Hideous Holiday...Things

Talisman · Post by **Talisman** » Thu Dec 04, 2008 1:54 am

So Thanksgiving, aka the last speed bump before Christmas, is over and we now enter the headlong rush. Advertising kicks into high gear and the stores are crammed with things that exist only to be given as gifts.

I just saw an ad for the Littlest Pet Shop. I remember it as a cutsey play set with little cutesy plastic critters...cartoonish, but vaguely realistic. Not...this. My gawd...Cthulhu is crying in horror.

Any other examples of sanity-draining Holiday Horrors? Extra bonus points if it's something from your childhood hideously perverted improved...like those damn macrocephalic Care Bears.

Just different enough to be wrong...it's some close cousin to Uncanny Valley. :shudder:

Judging__Eagle · Post by **Judging__Eagle** » Thu Dec 04, 2008 2:10 am

I dunno, it looks like a good update of the image to me. I don't expect them to stay chub bears forever. Maybe I see too many different versions of characters? I never thought that original care bears were all the well designed though.

Crissa · Post by **Crissa** » Thu Dec 04, 2008 2:28 am

Macrocephalic?

I don't see the big head part. It's not like bears have little heads.

Oh, you mean the baby head thing. Oh, yeah, but that's been around for many years, they're just slowly phasing out the older stuff. The plush look more like the flat-form teddy-ruxpins now.

-Crissa

Talisman · Post by **Talisman** » Thu Dec 04, 2008 3:15 am

Old Care Bears.
New Care Bears.

I was never a Bears fan (ha!) anyway, but it's a subtle, weird alteration of something from my childhood.

C'mon! Anyone else have some Holiday Horrors?

ckafrica · Post by **ckafrica** » Thu Dec 04, 2008 4:25 am

How about the whole damn thing. I moved half way around the world to avoid christmas but artificial Christmas trees and dancing saxiphone playing santa statues are popping up over Saigon. At least it's easy enouugh to avoid christmas carols as few stores have taken to blaring them out their store fronts and you it's easy enough to avoid the few department stores and fast food outlets who do. Might be time to move to a Muslim country.

I swear to god, I'll set by children straight on the fraud that is christmas and enrounge them do dash the dreams of their classmates no matter how many fights they have to get into. Santa must die!!!!

Count Arioch the 28th · Thu Dec 04, 2008 5:29 am

Lol, LPS. I always refer to them as the Ugliest Pet Shop.

The new Elmo Live dolls creep me the hell out. Something about their movements really bother me, I can't put my finger on it.

We also have those talking muslim baby dolls. Although you have to imagine REAL hard to hear them supposedly say "Islam is the light", they still make those baby noises when you walk by. And when the lights go out at night. That's creepy as fuck. Babies are fucking scary, I don't care what anyone says.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Thu Dec 04, 2008 7:23 am

Wow, Carebears. Now there's nostalgia for you. Vague memories managed to emerge through the gaps in my brain, long assaulted by stress, mental breakdown, narcotics, caffeine and my own efforts to forget my past.

And a link to Strawberry Shortcake. Again, it's not the same as it used to be. I remember it as being different, and will not accept this newfangled crap. I was also greatly displeased to find out about the new Ninja Turtles.

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Thu Dec 04, 2008 7:23 am

I just want you all to come to grips with the fact that Hasbro brags about owning the Littlest Pet Shop brand on their stock report and does not bother to brag about owning Dungeons and Dragons.

-Username17

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Thu Dec 04, 2008 10:10 am

Yeah. We know that it shows just how little D&D matters to them - so any fanbase lost/pissed off by 4E doesn't actually matter.

Oddly enough, that April Fools where they mocked up a "My Little Pony d20" (to combine brands they own!) probably would have been big enough for them to mention if they actually went and made it. I mean, it's My Little Pony, and the d20 thing they made looked as though it could be played as a board game, so it could have succeeded to some degree.

tzor · Post by **tzor** » Mon Dec 08, 2008 11:45 pm

Talisman wrote:Old Care Bears.
New Care Bears.

I was never a Bears fan (ha!) anyway, but it's a subtle, weird alteration of something from my childhood.

When I compare the two it's not the heads I notice, its the stomachs. The original care bears did seem to be kind of ... well overweight ... victims of all that sugar and spice and whatever it was that made them so constantly nice.

Count Arioch the 28th · Mon Dec 08, 2008 11:53 pm

Probably didn't want to encourage obesity. On account that these days, Fat seems to be the new black.