Sniper Truck (spin-offs)

Since the first Sniper Truck film in 1987, there have been a number of spin-offs, including a spin-off novel series.

"Team Trucks" (animated series)
While the production of Sniper Truck 2: Viva Las Vegas ramping up, rights for an animated TV series became a hot property. A fierce bidding war between Nelvana and DiC opened up, with DiC closing the deal to adapt the series at the end of 1989.

Despite the R-rated nature of both Truck films, "Team Trucks" was aimed squarely at younger audiences. The show featured John (voiced by Arsenio Hall) commanding an army of reprogrammed Sniper Trucks on missions across the globe. Lorenzo Music provided the voice of the primary Sniper Truck, "Snipes" (named as a tribute to Wesley Snipes). Other highly-popular characters included "Off-Road" (voiced by John DiMaggio), and "Blare," who speaks only using a series of honks and tire screeches (voiced by Frank Welker). At the beginning of the third season, a female truck named "Horsepower" (voice by Elizabeth Daily) was introduced in a blatant attempt to capitalize on the popularity of "My Little Pony."

The "Team Trucks" franchise is by far the most popular of the Truck spin-offs, gaining fans outside of the Truck film series and Truck novels. The show ran for three seasons, and spawned an extremely popular toy line that became a close competitor to Hasbro's "Transformers" toys. There was even a breakfast cereal called Truck-Os, with marshmallow truck tires. Fans who collected 10 UPC codes from the boxes could mail away for a limited edtion "Buggy" figurine. Only 2,500 were made, and many were subsequently destroyed when parents complained that the harpoon projectile was potentially dangerous.

Team Trucks Super Adventure Squad (comic book)
At the height of "Team Trucks" popularity, NOW Comics launched a series based on the cartoon, aimed at even younger audiences. The focus on pun-centric humor and wacky sidekicks (such as helpful assistant Wrenchy) failed to excite new or old fans of the cartoon or film series, and the comic ended after three episodes, although there appears to be a reference to the 3D issue in the book  Busted Truck.

"Sniper Truck 2000" (live-action Canadian TV show)
In 1995, while the producers of the film series continued to wait in the hopes that Wesley Snipes would reprise his role as John Truck in a third film, Canadian company Omnifilm took advantage of the Sniper Truck license and gap in Sniper Truck content, creating the live-action television series "Sniper Truck 2000." They hoped to capitalize on the popularity of the "Team Trucks" cartoon with Canadian audiences. Produced in 1996, the show starred Philip Akin as John Truck and Yaphet Kotto as James Armor. A young Will Arnett has a minor recurring role as a character in the weapons division where Truck works.

Reception was mixed. The show was criticized for its low-budget look and cheesy plotlines (one episode has John trying to stop a Sniper Truck from crashing an Alanis Morrissette concert), and the differences between Snipes and Akin's characterization of Truck, although the show's reputation has improved somewhat following the release of Sniper Truck 3: Oversized Load. 10 episodes were produced, and a further two were scripted, but the rights lapsed before Omnifilm could allot resources for production of a second season. The script for one of the two unproduced episodes, "John's Son," was leaked to the web, and features a different take on a son for John (a 15-year-old kid with a passion for skateboarding).

The show, like Oversized Load, is not considered canon by the creators, and for years, it was unavailable on DVD. One episode was included as an extra feature on the Sniper Truck 2 DVD release ("Hawaiian Punch"), but the show was only available in bootleg form for nearly a decade. The show was finally released as a 2-disc DVD set in 2011 by E1 Entertainment.

"Sniper: John Truck" (pilot)
In late 1998, shortly before the rights to the film and TV franchises were sold at auction, USA Network commissioned a pilot for a new live-action TV series. "Sniper: John Truck" was meant to focus on John's career as a professional contract killer prior to the events of the first film. Bokeem Woodbine played John, with Nia Long as a gender-swapped "Dana Mann," positioned as a potential love interest. The pilot was not picked up.

Reese's Pieces (spin-off novels)
The character of Reese Spano was introduced in the 1996 novel  Truck's Wife, and was quickly spun off by Leonard into her own series of novels, including Reese's Pieces ,  Broken Pieces , and the murder-mystery  Niece's Pieces. Fans of the Spano character (dubbed "Reese's Greasers") have been campaigning for a movie for several years.