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The Thin LineThe Thin LineThe Thin LineThe Thin Line Love Story

Class of Bootleg Class 3 - Concept Bootleg
Class Notes: Boy, do these suck.
Bootleg Source: James Cameron's Titanic Movie
Bootleg Rating: StarStarStarStarStar (Five out of five stars)
Sightings:USA (At Toys R Us!!!)
Vintage:Winter 1998/January 1999

Full Box Art Titanic! What a movie! Swept the awards! Took in lots of cash! Took a lot of cash to make! Had some great underwater footage! What could possibly be wrong with this film?

Well, for starters, there were no @#$%@%^@ TOYS made for it!

Well, OK, there's that $70 Barbie as "Rose." And a 3-D puzzle. And some expensive "memorabilia."

But nothing for the kiddies to play with.

Maybe they didn't think that such tie-ins would sell. Maybe Cameron thought that little Jack, Rose, and that dude who played "Phantom" action figures would sink as quickly as the doomed ocean liner.

Well, "Way Out Toys" disagreed. I don't know if they approached Paramount or not, but they did their best to cash in on the movie without actually referring to it directly in any way!

Presenting....

A Love Story

One look at the package at right and you can quickly identify two items that link this line of 11.5" dolls to the mega-blockbuster.

  1. A poorly retouched ocean liner meant to look like the Titanic
  2. A poorly drawn necklace meant to look like "the Heart of the Ocean" prop from the film
Notice I didn't list the figures themselves. That's because their link to the actors in the film are marginal at best. More on that in a minute.

First, let's take a close look at the ship meant to resemble the Titanic...

Box Art Detail
OK. At first glance, not a bad likeness. But take a look at the spacing on the smoke stacks. See how the one farthest astern isn't spaced correctly? How it lags a bit behind the other three? Obviously a late addition.

But the real kicker comes when you take a close look at the blurry text on the front of the ship...

Registry Detail

This is zoomed in by about 50% over the size of the printing on the box. Pretty illegiable, no? Hard to make out what that says. Well, let me just do a simple left / right flip of the image for you....

Registry Detail Flipped
Oh my gosh! It's not the Titanic after all! Big surprise there, I bet. (If you still can't make it out....it says "United States".)

The figures come twist-tied to a cardboard insert. The insert has some pretty funny graphics....bubbles. Like they're underwater. Man is that tragic.

And speaking of "tragic," let's move on and take a look at the dolls themselves...

"Jack Dawson"

Jack in the Box
Jack in the Movie
"What the HELL???"

Only one Jack doll in the assortment. He comes in a cheap polyester / satin tuxedo. That includes pants, vest, black bow tie, and a white shirt with ruffles. Jack is articulated at the neck, shoulders, waist, and hips.

He has no socks, but comes with black rubber shoes and a comb for his unruly mop of hair. His accessories are stapled to the backboard in a small plastic bag.

But does his look like Leo? Weeeeellllll.....sorta. If you squint. After drinking a bottle of Tequila. Sure. Why not?

"Rose"

Rose in the Box
Rose in the Movie
"I'm HORRIFIED!"

Necklace Detail

This poor "Rose" doll had the advantage of having SEVERAL variations. I counted four different outfits when I found these at retail. None had a close resemblance to any outfit in the film.

All of them, however, came with a cheap plastic reproduction of the "Heart of the Ocean" necklace. (Detail at left) The cool part is a slightly larger version of the necklace is also provided for the young owner to wear as well. Probably just after she's drawn in the nude by her six year old neighbor. ("Doctor" for the 90's I guess.)

"Rose" comes with the aforementioned necklaces, a bracelet, and a small bag stapled to the backer with some other items.

The other items include a heart shaped box and two silver shoes...all done in vac-metallized plastic. No comb...I guess she'll just have to borrow Jack's.

The dresses range from the purple "ball gown" at left to a bright green number. Once these get clearanced I'll pick up the other versions for review.

So! What to make of this line. Pretty obviously they're a sucky attempt to cash in on Titanic's lack of merchandise without paying any licensing fees. But execpt for the "Heart of the Ocean" necklace, there isn't a whole lot to tie it directly to the film. So, these are a faily tame bootleg from the legal standpoint.

Good thing.

Photos of the movie version of "Jack" and "Rose" copied from the promotional materials at WWW.TitanicMovie.com.