One of the perks of writing about TV (of which there are many, by the way) is receiving promotional swag from the networks. For instance, one of the best swag items I've fielded was the 'Battlestar Galactica' complete series on Blu-ray (thank you, SyFy). But this week I received 'Monk' memorabilia that left me scratching my head.

I haven't even gone to get my badge yet, where I hear from Cinematical that there's lots of goodies to have, and lookee here -- Sci Fi stuff! The fine folks over at Sci Fi Channel were nice enough to drop off a ginormous purple bag full of loot, like the Raider model above; t-shirts, breath mints, temporary tattoos ...

Check the gallery for more, and check out what they're giving to registrants over at Cinematical.

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Here at TV Squad HQ we get all sorts of fun stuff. Networks seem to think that TV critics and journalists need to be swayed by toys and other assorted tschotkes that mostly just end up in a drawer or the nearest circular file. I swear, only pharmaceutical reps and computer shows generate less needless knicknacks than TV networks.

Sometimes the Squadders have enjoyed the press kits that have come to us; our dearly departed colleague Adam Finley always had a grand time finding interesting uses for the "swag" (I hate that term) that he has gotten from the networks. But sometimes, things come in that just stand on their own and end up in a proud place on a Squadder's desk.

Case in point is a promotional item CBS sent to us to promote How I Met Your Mother: a talking Barney bobblehead. Audio is after the jump.