[pnathan]

IMO, there has been a merging of marketable elements of geek culture into the mainstream. Merchendise is, above all, sellable, and if you can do it, sellable to a broad audience. In one perspective on the matter, it was inevitable: fans are people highly predisposed to purchase merch; business has a vested interest in boosting sales of branded merch and executing on a spinoff and toy tie-in model.

Popular culture is, quite bluntly, popular, and things like movies have a broad appeal - certainly the drama of life played out on the big screen is more broadly attractive than #include <beer.h>.

All that going to say that it's no real wonder that ThinkGeek "sold out" to double down on profitable merch. I just wish I could still get an 11" Tux to terrify the non-Linux users of my workplace & home.