Comic-Con Freebie Watch: Stickers, Swords, and Fake Vintage Toys

The best free stuff at Comic-Con 2011

120,000 fanboys, buffs, walking encyclopedias, and know-it-alls are expected to descend on San Diego this week for Comic-Con 2011. The pop culture smorgasbord doesn't start until Thursday, but the entertainment industry's efforts to woo conventioneers are already underway. What appeals to the average attendee of an event where Francis Ford Coppola (on hand to promote his new horror film Twixt, described by the director in a press release as "one part Gothic romance, one part personal film, and one part the kind of horror film that began my career"), The Amazing Spider-Man and the cast of Community each command their own panels? One word: freebies. We'll be tracking the best of the giveaways from The Atlantic Wire's East Coast goodie bag nerve center over the course of the four-day convention. To get you ready, here's our second look at what savvy conventioneers should already be targeting. You can check out yesterday's installment here.

Old-looking toys

When it comes to Comic-Con giveaways, writes The Hollywood Reporter's Borys Kit, "some stuff is really cool, some is pure pablum." Hasbro's line of Return of the Jedi toys "in vintage-looking packaging...inside a package formed like the Death Star (the in-construction one from Jedi)" falls into his "cool" category, and we agree with the classification. And because real kids have no use for early-1980s nostalgia, you won't have to worry about the under-ten set getting ahead of you in line.

Stickers

When it comes to Comic-Con swag, the branded sticker is a poor man's canvas tote bag. Both are in abundant supply, but only the bags perform an actual function outside of first-grade classrooms. Almost every network is offering its exclusive stickers through a company called GetGlue. We have to say the designs, like the one below for True Blood, are striking, and would probably be helpful in picking out like-minded fans on the convention floor.

Swords

Warner Bros. is the only booth giving out weaponry this year, and they're doing it in two different levels of deadliness. Both are replicas of the "Sword of Omens" from the animated series Thundercats. One sword will be made of genuine aircraft aluminum, according to the Warner Bros. while the others are just regular old foam. But all "sword design taken directly from the drawings of the Warner Bros. animation artists." The aluminum and foam models are both pictured below.

(That's the aluminum one above.)

(And this is the foam version. We think the foam one looks like more fun.)