Line #28 Literature/HollowChocolateBunniesOfTheApocalypse


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3	[[quoteright:258:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thehollowchocolatebunniesoftheapocalypse.jpg]]
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5	A fantasy novel written by Creator/RobertRankin.
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7	It is about Jack, a young boy who [[TheRunaway runs away]] from home to a nearby city to seek his fortune. This city turns out to be [[ToyTime Toy City]], a dystopia with LivingToys.
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9	He befriends [[PunnyName Eddie Bear]], a teddy bear private detective, and investigates the serial murders of nursery rhyme characters. Followed by ''TheToyminator'' a few years later.
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11	----
12	!!This novel provides examples of:
13	* AwesomeMomentOfCrowning: [[spoiler: Eddie becomes the mayor at the end. Jack becomes an "honorary prince"]]
14	* BigEater: Humpty Dumpty, when he was alive; Eddie describes him as "Fat and dead, in that order".
15	%%* BigDamnHeroes: Jill.
16	* {{Bizarrchitecture}}: The houses are made of alphabet blocks.
17	* BodyHorror: The woman/spider/things give Jack a serious case of the heebie-jeebies.
18	* CanonCharacterAllAlong: It is ultimately revealed that “Bill Winkie” is actually [[spoiler:Wee Willie Winkie; he was cheated out of the rights to his nursery rhyme by a bad contract, but was a natural detective given how he spent all that time checking windows and locks]].
19	* ClockPunk: Everything from guns to cars run on clockwork mechanisms. As do, unsurprisingly, some of the toys. In ''The Toyminator'', [[spoiler:Jack ends up in our own world and discovers, among other things, that his clockwork gun no longer functions, implying that this trope was only in effect because his universe runs on different rules than ours.]]
20	* CookedToDeath: Humpty Dumpty is found dead in his own pool. Jack and Eddy try to figure out how the murder was committed, only to discover, nearly too late, that one of the window panes sitting above the pool has been replaced with a powerful magnifying glass. When the sun hit the pane while Dumpty was swimming, the water was instantly heated up, flash boiling the poor man alive. Later in the story, Jack Spratt is fried to dead in a deep fat fryer in a fast food restaurant.
21	%%* DaChief: Chief Inspector Wellington Bellace
22	%%* DeadpanSnarker: Eddie
23	%%* TheDitz: Tinto. Jack might also be considered a ditz.
24	* EvilTwin: [[spoiler: Sredna Sredna]] is the evil twin of [[spoiler: the Toymaker]].
25	* FakeDefector: At one point, [[spoiler:Jack pretends to be working with the evil twin as he had an encounter with the real "John Kelly" (the man he is impersonating), allowing him to trick their enemy into giving him a weapon]].
26	* FunWithAcronyms: Discussed, as [[spoiler: Sredna]] has the unfortunate acronym of [[spoiler: PRIMROS, without the E]]. They would prefer [[spoiler: SPLAT or ZARK]]. Eddie suggests [[spoiler: TWAT]], which [[spoiler: PRIMROSE]] rather likes, apparently not knowing what it means.
27	* GenreSavvy: Jack has read aaallll the [[PrivateDetective Bill Winkie]] Thrillers, making him aware of details such as the importance of the MacGuffin and when they've reached the point where the important characters and places would have been introduced.
28	%%* GiantSpider: Miss Muffet's spider.
29	%%* INeedAFreakingDrink
30	%%* ISurrenderSuckers: Done quite a bit near the climax.
31	* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: Little Boy Blue is killed when he is run through with his old crook in a particularly bizarre example; he had bent over to look at his shoes and the crook was rammed into his rear end and came out his mouth.
32	* InexplicablyIdenticalIndividuals: All humans look the same to toys.
33	* InterspeciesRomance: Subverted. Eddie is sickened by the idea of this. It is played straight with Garth and the dancing doll.
34	* ItOnlyWorksOnce: Wheatley Porterman, who helped write the nursery rhymes that made so many famous, made so much money from Humpty Dumpty- the first such character- that he decided to take it all from the next client, [[spoiler:Wee Willie Winkie (who went on to become Bill Winkie, private detective)]], but said client went public about how he was tricked so Porterman couldn’t do that to anyone again even if it was too late to get his own money back.
35	%%* JiveTurkey: Randolph the delivery boy.
36	%%* KingOfAllCosmos: Big Box Fella [[spoiler:Mr. Anders]]
37	%%* LampshadeHanging: Quite a bit of it.
38	* LivingToys: Naturally, as all of Toy City is inhabited by such beings, ranging from the obvious such as tin toys, dolls, or teddy bears, but including experiments in "energetic engineering" such as the rhyming frog.
39	* MacGuffin: [[spoiler: The Key]]. Lampshaded, [[DiscussedTrope discussed]] (they even call it the "[=MaGuffin=]"), and [[PlayingWithATrope played with]].
40	* NiceCharacterMeanActor: Miss Muffet, who is nice when the camera is running, but becomes violent and arrogant when not being filmed.
41	* ObfuscatingStupidity: Officer Chortle looks, and probably is, extremely stupid, but at one point he cunningly tricks Jack to admit falsely he is a murderer.
42	* PosthumousCharacter: [[spoiler: Bill Winkie was the second victim of the killer, although Eddie initially believes he's just left for a holiday until Jack realises Bill's true identity]].
43	* PublicDomainCharacter: Eddie reveals early on (to Jack's surprise) that characters from nursery rhymes are all real people, and nearly all of them live in Toy City where they're treated as celebrities. A few of them actually feature in the story in one way or another.
44	* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: [[spoiler: Eddie, Tinto, the nursery rhyme characters and probably many of the Toy City residents; when Jack asks Tinto how long Eddie's been coming to the bar, Tinto specualtes it's been a couple of hundred years]].
45	* ResetButton: Literally ''everything'' from the ending of this book is chucked away at the start of ''The Toyminator'', right down to Eddie's ability to finish similes.
46	* RhymesOnADime: Played with with the Rhymey Frog. He usually does this, unless he gets put out.
47	* RunningGag
48	** Jack is called a gormster by everyone.
49	** The old "You're going to kill me anyway, so it doesn't matter if you tell me" bit is used half a dozen times--and it always works!
50	** References to foolish boys keep popping up, as cuisine, fashion materials, or just falling into pits.
51	%%* RichBitch: Miss Muffet.
52	* SdrawkcabName: [[spoiler: Sredna Sredna]], which of course is [[spoiler:Anders Anders]] backwards. See EvilTwin.
53	%%* ShapeShifter: [[spoiler: Sredna Sredna]].
54	* ShoutOut: The scene with [[spoiler: the fake Tinto]] has one to Film/PulpFiction. Jack says "what?" about six times. [[spoiler: Tinto]] says, "Jack, if you say the word ''what'' one more time, I will be forced to kill you."
55	* SnarkyNonHumanSidekick: Eddie to Bill Winkie, although Jack may be the sidekick in his own relationship with Eddie.
56	* TalksLikeASimile: Subverted. Eddie tries to talk like a simile, but he can never finish. It's as unfair as—.
57	%%* ToyTime: Although it's not a videogame.
58	%%* WhyDontYaJustShootHim
59	* YoungerThanTheyLook: Jack looks 16, but is really only 13. He's merely tall for his age.
60	%%* YouWannaGetSued: At least twice.

Context Literature / HollowChocolateBunniesOfTheApocalypse