MONDO EXTRAS

Zach: Neither does Titanic, for that matter, which is the number one. Dark Knight and Titanic are both very long and both end incredibly depressingly. So maybe with Watchmen we're looking at the number three at the box office for all time, domestically.

Dan: And one the other reasons that hardcore geeks like us are eager to see Watchmen come out is because, for various legalistic reasons, this is the first time we're going to see Watchmen merchandise. You know that geeks love merchandise. Personally, I can't say that I've truly experienced anything unless I can buy a souvenir for it. So, for the first time ever, we're going to have Watchmen action figures. Zach, in your previous role as the longtime editor of ToyFare magazine, you did a big story about the original Watchmen figures that were supposed to come out back in the day, but never did. From what you've seen of the movie figures coming out this winter, what's your professional take on them?

Zach: Well, DC Comics have had their own in-house action-figure company, DC Direct, for a while now, and they've done a lot of DC Comics merchandising that wouldn't have sold at the mass market. They're sold to comic book stores directly. That's why we're able to get action figures for an R-rated movie; these toys wouldn't exist otherwise. And they're going to be very close to the movie. We're going to get Silk Spectre -- both Silk Spectres!

Dan: Which is very important to us. We need Silk Spectre.

Zach: That's the other thing about this: we getting a lot more female action figures as opposed to things that need to be sold to Target or Wal-Mart, where female action figures are like Kryptonite. They make so few of them because they're sure no one's going to buy them and they're just going to hang around on the shelves. So thank god they're being made for collectors, otherwise we wouldn't get Malin Akerman in plastic.

Dan: Because Heartbreak Kid didn't spin off its own action figures.