Anyhoo, during one of their E.T. Thursdays posts, Malcolm blogged about a vintage E.T. keychain that he had as a kid and just reacquired thanks to this little known auction site called eBay. But the cool thing was that the seller sent him not uno, but quatro keychains, so it was time for a give away. I'll I had to do was email Malcolm and KA-BAM! I was a winner!
Just look at this beauty...
During the Summer of 1982, America (and I guess Canada, too) went E.T. crazy. I know I did. I ate Reese's Pieces for a year straight. And whenever a cultural phenomenon hits, the merch comes out and some of it is from rather dubious sources.
Now that I work with licensing, I know what it's like to have to stick to style guides and keep the art somewhat on-model, unless doing something truly original, so this keychain threw up quite a few red flags.
Just look at the E.T. logo. That's like Arial Bold or something. Not even close to the hand-scrawled logo from the movie.
Also, this is an interesting item in that it's basically a series of double-sided illustrations of E.T., held together at one corner so as to be fanned out, and all connected to a keychain. Just in case you needed to pause for a moment before opening you car door to look at some pictures of your favorite movie.
But the fun part comes when you look at some of the more questionable pieces of art. Take the following one for example. Who the hell is that kid?! And E.T. looks like he's doing something stinky in that basket.
Here we have that classic scene from the movie where E.T. tells Elliott to shut up and don't talk to him until he has his coffee.
And here's E.T. ship, exactly like it was portrayed in the movie! Wait...
And finally, here we see E.T. possibly doing something inappropriate with a young girl. I mean, just look at the look on his face.
Okay, I kid, but in all seriousness I love collectibles like this. They're such an inspiring slice of pop-culture past and I sincerely thank Malcolm for sending one to me!
Now go check out Unpunched!
