|
>Regression
Posted by Unit03 2003-10-03 11:30:14
Just based on the fact that I have an entire section of my site devoted to toys should clue you in to the fact that I am actively accumulating them again. I hesitate to use the word 'collect' since most collectors are large scary guys who check boxes for damage and never let their toys see the light of day. As protective as I am about my toys, I wholeheartedly believe they should be taken out and played with. To the astonishment of many of you, I do not actually roll my Autobots around going "vroom vroom!" I do, however, enjoy trying to set my toys up in characteristic poses. It really is an art form, trying to balance incredibly top-heavy figures while struggling with their limited articulation. I'm not too terribly good at it so far but I have improved over my "try to copy the box pictures" approach. Only two things succeed in stopping my recent efforts to display my collection; an annoying lack of space and the accumulation of dust. The lack of space is something that will hopefully go away in time. When we finally get a house, Courtney claims that he is going to banish all of my crap into a single room. The way things look now I don't think there's going to be an inch of wall peeking out with all of the posters I have. As it stands now I think I'll put as many as I can on the bookshelf with all of my animated dvds. The other problem is a little harder to solve. Back when I used to make models frequently, I found that the little pvc wonders were very good at collecting dust. I never was able to find a good way of preventing that so every couple of weeks I had to take a rag and wipe them down. Besides just looking bad, the dust wreaks havoc on my immune system (I'm allergic to it you see). I still don't have a solution for the dust problem. Courtney suggests setting all of my toys in a display case of some sort but I resist that idea. I really do think toys should be played with (didn't you see Toy Story 2?) so a big plastic case kind of hampers that. He does have a point though. As much as I enjoy watching my friends play with them I have had a couple of rather expensive toys broken. So I don't have an ideal solution, if anyone has any suggestions I'm all ears.
Now that I'm (finally) out of college and about to enter the Real World, it seems odd that I seem to have regressed back to my childhood for entertainment. There's no denying it; if you look at the purchases I've made over the last year, many of them are related to my childhood. It seems that many of the things I want as an adult are just the same things I wanted as a kid. For the most part many of these purchases are just 15-year-old wish fulfillment. Thanks to the evil people in Japan practically all of the toys I wanted as a child are available again (at substantially higher prices!). So far every Transformer I've purchased has been one I never had when I was younger. Now I won't promise that I wouldn't buy new versions of toys I already had as a kid but so far it hasn't happened. So anyhow, all of these toys are just the ones I always wanted but never got. For some strange reason, whenever I liked a TV show my parents always got me the 3rd and 4th generation toys. Those were always the ones near the end of the toyline and they never showed up in the cartoon. For example, I have tons of Headmasters, Pretenders, and Micomasters. None of these ever made it to the TV show and unilaterally they are considered some of worst of the Transformers line (the worst being Action Masters, the only Transformers that didn't actually transform!). Anyhow, as I watched my hero Optimus Prime kick Decepticon ass, I was stuck playing with Squeezplay. Besides fulfilling my childish whims the toys really are pretty cool. The early Transformers always had the most inventive transformations and as vehicles they always looked accurate. Besides there's just something right about metal toys.
Another previous obsession that has come back to torment me is my love of comic books. Years ago I gave them up as the cover price skyrocketed up to the $1.95 mark (I still remember the $0.75 days). Even my beloved X-men had turned to utter crap as they churned out 9 part series after 9 part series. I guess I finally started getting back into them again when the new Transformers comic came out (big surprise there). Although the new TF comic was pretty, the story was lacking. However, it did open me up to reading comics again. Through a couple comic loans from Anthony I discovered some of the best comics ever done (Kingdom Come, Watchmen,Long Halloween, and any of the Ultimates). These were dark stories with exceptional art and wonderful stories. It was nice to see some competent writing in a comic for once. Thankfully my renewed interest in comics is an inexpensive vice. Thanks to the magic of Emule I can get nearly any comic I can think of for free. Unfortunately my new obsession with animation cels offsets any savings my free comics merit me.
Damn, I must still be in my Technique (the Georgia Tech newspaper) mode. They used to pay me more for longer articles. I really need to work on getting these blasted things shorter. If you're still reading this you're one of three things, 1.) another obsessed fan 2.) someone really really bored or 3.) my boyfriend (who is also really really bored). Stop reading already. This post stopped being interesting 4 paragraphs ago.
|
