Most Thumbcast readers, we'd imagine, have heard of Threads - Mick Jackson and Barry Hines' gritty northern depiction of post-apocalyptic Britain from the height of 1980s nuclear war paranoia which kicked off the trend for inflicting as much damage as possible on Sheffield.

Stateside, the equivalent was the Day After - which saw Steve Guttenberg being nuked as the Russians launched a pre-emptive strike for the Police Academy films.

But the grim fascination with earthy drama depicting the balloon going up wasn't just confined to CND-supporting filmmakers. Even government propaganda was pretty bloody nasty when it came to showing what would happen if the bomb finally went off. And no, we don't mean those Patrick Allen-narrated Protect and Survive adverts either.

This is the 70s update of Sound An Alarm, the official propaganda/PR film of the UK Warning and Monitoring Organisation, whose job it was to let the authorities know where and when the fallout would come.

Despite the stiff upper lip accents and 'I say, old boy' dialogue... it's unrelentingly bleak stuff, like the Government had commissioned Mike Leigh to direct a public information film or something. Enjoy the weekend...

Ever wondered what it'd be like to be a film projector?

This is something rather special...

The Moose were created by man.

They rebelled.

They evolved.

They look and feel like Moose.

Some are programmed to think they are Moose.

There are many copies.

And they have a plan.

More fantastic pictures of Robomoose, outside the Blue Moose Tavern in Lake George, NY, can be found on Jon Bonesteel's blog.

Consider if you will a universe where superheroes don't exist.  Specifically Marvel superheroes.  Specifically the Fantastic Four.

No Human Torch.  No Thing.  No bendy bloke.  No Jessica Alba in her undercrackers.

That's the universe inhabited by the fuck-knuckles at the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, who are now lobbying McDonald's in a bid to get the
burger giants to drop their Marvel Heroes figures happy meal promotion.

Now, the organisation's aims are, largely, laudible.  Their mission statement is "to reclaim childhood from corporate marketers... The commercialization of childhood is the link between many of the most serious problems facing children, and society, today.  Childhood obesity, eating disorders, youth violence, sexualization, family stress, underage alcohol and tobacco use, rampant materialism, and the erosion of children’s creative play, are all exacerbated by advertising and marketing."

All fair enough.

Except they've so spectacularly missed the point with their open letter to Jim Skinner, CEO of McDonald's, urging him to drop the Thing and Human Torch figures from their latest junk food peddling exercise.

Quoth the letter:

I am appalled that this promotion includes The Human Torch, a man on fire, and The Thing, which menacingly roars “IT’S CLOBBERIN’ TIME!” at the press of a button.

Your decision to hand little boys the horrifying spectacle of a man engulfed in flames or a menacing figure that explicitly spurs them to violence calls into question McDonald’s reputation as a family-friendly company.

Oh for the love of...

Yes, because a two inch high lump of badly moulded plastic croaking at you thanks to an embedded Taiwanese voice chip, or an even blobbier lump of plastic fringed in something that's supposed to be flame, but just like like he's wearing a stretched out Elizabethan ruff, are 'horrifying'.

Hopefully next time the big M could do a deal to feature a line of DC figures - Watchmen, for instance.  Or Death and his pals.  I'm sure they'd make for a fantastic 'family-friendly' action range.