In other promotional stunts, they arranged at an intersection on Orchard Road, just outside the Somerset MRT, a couple statues for Fantastic Four. The trailer had made me wonder, if you knew nothing of the Fantastic Four save that they were four heroes, and you had only the trailer to judge by, which four would you guess were the heroes? The only one who seemed heroic was Johnny, if you assume he had good reasons to grab Sue and leap off a building, and that it wasn't a kidnapping.
The statues give away the set of heroes, of course. The statue of Sue Richards gives the scale of these things. Ben Grimm, it turns out, is a natural to be represented as a statue. Who knew? I liked that they represented The Human Torch's fire with a little lucite box painted orange. And we can determine that Reed is a superhero because his hands are abnormally large. I love when anybody tries to establish the heroic elasticity of a character by showing him with very large hands.
At the base of each statue is an identifying plaque, as well as a warning that theft and vandalism will be reported to the police. I was chuckling at the thought of stealing huge Fantastic Four statues -- hence my taking the picture -- and pondering the size of the black market for promotional statues, only to find mere moments later a fellow fiddling around at the base of Sue. He was just attaching halogen lamps, but it could have as easily been part of a diabolical plan to conquer the city by staging a fake Fantastic Four float in the parade.
Trivia: Isaac Newton proposed a temperature scale in which 17 degrees was hottest water a person could stand indefinitely. Source: Absolute Zero and the Conquest of Cold, Tom Shachtman.
Currently Reading: The Zimmermann Telegram, Barbara W Tuchman.