Today's item is a special treat, one that holds a fond place in my heart for reasons that, no matter what it sounds like, really aren't because I'm laughing at it. Honest!

Sub Rebellion came out from Irem a few years back and was picked up for U.S. publication by the small publisher Metro3D. It's never exactly been a huge company - I don't think it's ever had anything you could really call a hit, and leafing through the games listing on its Web page doesn't bring up a list of either large or fan-favorite titles. (Armada, maybe?) Metro3D seem to do well enough to keep going though, so good for them.

The point is that this Sub Rebellion promo is . . . well . . . I'm going with "charmingly cheap." Someone took an off-the-shelf toy submarine, printed up a Sub Rebellion label, and slapped it on the front. The sub itself has nothing to do with any of the submarines in the game; it's really just a toy with a game logo rather than licensed merchandise. It was given out at trade shows in, I'm guessing, fairly limited numbers. Even if the company cleaned the shelves of the local Toys "R" Us, or maybe got a case or three directly from the Chinese sweat-shop they were made in, somebody still had to manually cut out the labels and paste them on.

The submarine itself is fairly cheap plastic; the box is more impressive than what's inside it. The box is 14"x5"x3" while the sub inside is about a foot long. I'm probably never putting batteries in it, much less submerging it, so I can't say how well it swims. I have to wonder how long it would take to short the thing out due to water in the battery compartment, though.

Despite my ragging on the cheapness of the toy, I really do like it. It's impressive on first viewing, it ties in directly with the game it's promoting, it's creative, and it's a promo for an Irem game. Also, it beats the living hell out of most of the promos I'm seeing this fall, which are all bonus CDs/DVDs with making-of movies and a music track or two from the game. I'll take a toy over a cheap DVD any day.

· · · James Cunningham