First and foremost are the two scenes with Ben Stiller talking to his agent. In both scenes, the agent, played by Matthew McConaughey, is wailing away at different mini-games in Wii Sports while talking on the phone with Stiller. He's playing on a pretty large screen in his office so there's no way you can miss it, so let's chalk that up as product placement.

Next comes this odd dialog that occurs about a third of the way through the movie with one of the characters trying to explain why Blu-ray won in the format war. His answer? Porn and video games. Porn backed it and Sony backed it with their... but he never quite says PlayStation 3.

Finally, and this one is just odd, during the credits they show a bit player, a non-speaking part mind you, and when his name pops up it does so on a background riddled with old-school Space Invaders. Invader invades Tropic Thunder? Hells yeah!

Update: Nintendo tells me that the Wii Sports in the movie was indeed the product of some sort of deal between Nintendo and the movie studio.

Apparently there's this whole movement, this thing, going on out there called GPS drawing, where someone takes a GPS and satellite imagery and sort of combines the two to create a sorta invisible, planet-sized Etch-A-Sketch.

What you do is track your course across a real map and use it to show the image you've created. Odd, yes, but still worthy of posting about, definitely yes.

Graham and Jeremy Wood recently used this technique in Arizona to plot a gi-normous Space Invader scene by plotting out the image on a map and then driving 100 miles of roadway to load it into their GPS. Then they dropped the course over a map and voila, giant Space Invader scene that absolutely no one can see or even, for that matter, prove was really created.

I still love it. Brian Crecente

Space Invaders [GPS Drawing, thanks Gramboz]

Sure, he may be a one trick pony, a glorified tagger, artistically on par with a professional tiler and grouter, but methinks he actually does like video games and enjoys spreading bitmappy art. A bit hard to hear, with that muffled French accent, but still interesting nonetheless. Michael McWhertor

When Florian wears dress shirts (heck, when he wears clothes), he, she, it always makes sure to cover his/her/its freakishly pale body with puffy pirate shirts that require cuff links. What's Florian currently wearing in Kotaku Tower? Hardened chewing gum and a paperclip. If dear Flor ever thinks of springing from something "better," we do recommend these rad sterling silver Space Invaders ones on Etsy at US $35 for a set. Brian Ashcraft

Space Invader Links [Boing Boing]

Reader Papaspurs, knowing my obsession with video game shoes, sent me a link to a pair of Tron shoes from Adidas. The Stan Smith Comforts show Tron on the tongue of the shoe and the Master Control Programmer on the footbed, whetever the hell that is. The sole? Inside the shoe? Sorry, I'm not up on my shoe jargon.

Unfortunately, the pictures show neither the tongue nor the footbed, though there is this nice shot of the side featuring two light cycles. They may not live up to the Space Invader shoes, but I still need to buy a pair. Yes, it is an illness. —Brian Crecente

Stan Smith II Comfort BL4 - Tron [Adidas]

We just love French Gorilla artist Invader, the guy who's taken the iconic aliens from Space Invaders and made them a trendy form of graffiti. His latest daring escapade appears to involve slapping one of his trademark Invader tile mosaics on a wall in Times Square. More importantly, he managed to do this under the constant survellience of more than 300 cameras and the every present NYPD.

I know he hit NY back in 2000, slapping his art up in a bunch of locations, but I hadn't heard, and he hasn't mentioned, returning to do Times Square. Maybe this is one of his many minions.

Good Invader [Thanks Bucky]

Jean Snow from globe-hopping sister-site Gridskipper spotted this Space Invader title in Tokyo's hip Harajuku neighborhood. Space Invader is a French graffiti artist that does tile mosiacs on public places. He also designs sneakers. Similar Space Invaders dot the megapolis, as seen in this map. Apparently, there are over a hundred of his little retro designs sprinkled across the blue spinning ball called Earth.

More Here [Jean Snow]

My wife surprised me with a late Christmas present last night: A pair of Invader tennis shoes. The shoes come in three colors and feature a Space Invader on the heel and side of the shoe as well as one cut into the bottom so you can leave your Invader mark as you walk. The site suggests coating the sole of your shoe with ink before taking a stroll around downtown. Something I would never do, no matter what pops up along the sidewalks of Denver in the next few months.

The shoes feel fairly comfortable, especially considering that you're wearing art. Each pair of shoes is numbered. Unless I'm looking in the wrong place I have pair 1 of 4,500. The thing I like best about these shoes is how understated they are. They look cool but don't scream "I'm a gamer", unless you're walking on sand or recently rubbed them down with ink.

Space Shop [Space Invaders]

He started by plastering tile mosaics of the Space Invaders all over Paris, then spread the alien love to the rest of the world. Then came his sweet Space Invaders shoes, each step is worth 10 points. Now Space Invader has created some festive Space Invader-themed wrapping paper. Man, I wish he'd fix the sole of those shoes so I could get myself a pair.

Space Invader Christmas Wrapping Paper [Aeropause]