Author: Mike Flacy

    Editor-in-Chief for The CheckOut. During my free time, I love to write about pop culture, home theater, digital photography, social media, mobile technology and cool gadgets!

    If you are interested in having The CheckOut crew review one of your products, send me an email to reviews at bensbargains dot net. (Of course, replace at for @ and dot for .)


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    Check out my most recent posts:

  • Wolverine sporting a mustache
    Superstaches: When Superheroes and Mustaches Collide

    Developed by graphic design and illustration company Locust Year, Superstaches is a collection of illustrations that adds the most manliest of mustaches to popular superheroes and pop culture heroes. Characters in the collection include Iron Man, Wolverine, Batman,...

    • Posted 13 years ago
    • 0
  • Best Buy logo: Your Local Amazon Showroom
    If Major Companies / Brands Used Realistic Slogans…

    After reading through the brilliant ideas within this Reddit thread, we decided to create a handful of realistic logos complete with a snarky slogan pitched by a Reddit user (credited below). Our targets for this batch include...

    • Posted 13 years ago
    • 0
  • Pop Culture Bros Connecting with Other Bros

    Created by an artist known only as Paper Beats Scissors, this collection of 50 illustrations depicts the single moment when two different characters from pop culture meet and give each other an empathetic fist bump due to a similarly...

    • Posted 13 years ago
    • 5
  • Star Wars Villains Kids: Baby Emperor at a pool party
    Star Wars Villains as Ridiculously Adorable Children

    Developed by graphic designer Paul Petyo and available on the Etsy store Octopus Tree House, this collection of illustrations imagines how various Star Wars villains would look as young, cute kids. The series of drawings includes villains...

    • Posted 13 years ago
    • 0
  • Hands-free whopper on the beach
    The Hands-Free Whopper, perfect when combined with a Beer Hat

    Helping humanity take one step closer to the obese, lazy population seen in Pixar’s WALL-E, Burger King has announced a tool that allows people to eat a Whopper without using their hands. Called the Hands-Free Whopper, a white plastic...

    • Posted 13 years ago
    • 1
  • Superman overlooking planet Earth and the United States
    Lonely Gods: The Solitude of Being a Superhero

    Created by illustrator Belhoula Amir of France, this series of illustrations depicts the loneliness of being a superhero in the native environments of heroes within the Marvel and DC universes. For instance, Amir’s depiction of Superman has the Man...

    • Posted 13 years ago
    • 0
  • Jabba the Hutt Pizza Hut mashup
    Popular Brands Combined with Star Wars Characters, Factions

    Created by illustrator Barn Bococks of New Zealand, this collection of illustrations combines popular Star Wars collections and groups with extremely recognizable brands. For instance, Nike’s “Just Do It” slogan has been altered to “Do Or Do Not”...

    • Posted 13 years ago
    • 0
  • Yankee Candle MMM, Bacon candles
    Shut Up and Take My Money: Bacon and Popcorn Yankee Man Candles

    Listed on Yankee Candle just in time for Father’s Day, the Yankee Man Candles have all the trappings of those quirky, holiday Jones Soda money grabs, but with the undeniable power of bacon. Filling any room in...

    • Posted 13 years ago
    • 0
  • Star Wars Disney Princess Ariel as a Jedi Guardian
    What if Disney Princesses were Jedi, Bounty Hunters in Star Wars?

    Created by animator / illustrator Ralph Sevelius of Atlanta, Georgia, this series of illustrations combines a handful of Disney princesses with types of characters in the Star Wars universe. Princesses included within the series so far  are Mulan,...

    • Posted 13 years ago
    • 1
  • Marvel Superheroes as Terrifying Zombies

    Developed by photographer Santlov, this series of photos takes traditional Marvel superheroes and combines them with zombies from universes like The Walking Dead. Characters that have been converted into terrifying zombies include Iron Man, Spider-Man, the Hulk,...

    • Posted 13 years ago
    • 0
  • iron-man-captain-stormtrooper
    What if The Avengers were Star Wars Stormtroopers?

    Developed by artists Jon Bolerjack and JJ Kirby, the duo created a series of illustrations that places five characters from Marvel’s Avengers in the Star Wars universe. Working with the Empire to battle Republic scum, the characters have...

    • Posted 13 years ago
    • 0
  • 5 million+ brick LEGO X-Wing fighter lands in the Big Apple

    Comprised of over five million LEGO bricks, a full 1:1 scale model of Luke Skywalker’s X-Wing fighter has been constructed by a 32-person team headed up by “LEGO Master Builder” Erik Varszegi. On display in Times Square, the...

    • Posted 13 years ago
    • 0