Julie Strain as Marilyn Monroe
One of the latest additions to my From My Collections (Cultural & Erotic) gallery is a pair of trading cards from the 1999 Julie Strain’s Marilyn 2000 series.
I picked them up a few months ago, but they found their way back to the front of my mind after all the Marilyn Monroe activity here in Palm Springs surrounding what would have been her 100th birthday.
Between the exhibits, celebrations, and the world-record gathering of people dressed as Marilyn that I photographed downtown, Marilyn seemed to be everywhere.
Produced by Comic Images in 1999, the series featured Julie Strain portraying Marilyn Monroe in photographs by Benjamin Hoffman.
If you were around glamour photography, magazines, or collectible cards during the 1990s, chances are you knew who Julie Strain was. A Penthouse Pet of the Year, actress, and model, she became one of the most recognizable glamour figures of the decade and appeared in everything from magazines and calendars to comic-book related projects and trading card sets like this one.
The card shown here is number 70 from the set.
The front contains a cropped version of the image along with the card number and caption. Turn it over and the entire photograph appears on the reverse along with the photographer credit, copyright information, and publisher details.
Trading cards are usually associated with sports, movies, television shows, or comic books. By the late 1990s, however, publishers were producing collectible card sets devoted to everything from fantasy art to glamour photography. Apparently someone decided Marilyn Monroe belonged in that world as well.
You’ll find both this card and card #20 from the Julie Strain’s Marilyn 2000 series, along with other photographs, slides, postcards, magazines, and collectible artifacts, here in From My Collections (Cultural & Erotic)
TinyTAN Toys Arrive at McDonald’s
Yesterday marked the first day of McDonald’s new tie-in with TinyTAN, the chibi-style characters created by Big Hit Entertainment (now HYBE) and based on the members of BTS. BTS, short for Bangtan Sonyeondan or “Bulletproof Boy Scouts,” is a seven-member South Korean pop group that has become one of the most influential music acts in the world.
These TinyTAN figures have appeared in animations and merchandise before, but now they’re standing watch over hamburgers and Chicken McNuggets.
The promotion brings the toys into Happy Meals, paired with either a hamburger or McNuggets, fries, apple slices, and milk. A reminder that pop culture, K-pop, and fast food are all equally collectible in their own ways.
I suppose this counts as a newsworthy event. The photograph here was made in response to a request from ZUMA Press for syndication.
If you’d like to see fast food photographed in ways no toy could ever compete with, take a look at my gallery Food From Bag To Background here: https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000wQ3fbeEezF0
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