Burger King and O Gauge...

[Demon09]

Hey everyone.......

I was just surfing the channels inbetween innings of the Cubs Sox crosstown classic and I came across a children's Burger King commercial..... The commercial featured a steam engine (looked to be some sort of 2-4-2) on a small fasttrack layout. The train was heading towards a section of missing track, but was saved at the last moment by the featured children's meal toy for the month--- a superman action figure....

The commercial was part of the ad campaign to coincide with the release of the new superman movie. I just thought it was very interesting to see O gauge trains on a fast food pop-culture commercial.



On a side note, I hope everyone's summer is going well. Enjoy the holiday weekend, and be safe.

Take care all!

[dwiemer]

I have not seen the commercial, but will look for it. Funny that they are coming out with the new Superman movie this holiday and yet they cut "American Way" out of the movie. they changed the line from Truth, Justice, and The American Way, to Truth, Justice, and all that stuff. I was looking forward to seeing it, as I heard they had a good layout in the movie, but now I am not sure.
dennis

[Demon09]

thats incredibly disheartening to see, judging all the anti-American (or at least "traditional American") sentiment that has been coming lately..... Superman seems to be one of the most American things that has ever been produced....... Very sad to hear that change has been implemented......

[Anonymous]

Layout is impressive but is also clearly large scale with a lot of "foreign" style cars/loco's. The shot of the railyard when he is trying to stop the gas fire also looks odd. I suspect that this is a shot of an Austrialian freight yard with Australian style tank cars?

Film is more ok, a little long but captures more of the flavor of the original two Christopher Reeve films.

[dougdagrump]

Sounds as though they think it is going to flop and it's being tailored to a more European or at least European minded audience. Which means they won't be seeing my $9 movie ticket. [V]

[Anonymous]

"European"?

Movie was filmed in Australia. While it's set in the mythical city of "Metropolis", all of the 2nd unit shots are of New York City. All of the maps show Metropolis where New York would be.

I would assume that the trains sets used to make the layout where whatever was available in Sydney (G scale) and exterior principal unit shots would be of whatever was around Sydney., Newcastle, and Tamworth; New South Wales Australia. They matted in New York city skylines even when geometry/geography didn't quite fit.

The layout is very well done, large, and on camera for quite a while. Australian railroad equipmnet looks more like North American than European. A number of sight gags and the layouts finale is Gomez Adams meets Cecil B. Demille.

[Anonymous]

The trains in "Superman" are by Marklin--#1 gauge (1:32 scale) and HO.

[dwiemer]

heard enough, I'll save my money. I'm not into funding unAmerican films.
dennis

[Anonymous]

Haven't yet seen that Burger King commercial, but I'll be looking for it. Always great to see trains still in the public eye, no matter what the connection.

As for "Superman"--I'll wait for it to appear on DVD, and then get it primarily for the train scenes. I most definitely won't support it in the theatre showings since I've heard and read too much already about how the values I always attributed to Superman when I was a kid, and which were supported in the comic books, TV show, and earlier Superman films, have been so diluted and distorted. Thanks, but no thanks!

[Anonymous]

Well, as American as he may be, the character of Superman was in fact created by a Canadian. (Don't think I'm against America or anything, though; I'm just stating a piece of trivia.)

On the subject of the man of steel and Lionel appearing together in an ad, I seem to recall seeing (in CTT, I imagine) an old Lionel newspaper ad from the 50's that featured Superman. Does anyone else remember seeing this?

[Anonymous]

Thanks all on the heads up about "American way" being taken out of the superman movie.  Now I definitely will not see it, and I own all the DVDs of the previous superman movies.  I dont care how many trains they put in their ads, I am an American first, then a train collector.

[RR Redneck]

Well, as with anyone else on here, I was somewhat surprised when I saw the Lionel steamer round the corner.