If you haven't already I urge you all to check out the fun site Evil Meatball Vs Cat, a relatively new blog that creates illogical licensed toy items that while hilarious, you probably wouldn't blink at if you saw them at your local Walgreens.
I must admit that I feel something of a kinship with Joe, the brains behind this fun enterprise. Probably because of his love of rack toys but also he's the only other person on the planet that spent precious time doing the "parachuting Rock Hudson toy gag". I asked him a few questions about his site:
What inspired you to create this fun blog?
I'm glad you asked! The idea came from actual rack toys that bordered on (or outright exceeded) absurdity. One site has quite a collection of these toys, it's called Plaid Stallions (you may have heard of it), and they definitely fueled the fire so to speak.
The central concept of EMvC is: "What if properties (movies, television) that had little or no licensing potential were licensed anyway?" I must acknowledge, however, that some real, existing toys and collectibles have achieved a level of weirdness I can only dream of.
I also vowed to treat each item as real, as if I had discovered it rather than created it (some of my visitors who comment have taken up this attitude as well, which has made it fun). That way I could distance myself from the more offensive ones by blaming it on the "manufacturer". :)
Where does the name come from?
You're not the first to ask! My daughter was riding in the back seat of the car (she was seven at the time), and she was just making up silly things. Suddenly she said, "How about Evil Meatball Vs. Cat?" I knew at that moment, even before I had a concept to attach to it, that I wanted to use it somehow. So I grabbed the domain name and awaited further inspiration (see question 1).
What are some of your pop culture fascinations?
I'm definitely a sci-fi geek at an epic level, so all things sci-fi tend to dominate my life. I'm also a movie nut, and rock at movie trivia. I also believe that "reality" (read: staged contest) shows exist solely to be made fun of on clip shows. Not surprisingly, I'm also a toy collector.
I've noticed lately my language is concocted almost entirely of quotes from television and movies, and metaphors that relate to pop-culture icons and events. It seems that the "culture" in pop culture is taking hold in our society in a serious way. What will future archaeologists think of us? That we worshiped television and movies? Well, they'd be right.
If you could actually produce one toy from EMVC what would it be?
Well, it might be one I decided not to post. My first attempt at a pinball machine was based on Logan's Run, but when I finished it, I realized it wasn't actually funny, it was just really cool. So I ended up changing it to "Breakin' 2". I plan on posting the Logan's Run pinball on EMVC's Facebook page soon.
When I finished the "Breakin' 2" pinball machine, I actually thought it would be cool if it were real. It seemed to be the perfect representation of all things '80's. But no, the Billy Jack Atari game, definitely.
Job Interview time, where do you see yourself in five years?
Well, god willing, all of those years investing in multi-state lotteries will have paid off and I'll be wallowing in large amounts of cash. And EMvC will be more popular than Amazon, eBay and Facebook combined. :)
But seriously, who knows what the future holds? This is just a project I enjoy working on, and if it garners me an army of loyal followers who will obey my every command, fine, and if not, that's ok too. It's all good.
Thanks Joe, everyone else please bookmark Evil Meatball Vs Cat , visit often and tell your friends, you will be happy you did.
