I am continually amazed by the Titanic stuff I see. So far my favorite item were two pairs of "Titanic" socks. One had a head on picture of the ship and the other had just the word "Titanic." Hows that for odd? I haven't seem Titanic Ties yet. How about you hard core, convention attending types. What CAN you buy out there with Titanic?

Crystal

-- Crystal Smithwick (crystal@9v.com), July 11, 1998

Answers

A pair of Titanic socks?! Now that really sucks!

-- Dan Draghici (ddraghic@sprint.ca), July 11, 1998.

Not necessarily a tie-in, but I remember a really lame beer commercial where some bozo is playing with an empty beer can in a bathtub. He runs the beer can into an ice cube, then lets the can sink.

Somebody must've stayed up all night thinking of that one.

Cheers!

-- Kip Henry (kip-henry@ouhsc.edu), July 12, 1998.

I know there haven't been any posts here for a while, but I had to say that the Titanic beanie babies at the Titanic Exhibit in Mephis were among the tackiest things I've seen. Those and the Titanic can cozies.

-- Carolyn (crumfelt@idir.net), August 19, 1998.

I still think the inflatable, motorized Titanic toy complete with iceberg is about as low as you can go and it continues to be advertised. Anything for a buck I guess!

Regards, Peter

-- Peter Nivling (pcnivling@capecod.net), August 20, 1998.

Peter, I agree with you. What a morbid little toy. I think if merchandise is unavoidable, it definitely needs to be "movie" merchandise, not "tragedy" merchandise.

-- Gilded Age Junkie (GildedAgeJunkie@yahoo.com), August 20, 1998.

When I saw the first trailers for "Titanic" several months before its release, I fully expected Cameron to portray the Titanic itself as an almost demonic technology (having seen some of his previous films, such as Terminator II) - darkly lit and menacing. One of the scenes shown in the trailer was the stern breaking apart and crashing down on dozens of victims already in the water, a horrific sight. What surprised me when I actually saw the movie in its entirety was that Cameron, as well, celebrated the beauty of the ship and the more noble aspirations and just pride of its builders and crew (if not its owner). This is particularly evident in the "Take her to sea, Mr. Murdoch" sequence.

What a lot of clumsy merchandisers are doing, though, is lifting this sentiment out of context. Cameron did this to deepen the sense of tragedy, not to trivialize it or make the movie more palatable.

"Heart of the Ocean" replicas, movie props, scale Titanic models (not toys - sans iceberg), etc. seem to me to pass the taste-test. Removal of non-personal artifacts for preservation and study in a museum setting likewise pass my test. Less tasteful to me is the thought of Titanic-themed cruise ships, jovial "Last dinner on the Titanic" meals, or anything removed from the wreck site for private sale (I suspect that the lumps of coal will eventually be only one of many items available to the "collector"). These would seem to trivialize and profane the tragedy. There's always going to be a foggy area where proper respect and "tackiness" converge. Let's hope most people can steer clear.

-- Dan Dalton (foo@bar.com), August 21, 1998.

"Titanic Water" cans...check this out:

http://www.titanic-online.com/expedition98/reports/day20.htm

-- Dan Draghici (ddraghic@sprint.ca), August 21, 1998.