I was pleasantly surprised (and a little mystified) when I went to a Del Taco restaurant after work yesterday to discover they have a promotion underway right NOW for the film Real Steal. What is surprising is that Del Taco is the promoter, as opposed to the “usual suspects” like McDonald’s or Burger King. Furthermore, the website has NO information about it except for one PRESS RELEASE (linked) dated October 10th. (If you read the Press Release, it states that “sweepstakes ends on October 11, and features prizes like Xbox 360 with Kinect consoles, Real Steel movie tickets, and $100 Del Taco gift cards.” I find it VERY odd that a Press Release would advertise a sweepstakes that ends the very next DAY.)

Anyway, if you go to the main page of Del Taco’s website and try to navigate around the site, you won’t be able to find ANYTHING related to the film. In fact, the main page for the kids’ meals advertises a completely different promotion than the current Real Steel promotion. Very sloppy, indeed.

Anyways, let’s get to the meat of the matter….. They have two things of interest to us collectors. (NOTE: None of the collectibles or promotional materials feature Hugh Jackman or the other main actors, just the film title and the robots.)

1) CUPS: You can collect 4 different collectible cups. They are made from the typical printed, white plastic that the collectible cups from BK are made with. I have posted below an image of the one cup I bought, "Midas". For those of you who have not yet seen the film, one of the cups features the main bot “Atom”. To get the cup with the meal, you need to ask for the largest size cup, which Del Taco refers to as the “Jumbo”.

2) CARDS: I admit that I knew, very loosely, about this movie promotion before walking in because I saw a lady three days ago gas up at a local Texaco holding one of the cups, but THIS exclusive was unexpected and I only discovered it as I walked thru the door yesterday. This promotion appears to be promoting only ONE toy – a set of six mini TCG-cards with an oversized plastic die. Again, the images of the fronts and backs are below for you guys. The cards are average quality – normal card stock with a slightly rougher than normal shiny gloss (actually, they are VERY similar in print quality and graphic design to the Dr. Who Battles In Time TCG series from Britain). As you can see in the larger version of the scan, they are numbered #1-#6. They measure about 3x2 inches.

Overall, I spent $8.25 after tax for a meal #14 that came with the cup AND the toy. Yes, they will let you buy the toy separately for $1.29. They also let me have an extra kids’ meal bag, which is not as nicely designed as the ones that BK or McD makes, but – it was free, so I took it.

All images are below, and the link to the press release is hyperlinked in the first paragraph. All images also feature a link just underneath that will allow you to download a larger size version in a separate window.

Happy hunting! Good luck, everyone.

Geoff

Cup Front:



HI-REZ


Cup Back:



HI-REZ


Cards & Die still in the package (well, sort of - I took them out, then put them back in the plastic for the picture):



HI-REZ


Cards (FRONT):



HI-REZ


Cards (BACK):



HI-REZ

Of course no Del Taco restaurants in New England.
Not even PA....I'll be in PA this weekend for the NSU show, oh well.

Again, thanks for the "heads-up" Mr. Bovey.
\Hey, did I ever tell you that my next door neighbor is a Bove, but without the "y". LOL

Those are nice items. Too bad the movie is so dissapointing. Watch the Twilight Zone episode instead, or better yet, read the original story the movie is EXTREMELY barely based on by Richard Matheson.

Just a heads-up, people. It turns out this promotion really did end on October 11th, which means I got lucky at the store I bought the above-items at. I went to another outlet yesterday and everything was sent back to the company last week because the manager there is a little more OCD. So, if you want any of these items, you better hurry if you only have one Del Taco in your area..... Just sayin'......