Round Robin Challenge : Kids @ Play!

A Nostalgic reflection from

     I remember having one friend that I played Hot Wheels with. We created a set of roads over on the shady side of the house under the gas meter by pulling up my Fathers green, green grass. He was unamused. There was a prototype of a story in those dirt roads, long before the greater stories to come in my life. I think that friend moved away. In truth, I don't remember.
   

     I had an older boy directly across the street, who would grow to become cruel and angry, who would come to play Major Matt Mason- He always picked the blond astronaut in the red suit. I remember it as being a short association. He moved, we met again later, he pranked me in High school over a prior slight.

     I had a friend in elementary school- we would get together at his house after school and Mego Superheroes was the game. We would play out stories of Batman, Superman, all the ones I had. I don't recall what he had except there was a game where you shot ball bearings to sink ships... some submarine board game. He moved, the world turned on. I remember the Megos had the thin plastic boots and vinyl gloves that would split, and nothing on earth would repair them, nothing I had access to at least. Somehow a plastic trash can and two hangers became Aquamans Sub.

     I remember after Star Wars was released my stories were more solitary. My Star Wars rebels were surveying the galaxy, looking for a new base, in the Millennium Falcon and in a space 1999 eagle I somehow contrived to fit 3,75 figures into. Luke had a girlfriend who was a fisher Price adventure person. Later, she started dating Space Glider from the Micronauts. 

I Patched and fixed this beat up old thing to the best of my ability. It also acquired guns form an army set by Marx.
this is not a pic of mine, by the way. 

     With the Transformers, and with later Star Wars, my nephews were there and we created battles the like of which ...we created some battles. I had Superion, one of them had Devastator. We went and saw the 1986 movie together, and mourned Optimus until his return in season 3. 

     These days... My toys are like old, comforting friends. I take them down, transform them, pose them, make sure what goes with them stays with them. Sometimes I talk to them, I admit it. I always took pretty good care of them, and today the thought of anyone but me messing with them creeps me to no end. A guest, a friend, a toy expert at least to my own level and perhaps beyond was over recently and picked up some things off my shelf, and I felt like a mother hen watching her chicks...

     I have some OCD regarding my toys, it was present in childhood and has only become a sharper vintage with age. I watch over them, I keep them as complete as possible. Many people have come and gone from my life, but the toys have mostly stayed with me. I may have grown older, and in most ways grown up, but when it comes to my toys, still just a big kid at heart. 

Here are some other takes

• Toy Break-this was all his idea, and it's a good one. 
• Green Plastic Squirt Gun has one big happy universe of toys
• Alexis' Universe created solitary histories as well. 
• The Toy Box chimes in with his own tales of imaginative play