he could be worth far less than if he had them!
Overall, I'm not entirely happy with Millennium Salute Joe. His uniform isn't cut that well, and his head looks as if it's retracting, turtle-like, into his shirt! The "gloves" are painted onto his hands, which would be all right if the wrists weren't jointed, but here it looks...weird, is the only word I can think of.
Technically, this isn't a Millennium Item, but it has a story behind it.
I don't think it was Memorial Day *on the day*--it was probably a Sunday--but I had done a Memorial Day ceremony with Boy Scout Troop 610 at our local VFW hall. After that, Mom and Dad and I went to Chicago Ridge Mall to see the first "Star Wars" movie. Either before or after (it's a bit fuzzy ten-plus years on), we ate at the food court's Taco Bell, where I got this super-size cup and a figurine of Darth Maul on his hover-bike. (Sadly, I no longer have the figurine, as it got sold at the village garage sale last year. A shame...he was very well-made.)
"Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace" was the most heavily-marketed event of the year.
YUM! Brands, Inc. restaurants Kentucky Fried Chicken, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut participated in what I still consider one of the cleverest promotions ever: Each restaurant took on the role of a Star Wars planet. KFC was Naboo; Taco Bell was Tatooine; and Pizza Hut was Coruscant, and each had its own themed premiums.
It was clever on paper, I should say, but it didn't work that well in practice for those of the "collect 'em all!" mindset. It is worth mentioning that the experiment wasn't repeated: by the time Episode III came out, only McDonald's offered any kind of premiums.
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