A Fake 80's Commercial for a Now-Real Fake 80's Toy

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"Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear gives you lots o' hugs, and lots o' love, and lots o' fun, no matter where you are." -Narrator, faux 1983 commercial for Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear, who was the main antagonist in Toy Story 3.

Okay, hang on. So my guess is that Pixar made up this bear character so they'd have a new toy for Toy Story 3, and presumably so they'd own the rights to it -- in order to make more from the real-world merchandise from selling Lotso dolls (no need to pay royalties for, e.g., the Slinky Dog or Mr. Potato Head). But Wikipedia suggests that Lotso was originally intended for the first Toy Story movie, and a prototype of him can be seen in one shot -- but the technology to deal with fur (later seen extensively in Monsters, Inc.) just wasn't there yet. So Pixar had to wait for technology to advance, and for a plot where they could use Lotso. Anyway, regardless of the true origins of Lotso, Pixar went ahead and created this faux-1983 TV commercial (complete with messed up VHS tracking) and released it prior to Toy Story 3:

It's pretty convincing. I'm not sure what the term is for this kind of thing. Is Lotso retro? I don't see how he could be, because his primary existence is as a modern character in a 2010 CGI film, and his "retro-ness" only exists to give him a back-story as an older toy in 2010. So I think he's faux-retro. Or, if I may coin a new term, he's fetro. You can buy this fetro toy at stores worldwide -- go nuts. Spoiler alert: the end of Toy Story 3 might make you cry a lot.

Read more about Lotso's viral marketing at Retro Thing and Yahoo! Movies.

(Via Kung Fu Grippe.)