Yes, that is my 12-pack of Mountain Dew Citrus Cherry Halo 3 Game Fuel <...gasp...> that was released over ten years ago to promote the release of Halo 3 on the Xbox360. I don’t even like Halo games, so why the hell do I have this? And better yet, with me being fully aware that I don’t particularly like Halo games and with it being unlikely that I will ingest this 11-year-old Mountain Dew, why do I still have this unopened half-case of pop?
Yes, I said pop. I’m from Nebraska and that’s what we call it.
Gaming offers a tremendous number of items with the logos of our favorite franchises plastered all over them. Super Mario cereal, Call of Duty Doritos, Kirby toothbrushes, Angry Birds diapers, Tomb Raider pregnancy tests, Minecraft spackle.
You could drape your home in gaming garb from top to bottom if you wanted. As a kid, I drooled over the J.C. Penney catalogs which featured pristine children’s bedrooms completely furnished with Super Mario Bros. items from floor to ceiling. The reach of gaming has gotten even more embedded into our culture in 2018, where we’re bombarded with game tie-ins for everyday products.
The collector in me refuses to yield
GAME FUEL!
We recently spent some time clearing out our storage room to turn it into a playroom for my daughters. Tucked away in the back of the room was my long-forgotten 12-pack of Halo Mountain Dew.
I pulled it out to admire this newly discovered treasure. That admiration quickly turned to confusion as I pondered why I still had this. It’s probably going to taste like antifreeze now (at least more like antifreeze than normal) and I have no attachment to the franchise. Why do I still have this?
IT SAYS IT EXPIRED ON 2/04/08, BUT GAME FUEL NEVER EXPIRES
Its because I’m a collector. Even if I don’t see value in this brick of decade-old Mountain Dew emblazoned with the image of Master Chief, some Halo fans out there will be happy to know that this part of Halo history has been preserved.
That revelation made me feel a bit better about storing this case of pop since before Obama took office. I set it aside and figured I would just decide what to do with it later. As I continued to clean out the room, I found one more Halo item I kept in storage for all these years...
Damn it. A Burger King sack? Really?
So are there any oddball collectibles that you hold onto that should have been discarded a long time ago? Let's discuss.
Thanks for reading. As always, upvotes, resteems and comments are appreciated!
Image sources: photos by retro-room