Advertising / Spacix

Yes, that's an M&M.^note Clockwise starting on top: Paror of Exotica, Hypnor of Magica, Espadix of Atlantida, Arkor of Arena, Drumor of Melodia, Spidor of Sportia, Majax of Coloria (that's the M&M!), Orangor of Fruxia, Ricor of Nutria, Bikamax of Energa.

Spacix, also rendered as SPACIX, are promotional scifi-themed holographic cards depicting a wide variety of Planet of Hats-style aliens. They were packaged with the products of multiple brands or sold on their own. Spacix cards were conceived in 1996 by Trëma, a Belgian marketing bureau, and inspired by the 1995-1997 success of the flippo^note a kind of milk cap packaged with Smith's chips in the Low Countries as well as the general comic book culture in and around Belgium. Mars Inc. and The Coca-Cola Company were the two main partners in the promotion, which launched in 1997 in the Low Countries.

The cards come in collections of twelve comprising six sets of two. Each collection represents a planet and has a theme that more or less fits the product such as sports (Snickers), magic (Milky Way), "party" music (Coca-Cola), "refined" music (Twix), electricity (Fanta), paradise (Bounty), and so on. Each set within a collection represents an aspect of the theme. For instance, the "party" music-themed collection of Musica features sets of glam rock, reggae, punk rock, disco, rap, and house. Each card has stats in speed, attack, defense, and intelligence. What to do with these is up to the collector, as there's no single prescribed game for the cards.

The promotion was handled differently between the Netherlands and Belgium. The Dutch promotion, which lasted from Late April to Late September, featured thirteen collections: six collections by Mars Inc. for Mars, M & M's, Twix, Snickers, Bounty, and Milky Way; four collections by The Coca-Cola Company for Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Light, Fanta (Orange), and Sprite; and three collections plus a collectors album by Trëma itself. The Belgian promotion lasted longer, with the bulk of the aforementioned brands getting a second collection. There were also collections for Minute Maid (owned by The Coca-Cola Company), Peugeot, Anco, Nivea, McDonald's, Kellog's, and Het Volk that weren't available in the Netherlands. The one reverse case is that in the Netherlands Urbana (Sprite) and Voltaga (Fanta) are separate collections, while in Belgium the Urbana collection consists of the first six cards of the "true" Urbana collection and the last six cards of the Voltaga collection. This was probably done to make room for Fruxia (Minute Maid). A mini-version of the promotion also ran in Italy and consisted of the Bounty (Exotica), Mars (Energa), and Twix (Melodia) collections. The characters' names on these cards are exchanged for Wingdinglish.

Overview of cards:

• Mars Inc.
  • Mars: Energa (energy), Titania (Elemental Powers)
  • Snickers: Sportia (sports), Footia (soccer)
  • Twix: Melodia ("refined" music), Fugua (music people)
  • Bounty: Exotica (paradise), Coralia (watery paradise)
  • Milky Way: Magica (magic), Cometa (space adventures)
  • M&M's: Coloria (pranks)
• The Coca-Cola Company
  • Coca-Cola: Musica ("party" music), Solara (summer activities)
  • Coca-Cola Light: Cupida (romance)
  • Sprite: Urbana (urban activities)
  • Fanta: Voltaga (electricity)
  • Minute Maid: Fruxia (fruits)
• Trëma: Arena (gladiatorial games), Atlantida (marine life), Robotica (robots), Alpinia (mountains), Creativa (art/creation), Insecta (insects)
• Kellog's: Nutria (super agriculture), Superia (superheroes), Vitalia (healing)
• Peugeot: Moovia (transportation)
• Anco: Festiva (agriculture)
• Nivea: Azura (The Fair Folk)
• McDonald's: Pyramidia (McDonald's mascot)
• Het Volk: Exploria and Dinosauria depict Jommeke adventures, as the comic ran in Het Volk from 1958 to 2010. Exploria was part of the Jommeke celebration in 1997, while Dinosauria is about the dinosaurs of De snoezige dino's, which returned in Dinopolis in 1997.

A little bit of story was added to the promotion with a total of four comic books and the collectors album, which contains pages describing each planet. There are separate Dutch and Belgian pages, which feature different descriptions. Of the four comics, one was exclusive to the Netherlands: Avonturen op Verre Planeten^note Adventures on Faraway Planets. It consists of ten short comics, one for each Dutch non-Trëma collection. The other three comics are part of the Belgian Spacix Stories series, which consists of De Dag van de Drie Zonnen^note or Le Jour des Trois Soleils (The Day of the Three Suns), Avontuur op Exploria^note or Aventure sur Exploria (Adventure on Exploria), and De Vloek van Apocalix^note or La Malediction d'Apocalix (The Curse of Apocalix). De Dag van de Drie Zonnen is essentially the counterpart to Avonturen op Verre Planeten, utilizing the Belgian cards at that time. Avontuur op Exploria is a Jommeke comic and part of the 1997 Jommeke celebration. De Vloek van Apocalix is a The Coca-Cola Company-exclusive comic and the only comic to feature second collection characters, namely those of Solara.

For a list of the cards with pictures, visit here.

Not to be confused with SpaceX.

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Tropes included

• Alliterative Name: In Dutch, the cards were promoted as Spacix speelkaarten. The English "spa" in "space" is pronounced the same way as the Dutch "spee" in "speelkaarten" ("playing cards").
• Agri World: Festiva, Nutria, and Fruxia are dedicated to agriculture. Festiva concerns itself with grains, Nutria with grains, chocolate, and honey, and Fruxia is all about fruits. Nutria is actually a desert planet, but the inhabitants possess superpowers that make it possible for them to still get a bountiful harvest from the ground.
• Alchemy Is Magic: Chemax and Chemix of Magica engage in alchemy, which by virtue of being part of the Magica collection is treated as a branch of magic. They're depicted creating life.
• Always Identical Twins: All six Cupida sets depict twins and all twins look alike. They do at least get different palettes, though. The Urbana sets are the same, but it's unknown if they depict twins.
• Anthropomorphic Food: The villains in the Energa comic of Avonturen op Verre Planeten are soldiers made of chocolate. They get defeated by means of being eaten.
• Bizarre Instrument: One collectors album description for Melodia mentions the kanoekapia, an instrument that can produce any sound depending on the player's wishes and skill. It is the pride of Melodia.
• City Planet: Urbana is implied to be nothing but cityscape, which is the reason the bulk of cool new trends start there.
• Classical Music Is Cool: Melodia isn't fully classically themed, but the theme of the set does lean to elegant, serene music. Possibly Trëma and The Coca-Cola Company were worried it wouldn't appeal to kids and that's why the cards go from the characters engaging in a gentle tune to readying for combat. Not another set has this level of Mood Whiplash.
• Comically Cross-Eyed: Hypnor of Magica is the only cross-eyed character and also the only one whose intelligence is 000.
• Darker and Edgier: The Trëma cards were sold directly and weren't used promotionally. Because of this, they had a bit more narrative freedom as reflected by the planet stories in the collectors album. Only those cards have backstories with planet-wide natural disasters and death. A curious tidbit is that one of Arena's collectors album descriptions vaguely calls the inhabitants of Sportia wimps compared to those of Arena. Mind that Sportia is a Snickers collection, so Trëma was taking a dig of sorts at their main partner, Mars Inc., there.
• The Ditz: Hypnor of Magica has an astounding 000 for intelligence. No other character has 000 on anything!
• Elemental Powers: The inhabitants of Titania have elemental powers. Those included are water/ocean, lava/vulcano, wind/sky, stone/mountain, mind, stone/underground.
• The Fair Folk: The inhabitants of Azura are blue-skinned and winged fairies. Fishor and Fishix of Exotica also are blue-skinned and winged, but what it means in their case is unclear.
• Flying Broomstick: Fantix of Magica flies on a broomstick.
• Flying on a Cloud: The princesses Afra and Dita, who don't have legs, ride on clouds in Avonturen op Verre Planeten.
• Gender Flip: Fantix of Magica is female on the card. In Avonturen op Verre Planeten, Fantix is a boy and the son of Fantax.
• Gladiator Games: The planet of Arena is dedicated to the art of gladiatorial combat. Any kind of combat goes, with the cards covering ranged combat (bow, crossbow, laser, and flamethrower) and close combat (sword & shield and trident).
• Global Warming: Happened to Atlantida according to the collectors album page. The planet used to look like Earth, if with far larger polar regions. Following a collision with two comets, all the ice melted, everyone who couldn't breathe underwater died, and so it became an ocean planet.
• Gold Makes Everything Shiny: In the Melodia comic of Avonturen op Verre Planeten, the population is drawn to a cave by a gorgeous melody. They discover the sound to come from a stash of gold-colored instruments hidden in a cave. The instruments prove superior to their own and so everyone picks one the fits them and starts playing. The origin of the instruments is not revealed.
• Green-Skinned Space Babe: Generally goes hand in hand with the male equivalents. Of note are the blue-skinned inhabitants of the paradise planet Exotica and the blue-skinned fairies of Azura, which is also a paradise planet.
• Healing Hands: As described in the collectors album, the inhabitants of Vitalia all have the ability to heal others with their mind powers. They have embraced this talent and make it a point to find and help any lifeform that needs healing.
• Hypnotic Eyes: Hypnor and Hypnix of Magica are mesmerisers. As per the animal stereotype, they are snake-like in appearance.
• Insectoid Aliens: The population of Insecta consists of humanoid insects. Some have two legs like a human, while others have four legs to get to an insect's total of six limbs.
• The Leader: There's a slight and not uncontested implication that cards 1 & 2 of each set represent leader figures. Afra and Dita of Cupida and Electro and Electra of Voltaga are explicitly royalty.
• Meditating Under a Waterfall: Milkix of Azura is either doing that or she's doing some Non-Nude Bathing.
• Nouveau Riche: It's unknown where Cupida's Goldy and Oldy get their money from, but they are in-your-face about being rich and they fit the look of an obese Texan oil baron or cattle tycoon.
• Oblivious to Love: Afra and Dita are portrayed this way in Avonturen op Verre Planeten. They're out for a walk and meet most of the male characters of the collection, each of which tries to impress them. The princesses somehow manage to take notice of none of them and return home complaining how they just never meet any cute guys on their walks.
• One-Steve Limit: Within a collection the rule is followed between sets. But the whole of the cards don't always obey the limit. For instance, there's Hypnor and Hypnix of Magica and there's Hypor and Hypix of Atlantida. Another example are Punky and Punka of Musica and Punkor and Punkix of Fugua. The planets themselves aren't any better, what with there being a Coloria and a Coralia as well as the thematically similar Musica and Melodia.
• Our Titans Are Different: The inhabitants of Titania have an environmental-elemental theme to them not unlike that of the titans from Hercules, which premiered in June of 1997. In any case, Classical deities are a clear inspiration for the characters: Neptunor and Neptunia are named after Neptune, Vulcanor and Vulcania are named after Vulcan, Eolix and Eolia are named after Aeolus, Mountor and Mountia are based on Atlas, and Stonor and Stonix are cyclopes who, as per mythology, are cave dwellers.
• Paradise Planet: Several planets could be called this, but the ones that stand out are Exotica, Coralia, and Azura.
• Planet of Hats:
  • The entire concept of Spacix relies on the hattiness of its aliens. There's a planet dedicated to agriculture, a planet dedicated to super agriculture, a planet inhabited by insects, a planet covered entirely by mountains, and so on.
  • Some planets on their own also qualify. One of the collectors album pages mentions that Musica's surface is dotted with islands and that each island dedicates itself to a different genre of music. Similarly, the people of Fruxia are divided in clans that each farm one type of fruit no one else farms.
• The Prankster: The inhabitants of Coloria are all about a good laugh, which includes a lot of pranking. They have the intelligence to never grow stale in their tricks.
• Product Placement: With rare exception, the cards of The Coca-Cola Company depict the characters holding or reaching for a can or bottle of whatever drink they were packaged with. The Solara cards even go as far as to have the characters use large versions for their activities, such as Capsor and Capsix using giant bottle caps for surfing.
• Prongs of Poseidon: Cellor and Cellix are the only aquatic people of the Melodia collection and they wield tridents.
• Robot Hair: Protor, Protix, and Transix of Robotica are robots with hair. Protor's and Protix's hair is wire-like, while Transix's flows like a human's. Of lesser note is Reactix, also from Robotica, who has a strip of metal that looks like a futuristic pompadour.
• Rubber-Forehead Aliens: By far most characters are "humans" with technicolor skin or some other attribute, like the arm fins of Coralia's population or the "root"-hair of Harpor and Harpix of Melodia.
• Seahorse Steed: Hypor of Atlantida rides on a large seahorse.
• The Shangri-La: Alpinia's mountain setting is a combination of this and Yodel Land. Yetor, Yetix, Jumpor, Jumpix, Monkor, and Monkix fit The Shangri-La.
• The Smurfette Principle: The default is for sets to have an equal amount of female and male characters, but there are exceptions. At its worst, there's Voltaga, where only Electra is certain to be female, and Afra and Dita of Cupida, which may be two women to the set but that's irrelevant when all Cupida sets conform to Always Identical Twins. The other five are male twins. The trope is also invoked by the cover of De Dag van de Drie Zonnen, which features ten characters of which only one is female. All ten characters are from sets with equal amounts female and male characters, so the cover's gender ratio is a weird choice.
• Superhero: The planets of Superia and Nutria have superhero-like inhabitants. Those of Superia are the true deal, while those of Nutria use their powers to make cereal.
• Tank-Tread Mecha: Rollor and Rollix of Robotica have tank tread modes. Like that, they are a full robot, but with tank treads beneath their soles.
• Technology Porn: Both the Avonturen op Verre Planeten comic and collectors album pages of Voltaga emphasize there is literally nothing the inhabitants have to do anymore because they've got machines for everything. For instance, the only effort the population has to put into eating is opening their mouths and chewing. Growing, preparing, and feeding are all done by machines.
• Theme Naming: The default is for male names to end in "-or" and for female names to end in "-ix". Alternatives are "-ax"/"-y"/"-o" for men and "-a" for women.
• Toyless Toyline Character: There's a few characters that appear in the comics or collectors album descriptions that don't correspond to a card. The notable ones are Commander Roger and Apocalix. In Avonturen op Verre Planeten, Roger is a human who made contact with the Spacix aliens and relays the adventures his friends have back to Earth. Apocalix is the Big Bad of De Vloek van Apocalix.
• Wingdinglish: The Italian cards have the characters' names written in Wingdinglish, as opposed to the Latin script used by the Dutch and Belgian cards.
• Witch Doctor: Fantax and Fantix of Magica are witch doctors. They've got horned hats, teeth necklaces, and Fantax is furthermore depicted with a spear and fetish doll.
• Wizard Classic: Spirax and Spirix of Magica wear robes, have capes and pointy hats, use magic wands, and Spirax has a little beard.
• World Shapes: Pyramidia is shaped like a pyramid, Creativa is shaped like three spheres pressed together, and Fugua is shaped like a musical note. Runner-ups are Cupida and Moovia, which are normal round plants, but with surface details that from space make it look like the first has a big and a small heart on it and the latter the Peugeot logo.
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: In most cases, the relationship between a male character and a female one in the same set is unknown. But supposing they're couples, the tendency is for male characters to have a reasonable range of looks, while female characters are pretty by default. Atlantida's Hypor, for instance, is an anthropomorphic walrus, while Hypix is a blonde beach babe lacking in anything walrus-like.
• Under the Sea: Atlantida is an ocean planet and its inhabitants all live underwater.
• Yodel Land: Alpinia's mountain setting is a combination of this and The Shangri-La. Skidor, Skidix, Skator, Skatix, Skapor, and Skapix fit Yodel Land.

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