Fallout Nuka Cola Quantum and Victory (Jones Soda Co.)

 

Nuka Cola Quantum
Jones Soda Co.
2015

When Fallout 4 was on the horizon of being released, Jones Soda Co. teamed up with Bethesda  to released a limited batch of Nuka Cola Quantum. If being limited edition wasn't bad enough, Jones doubled down by making it a Target exclusive. This, of course, meant that few bottles made it to shelves, typically bought by employees who put them straight on ebay. The ones that did make it ot shelves were often bought by scalpers, who, as you probably guessed, also put them straight on ebay.

As prices of the drink immediately skyrocketed to $100.00 per bottle, most fans of the game simply gave up on getting an opportunity to try it. It was like Pepsi Perfect all over again!

For the few fans who did manage to get one of the bottles from retail, and crack it open, the general consensus was that the flavor was lacking. Many noted the berry lemonade drink tasting watered down, and chemically, and overall being overpriced, and underwhelming.

Despite this consensus this didn't stop collectors for wanting them.

Nuka Cola Victory
Jones Soda Co.
2024

Following the launch of the Amazon Prime television series, Jones returned to the world of Fallout, and released an all new limited drink, Nuka Cola Victory.

Unlike their prior entry, and despite being limited, Victory seemed a bit easier to come by. This was most likely aided by it not being exclusive to a specific store, as well as being sold directly on the brewer's website, in addition to retail stores.

This time, the soda boasted a peach mango flavor. However, and despite this, the reviews seemed to echo Quantum. Chemically was a word thrown around in various reviews, as well as artificial, underwhelming, and overpriced. On top of this, you also have the secondary market boom making a return as the scalpers gobble these up.

Once again, Jones seemed to fail in the flavor department, while also creating something that the fans would still buy anyway. While I personally own these two drinks, not being a soda drinker, I haven't tried them. As such, I can't say anything about the flavors themselves.

What I will say is that while they're unique pieces to add to one's Fallout collection, they're certainly generic in every sense of the word. I mean, let's be honest. These bottles don't replicate the look of a Nuka Cola from the game. It's just a standard bottle with a printed label on it. You could essentially make these at home, and have something just as impressive, if not better, and people have.

Nuka Cola
Getränkefeinkost
2010

An honorable mention goes to German brewer, Getränkefeinkost, who in 2010 released three different Nuka Cola flavors as a promotional counterpart to Fallout New Vegas. As word began spread, many people chalked these up to being unauthorized. With such a "weird" look to the Vault Boy, this was an easy assumption to make, but an incorrect one.

Being from Germany, this wasn't something on my radar back in 2010. Of course, nor was Fallout, if I'm being honest. As such, this wasn't a soft drink that I picked up when first released. Being that the bottles expired in 2013, and again, not being a soda drinker, these also aren't something I've tried to this day, so I also don't know what these taste like. I also cannot find any reviews of anyone who did.

Being an import in minimum quantities, these bottles don't typically sell for cheap. Further, the ones available are usually empty. I've seen empty ones sell for as much as $100.00, and full ones for much, much, much, more.

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The Jacksons Victory Tour

 

The Jackson's Victory was the first, and only album from the brother's to feature all six Jackson family boys. Some would say it was a product of the highly successful reunion showcased on Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever, which aired May 16, 1983.

By this time, Michael Jackson was in orbit with album sales from his November 30, 1982 released Thriller. The young singer swept the 26th Annual Grammy Awards held on February 28, 1984, and hosted by John Denver. It was this night that he would be nominated for twelve individual awards, and take home eight of them. However, with its success came great fatigue for Jackson, who to date, had opted not to tour to promote the album. Clearly, it wasn't needed anyway.

Between November 1983, and May 1984, the brothers would work on recording their Victory album, albeit, usually individually, and release it on July 2, 1984. Four days later, the highly anticipated Victory tour would kick off across the United States and Canada for a sold out fifty-five dates.

At $30.00 per ticket, the Pepsi sponsored Jackson's Victory Tour was already the most expensive venue to attend. However, the manner in which promoters, which included Don King, Joe Jackson, and Chuck and Billy Sullivan, opted to sell the tickets quickly became a topic of contention and controversy among fans.

In an effort to prevent scalping, the men implemented a lottery for the tickets. This required interested attendees to send $120.00, and a form to the mailing address. Essentially one out of ten entrants would win, but not before big money was taken in. This "scam" was ultimately a plan to invest the money into an interest baring account, wherein the seven percent interest would garner millions of dollars before non-ticket winners would receive their refundable money back.

While the brothers were on board for this plan, Michael was not. He would eventually push back on the program amidst the backlash, and held a press conference stating that all his proceeds from the shows would be donated. Regardless, the lottery remained in effect, only being disbanded for a handful of shows, which were sold through Ticketmaster.

Pepsi, and other distributors were quick to produce a bevy of promotional materials, which would be made available at the various venues. Though it would be difficult to identify and find every last bit of available merchandise, below is a series of my personal favorites.

Official Tour Book

Shirts, Baseball Cap, and Button

Jacket

Limited Edition Digital Watch

Promotional Poster

Reprinted Autographed Pepsi Can

Further controversies plagued the show, particularly those which involved the brothers fighting. Things would ultimately come to a head, and Michael would announce that he would not continue to tour with his brothers after their last show. This led to several planned international dates being cancelled.

For those lucky enough to attend, I'm sure this monotonous occasion was a spectacular sight to behold. For the rest of us, we had the option of living through the world of imagery via the plethora of coverage across several media outlets. These in and of themselves would make for one impressive scrapbook.

The show was recorded at several venues on video cameras, and this has resulted in several transfer being made available via bootleg sources. However, no official release appears to have ever occurred. I also can't find any information on whether or not any of these were ever broadcast on television.

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Retro Spins: The Jacksons - Victory

The Jacksons
Victory
1984

The Jacksons Victory album is monumental. It's the only Jackson's album to feature all six brothers as an official group. However, it's also interesting it came to be, since the brothers rarely saw each other to work on it together. It contains mostly solo tracks which each member worked on during the time of its recording, and here and there others sang back up.

This could in turn prove to be the albums greatest strength. From my perspective, Victory is one of the Jackson's best pieces of work. Michael steps aside, allowing each brother to showcase their own strengths as an artist, and with it, we get some great tunes; Torture, Wait, State of Shock, We Can Change the World and Body are all tracks I really like from this record. In fact, the weakest from the bunch for me is Michael's solo, Be Not Always. It's just so bland.

When the brothers do come together to lend back up vocals, it works fantastically. My personal favorite from the album, Wait, only gets all the more better when Michael steps in with a great, "My pride" line as Jackie continues to sing the main chorus. Love it!

A fascinating fact for me, being a huge Queen fan, is that State of Shock was initially intended to be a duet with Michael and Freddie Mercury. However, I have to admit, Mick Jagger does a fantastic job on it, probably better than Freddie would have. The reason being, after hearing a couple tracks with them singing together, they being Freddie and Michael, their voices don't work in contrast with each other. They're too similar in pitch.

A unique aspect to the cover was the original pressing for the album featured a white dove perched on Randy's left shoulder. This was removed for subsequent pressing, and while no reason was ever provided, many rumors have been churned out for it over the years. Some speculate it was due to Prince's Purple Rain which was released this same year - The track When Dove's Cry specifically. Others will tell you the RSPCA asked Epic to remove it because they feared Michael Jackson's popularity would cause many people to want doves. Then there are those who would say the intentions for every Victory tour was to release doves at the beginning or end of each show. When this plan was scrapped, the bird was removed from the cover. Any of these true? Who knows what the reasoning was at this point.

It's a shame the brothers never came back together to record an album as a "full" group. The closest we got was 1989's 2300 Jackson Street which featured the song of the same name, and brought with it not only all the brothers, but all the sisters (excluding Latoya who was an outcast at the time for appearing in Playboy). The remainder of the album only included Jackie, Jermaine, Tito and Randy. Coincidentally, it's also the final Jackson's album to date.

At least we'll always have Victory, and I'll take that as...um...a victory.

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