What is that Movie Umbrella worth?

Shown here is a set of the Up! movie premiums given away as contest prizes in Singapore.
Each premium set comes with:
1 x water bottle
1 x travel diary
1 x umbrella
1 x scarf
1 x button badge

Another contest lists the following prizes (don't have the photos though):

Each movie premium set is worth $245 and consists of:
• Movie Poster

• Tumbler

• Travel Diary

• Umbrella

• Cap

• Keychain

• Paper Binoculars

The magazine organizing the contest listed the value of the items at $245! How do you arrive at a figure like that? Is there a commercial value for movie premiums? There will always be people willing to part with money to collect things they like. But then I doubt someone would pay close to $250 for a set of these items, exclusive though they may be.
I am going to share with you an unfortunate incident I experienced using these Up Movie premiums with obviously inflated values as an example. First, imagine that you get lucky and your entry is picked for that $245 movie prize. You turn up at the information counter of the contest organizer and wait patiently while the harried staff verifies your identification and disappears to locate your prizes. You smile to yourself, happily thinking of the nice Up umbrella you will be bringing home.

After what seems an interminable wait, the staff reappears and hands you a bag full of items. Excitedly you take out all the items to verify and almost immediately realise the umbrella is missing! That's the item you like the most! Before you have time to react, the staff tells you matter-of-factly the umbrella is "out of stock" and she has replaced the item with 2 Driving Miss Daisy mousepads. Still in shock, you muster your courage and innocently ask when the umbrella would be available so that you might pick it up on another day. With a meek smile, the staff tells you rather apologetically that "the prize is already given out" You press on and insist on having the full set of items you are entitled to, no more no less. The smile on the staff fades instantly and she highlights the following terms on the contest: The management reserves the right to replace items with those of similar value. Your heart sinking, you can only manage to mutter in a small voice "But what's the value of the umbrella?" Why is it the same value as 2 mousepads?" Looking exasperatedly at you, the staff tells you rather authoritatively: "These items are limited and imported from overseas for movie promotions only. There is no way we can apportion a fixed fair value to individual items. Thank you for your support of our publication!!!"

..... well ok then.

Let me attempt to apportion value to individual items for the sum total of $245.

• Movie Poster $ 80

• Tumbler $ 20

• Travel Diary $ 30

• Umbrella $ 50

• Cap $ 30

• Keychain $ 10

• Paper Binoculars $ 25

That looks about right. What do you think?

Finding Nemo Glass

A Finding Nemo glass printed with then Kodak's newly launched advertising campaign slogan "Share Moments, Share Life". Here are some excerpts I found on the Kodak campaign:

Consistently focusing on the many ways consumers can share pictures, the new advertising demonstrates that great pictures are just the beginning. The "Share Moments, Share Life" campaign creates a strong emotional link for consumers between pictures and memories, while visually demonstrating the superior products that enable better pictures and better sharing.

All of the commercials in the campaign demonstrate Kodak's innovative technology through powerful visual images. In addition to national broadcast advertising, the campaign will also include an extensive print advertising component. The "Share Moments, Share Life" campaign offers consumers new ways to do more with their pictures, proving that pictures are a way of sharing life for generations to come.

That was back in year 2001 when digital devices had only just started being developed and Kodak maintained a strong market presence then. Fast forward nine years to 2009 and it is a very different world now. We have our iphones, blackberries and bluetooth technology. We can upload with ease our freshly taken holiday pictures to Flickr for the world to see if we so desire. Fading pictures and aged-yellowed albums are now a bad memory of the past. Against the backdrop of digital advances, Kodak announced in June 2009 the sad news for the retirement of their Kodachrome film, once the widely popular film of choice for both amateur and professional photographers.

Terminator T2 Model in Town

On a cloudless and otherwise humid Thursday, I spied this magnificent 7 feet tall and amazingly detailed Terminator T2 model. You might expect to find this beautiful model as a much-admired centrepiece of attraction at an International Toy Convention. Or perhaps at a Comics Convention? Maybe. But that's not where this life-like model was standing guard, eyes glowing fiery red, right mechanical hand locked on the trigger of a menacing looking Big Gun that screams Don't mess with me!

The awe-inspiring T2 was at the most unlikely location, a place where you might never expect to find a life-sized replica of one of the most recognisable characters from a successful movie saga and TV series.

The Location: Suntec City Convention Centre.

The Event: COMEX 09 (IT and Consumer Technology Exhibition)

But what was Mr T2 doing there and where exactly was our "friend"? I found our battle-ready T2 standing guard at the Sony booth promoting Blu-Ray players! Huh? That's what I thought too! A Consumer Fair is no place for a battlefield! I know there is the much touted enhanced viewing pleasure that comes with a Blu-Ray player upgrade. I am not really interested. But if the folks at the Sony booth are willing to throw Mr T2 into the bundle, I would be a very happy customer indeed!

Finding Nemo Mousepad

This is a lenticular mousepad from the 2003 Disney Pixar animation movie Finding Nemo. I remember this movie enjoyed good box office takings and it was screened during the June school holidays. Many parents accompanied their kids to watch this family-oriented movie. But while this movie showed children good core values through its themes of love and friendship as any good Disney movie should, it also created an unexpected and undesirable situation. Well let me explain, before this movie, many children had no idea what a clownfish was. They might innocently squeal: "Clownfish? A fish that looks like a clown?" But after the movie started screening, adolescents who might otherwise find delight in pointing at the Golden Arches and excitedly mouthing the word "MacDonalds!!!" ad infinitum, added one new word to their limited vocabulary. The word? N-e-m-o. The cute clownfish from the movie had kids enthralled. Pet shops started selling clownfishes like hotcakes to impressionable kids with parents in tow. They had all watched the movie and everyone wanted their own "Nemo". I know a lot of parents indulged their kids and bought clownfishes to please their little ones. The problem was that these people were clueless on how to properly care for marine life and our poor delicate clownfishes were treated as mere toys. I can only imagine the sad fate that awaited these pets when the fad eventually died down and the kids invest their interest on the next popular cartoon character. I just wish parents could be more responsible for their actions and teach their children proper values. Fishes are afterall not inanimate toys, they have a life.

Swordfish Movie Mousepad

A cool mousepad in my collection from the 2001 Warner Bros movie Swordfish starring hunky Australian Hugh Jackman as an elite but reformed hacker trying hard to get by in life without resorting to hacking computers. Nevertheless he still gets roped in by John Travolta, head of the counter-terrorist unit Black Cell to illegally access and steal government funds locked in mainframes secured by super-encryption.

Casting for this movie is great, John Travolta is suave and totally in his element playing the role of the bad guy, Hugh Jackman is almost believable as a super hacker and Halle Berry is pure eye candy playing the government mole sent to spy on the two. I am sure that particular scene where Halle Berry strips to her lingerie was written specially by scriptwriters determined to show off her slim and svelte figure! Overall I would rate this movie 9 out of 10 for pure entertainment value. As a matter of fact, I don't mind watching this movie again.

Planet Hollywood Tokyo Keychain

Collectible Planet Hollywood keychain from Tokyo. What a pity the business was not sustainable and all the stores had to close. It was such a good concept to have a movie themed restaurant and have movie celebrities regularly turning up for promotions and special events. I guess there were too many celebrity shareholders, who were bound to have disagreements on the running of the cafes....

I frequented the Singapore outlet of the Planet Hollywood franchise a number of times and it felt special dining in the environment surrounded by movie memorabilia. And I miss their fabulous buffalo wings so much. Those were really the good times!

Star Wars Episode II Singtel postcards

This is a set of 4 Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones postcards. Realising the widespread appeal of the Star Wars saga, a telecoms company in Singapore, Singtel advertised their mobile services on the reverse of these postcards, creating more awareness for their products. These cards were issued in 2002 to coincide with the premiere of the Star Wars prequel.

Raising Helen Movie Compact Mirror

I kept this item together with all my other movie notebooks without suspecting it could be anything else. While sorting through my items and doing some spring cleaning, I was so surprised when I opened the box to find a compact-mirror housed in a lovely reddish-brown leather sleeve! Who could have guessed???

Stealth Movie Dog-Tag

Dog-tag with chain (also functions as can-opener LOL) promoting the 2005 movie Stealth, about a state of the art computerized-driven stealth bomber developed by the US Navy. The computer develops a mind of its own and its the humans who are charged with stopping it before it incites a war. Fast paced action movie with nice combat sequences, a little bit far fetched at times though.

FM Radio Headset - Entrapment movie

This is a FM Radio Headset from TCF to promote the 1999 movie Entrapment. The movie starred a very babelicious Catherine Zeta-Jones as an insurance agency investigator out to capture an art thief played by Sean Connery. Dont really remember much about the movie except one particular scene. Catherine twisted and turned her lithe body to avoid detection from sweeping infra-red sensors. That was so beautiful and made the movie memorable. Thank God for female cat burglars!