Leggo my Lego
I was never a big fan of Lego's as a kid. I simply wasn't creative enough. I'd get the playsets and start putting things together but it would never amount to anything (Hey! Look Ma - a multicolored wall!) There would never be enough Legos included to create anything worthwhile anyway, and I would always lose the pieces. Breaking them down was even worse.. especially when you got down to just two legos stuck to each other, one on top of the other and you had to sort of try to twist 'em off? I'd always end up scraping up my hands (and gums when I tried to pry them apart with my teeth) due to slippage and stuff. (Incidentally I could make the exact same argument with Lincoln Logs - except the part about getting hurt. I could construct a perfectly square log cabin with no windows or doors, but when it came time to put the roof on, I was stumped. Still am, actually. How the hell do you put those flat green sticks on at a diagonal and get them to stay put? They always just fall off! Did the people who made the houses on the front of the box glue them together or something? What the frig!)
You know what I think it was? I couldn't be bothered with something where I had to do the work. No way. The toy was supposed to do something once I pressed a button. Why should I work for hours on end to create a hut or a castle which did nothing once I was finished? That's my reward? To stare at it and say, "Huh. Nice castle?" Oh, of course maybe I could find a Chewbacca action figure and make pretend he was the king of Eric's room and I could bounce him up and down like he was walking and say, "Do de do de do, I'm am the King of Eric's room and now I'm walking into my castle, do de do de do. Let me go upstairs and take a nap! UP, I go to the Kings chambers - do de do de do. Oh dear! Someone stole my bed (so decided upon because I would have lost the lego bed that was included or not known how to make one) and so on and so forth... Oh puh-LEEZE - lame times three.
I guess what I'm saying is my imagination was never a good enough playmate. If I needed a king for the castle, then damnit, I'd better have a KING and not Chewbacca pretending to be one - it wasn't the same. And the fact that Chewbacca had movable arms and legs but didn't walk himself? C'mon. Me forcing Chewbacca to walk by bouncing him up and down was in no way a good enough substitute for the real thing. I'd rather watch the movies, thanks. THAT Chewbacca was the real deal - not something that had to be pushed along (although truth be told, I never did like him. He was bad comic relief.) The action figure simply didn't DO anything except stand there and look stupid, and nothing I could do to it would make it any better (all this coming from someone who fancies himself a writer one day. Off to a good start, wouldn't you say?)
Thankfully, I don't really have to worry about this anymore. As I've gotten older, I think I've gotten a bit more appreciative of creative endeavor (having to actually embark on some myself), and technology has improved to the point where I can see what Lego's and a little creativity are actually capable of. The following are short film clips of well known films, except reenacted with Lego's. I guess these links are fairly old (they were new to me) but even if you've seen them they're stils worth a second look. Had me laughing up a storm. They both kind of reminded me of those old Davey & Goliath television shows...
You know what I think it was? I couldn't be bothered with something where I had to do the work. No way. The toy was supposed to do something once I pressed a button. Why should I work for hours on end to create a hut or a castle which did nothing once I was finished? That's my reward? To stare at it and say, "Huh. Nice castle?" Oh, of course maybe I could find a Chewbacca action figure and make pretend he was the king of Eric's room and I could bounce him up and down like he was walking and say, "Do de do de do, I'm am the King of Eric's room and now I'm walking into my castle, do de do de do. Let me go upstairs and take a nap! UP, I go to the Kings chambers - do de do de do. Oh dear! Someone stole my bed (so decided upon because I would have lost the lego bed that was included or not known how to make one) and so on and so forth... Oh puh-LEEZE - lame times three.
I guess what I'm saying is my imagination was never a good enough playmate. If I needed a king for the castle, then damnit, I'd better have a KING and not Chewbacca pretending to be one - it wasn't the same. And the fact that Chewbacca had movable arms and legs but didn't walk himself? C'mon. Me forcing Chewbacca to walk by bouncing him up and down was in no way a good enough substitute for the real thing. I'd rather watch the movies, thanks. THAT Chewbacca was the real deal - not something that had to be pushed along (although truth be told, I never did like him. He was bad comic relief.) The action figure simply didn't DO anything except stand there and look stupid, and nothing I could do to it would make it any better (all this coming from someone who fancies himself a writer one day. Off to a good start, wouldn't you say?)
Thankfully, I don't really have to worry about this anymore. As I've gotten older, I think I've gotten a bit more appreciative of creative endeavor (having to actually embark on some myself), and technology has improved to the point where I can see what Lego's and a little creativity are actually capable of. The following are short film clips of well known films, except reenacted with Lego's. I guess these links are fairly old (they were new to me) but even if you've seen them they're stils worth a second look. Had me laughing up a storm. They both kind of reminded me of those old Davey & Goliath television shows...
- Spider Man 2: The Perils of Doc Ock
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail (click the 'Watch Now' link)
posted by Eric at 4:32 PM
2 Comments:
Eric!!! You have just expressed what I have been thinking for years. One problem is since about the early ninties we (as a society) have been providing children with games that take no effort or imagination. I am not trying to say that my childhood was so much better than yours (actually with me as an older brother you lucked out) but lets take a look at what a difference of 8 years makes. My generation had no Nintendo, computer games, internet etc.. The closest thing we had to automated toys were "Rock em, sock em robots" (still one of the best games ever invented).
Your complaints are valid yet sad. Ther is nothing wrong with a kid thinking that Chewbaca is kin of the lincoln log castle and imaginaing a story that he plays out in his own head. In fact I would argue that its healthy and in todays world is not done enough.
Hold on one second.... When I was playing with action figures and lincoln logs, I was five or six at most. There wasn't any Nintendo then either (there was Atari, but thankfully our parents had the foresight not to purchase it for us.) No - my lack of creative development during my formative years was likely due to you whacking me over the head too many times, and me constantly falling off the bunk beds onto my skull.
Post a Comment
<< Home