Star Wars: Micro Collection

One of the toy sets that I always wanted as a kid was the Star Wars: Micro Collection. Don't get me wrong, I loved playing with my 3-3/4" figures and their vehicles, but the Micro Collection seemed more up my alley. For one thing, they were more to scale with the playsets and vehicles. For example, take a look at the following two images, both of X-Wings and pilot figures.

"Standard" X-Wing and figures

Micro X-Wing and figure

As you can see, the "standard" figures can look over the X-Wing while standing next to it, where as the Micro figure would need to climb a ladder to get into his X-Wing. This just made more sense to me as a kid (is it any wonder I became an engineer?) and I always wanted them. Apparenty I was in the minority, though, since they went away fairly quickly.

I did get to play with the Bespin set, though. Our next door neighbor at the time, who now runs the wonderful Weather NJ website, had that set and the X-Wing. He was younger than both my sister and myself, but we would occasionally go over to his house and I'd get to play with my white whale of Star Wars toys. I mean, look at this commercial! How would you not want to play with those toys?



Considering how much these go for on eBay, I don't think I'm ever going to get to own them. It is nice to know that they're still out there, though, just in case the Prize Patrol shows up at my house.

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My Life with Star Wars

I have never known a time without Star Wars. True, I was born a year and a half before it even came out in theaters, but I don't remember being 18 months old. What I do remember, though, are all those hours that I spent playing with the toys. Yes, back in the dark times, before home video, all I had to recreate the experience of seeing the movie was the toys. Oh, we had a VCR, one of those old top-loading jobs, but it was in the living room and I had to bow to the will of the family on what to watch. I got my TV time, but not anywhere near enough to watch Star Wars constantly.

Courtesy of plaidstallions.com

No, I played with the toys, both inside the house and outside, for hours on end. I don't remember much of the first time I got them for Christmas, beyond my dad actually letting me do some of the decals on the Millennium Falcon, and breaking the cockpit so that it would always pop off when it was opened, but I remember the adventures.

I remember using the space between the cargo mandibles on the Falcon to dock with the X-Wing when there was a water landing (on the floor of my bedroom). I remember having Luke use the Y-Wing instead the X-Wing because he could actually take R2 with him. I remember having this odd fascination with Han getting frozen in carbonite every time he fell off the end of the coffee table in the living room.

Star Wars was always there when I was a kid, and even when I moved past the toys I enjoyed the books and Role-Playing Game (maybe a little too much?), and I'd re-watch the films whenever I could. I enjoyed the prequels when they came out, but wasn't overly thrilled with them. I loved the Clone Wars micro-series but wasn't all that thrilled with the ongoing series.

Currently, we watch Star Wars Rebels as a family, and my daughter enjoys it no end. We're going to see the new movie, but definitely not on the day you're reading this, as I have to work tomorrow. I might nip out to see it on Friday, but that's up in the air. I've moved beyond the urge to see everything as soon as it opens, but I know I'll see it eventually. This is one movie that's not going away anytime soon, so I have time.



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Imagination is a Terrible Thing to Waste

My friends on Facebook already have heard this, but I figured I'd put it out there to the wider world. As you know, my Aunt and Uncle have been rediscovering some of my old toys and sending them to me. After dealing with the flood of memories, I've been giving them to my daughter to play with, although I prefer that she does it when I'm around. (Daddy's privilege.)

The other day, we received a small package with my old Michael Knight figure in it, still in pretty decent shape. So, as usual, I gave it to Kira to play with. The problem is that she doesn't know who Michael Knight is, but she does know who Mike Rowe is, and loves his shows.

Since it was a "new" toy, she wanted to play with all of my old toys, so we got them out. Now I have the Hall of Justice, but no Super Powers figures, so she used the GI Joes in their place, using the Hot Wheels as their vehicles.

So we had, for what I'm sure is the first time ever, the call come from the Hall of Justice: "Mike Rowe! We need you!" This is what I call an imaginative kid, but what do you expect from someone that plays with My Little Pony and Snake Eyes at the same time?

So why am I telling you all this? Well, for the simple fact that kids today seem to have a lot of regimented play, mainly imposed by their parents. "No, you can't play with those two toys together" and "That's <character x>, you can't say it's <character y>" are phrases that should never be heard. I am always entertained by what Kira comes up with, because EVERYTHING she does has a story, and these are toys. They're meant to be played with, not put up on a shelf to gather dust.

So, let's get out of our kids' way when it comes to playing. Let them be kids and think up the craziest ideas for playing with their toys. It'll serve them better in the future.


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The Archaeology of Childhood

The Hall of Justice, prominently displayed in our office at home.

As many of my Facebook friends know, I was recently blessed by having several toys of my childhood returned to me by the Uncle and Aunt. Among these toys was my Super Powers Hall of Justice, which seems to be mostly complete. Heck, it even still has the Batman file card in the "On Duty" slot. This lead me to a flood of memories. Playing not only with my Super Powers figures, but also with my GI Joes and Hot Wheels/Matchbox cars (which were also included in the bag).

I think it's fascinating how there are things that I know that I owned at some point, but until it's actually in my hands, there are things that I don't remember about it. It's the same phenomenon that people get with smells or sounds that trigger memories. For me, it seems, those senses are sight and touch, but they have to be together. I've seen pictures of the Hall of Justice, and fairly recently, but I didn't remember the adventures that Superman, Batman, and Robin (Yes, my figures were the World's Finest Team) went on until it was on my coffee table and I was putting it back together.

Of course, since I believe that toys are meant to be played with, I've pretty much passed these on to my daughter. I would like to make sure I watch her play with them, just so they don't get destroyed, but I'm not going to leave them up on the shelf all the time. In fact, here's a video of Kira and I going over the Hall of Justice. Enjoy!



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How Spoiled I Was

I have been hearing about the USS Flag a lot with what I've been listening to recently, and while I never had that (and didn't know anyone who did), I did have an absolutely HUGE playset for GI Joe. Sold in 1987, and I believe I got it for Christmas that year, was the GI Joe Defiant Space Vehicle Launch Complex.

Being a fan of GI Joe and Star Trek, this obviously made sense for my parents (or was it my grandfather?) to get me. It was enormous, taking up a good chunk of floor space in my room, but I played the heck out of that. At a retail price of $99.99, that was definitely my big gift that year, and 12 year old me was thrilled!

Add this to the fact that I had the Batcopter (which o one else seems to have had) and I was a very spoiled child.