Recently, a student and member of Team Peanut Butter at MIT sent me an email asking me if I would be willing to help him out in his quest to crush Team Chocolate in an Iron Man 2 cross promotion with Reese’s Peanut Butter cups. He didn’t explain much, but he said I would be receiving something soon, and asked if I would talk about it on the site to help out his side of the project.
Sure! Free stuff is always fun.
So weeks later a package arrives and it was in a large box. I was instantly curious. While signing the UPS receipt, I felt a heavy metal clunking sound from inside the box. I was mildly disappointed that it wasn’t a replica Iron Man helmet, however what was inside is still pretty damned cool.
Inside I found a safe and a CD. No combination, so like a good secret agent that I am, I run the cd.
An Audio track plays the following message:
“I’m in and up for the challenge. I have my eye on Tony Stark and I’m watching his every move. Now, I need your help. I found this box in the storage facilities at Stark Expo. It’s locked and I don’t know what’s inside. But, I have an insider who’s told me he’s figured out the code. It’s too hot right now to reveal in the open so he said he’s going to reveal it on Twitter, of all places, since people post random stuff on there all of the time. Pay attention to MITIronMan over the next few days and you’ll find what you’re looking for. Thanks for your help. It was nice doing business with you.”
So I wait it out, and then as the hints were revealed I diligently tried to out guess the hints to crack the safe early. If you enter wrong three times you have to wait like 30 minutes before trying again. This took a while.
The hints spelled out an nine digit code consisting of eight numbers and a letter.
Hint 1 – The age Tony Stark graduated from MIT = 17
Hint 2 – His new cars all share this number = 11
Hint 3 – His combination to his shop = 106
Hint 4 – Number of cups in a King Sized Reeses Peanut Butter Cups Package = 4
Hint 5 I didn’t need, I just guessed since there were only two letters on the safe.
So what’s inside?
1g USB Jump Drive that looks like a pack of Reese’s
(containing high res Ironman images)
Invite to the fictional Stark Expo 2010
VIP Passes and Lanyards for Stark Expo 2010
Very cool Arc Reactor TShirt
Very cool swag, and a very special thanks to MIT’s Team Peanut Butter promotion!
Click here to support Team Peanut Butter!!