Then and Now

Santa was good to us this year.  The boys had no real desires, so shopping was something of a challenge,  but success was had.  Interestingly, there were some nostalgia inducing gifts this year.  I was responsible for one such gift, the other two were requested.

Walking through Toys R Us a few weeks ago trying to find inspiration, I instead found fond memories.   Walking down the game aisle, I came across the Ideal Magic Shot a shooting gallery game I had when I was younger.  This was one of my gifts to the boys, but got off to a rough start.  The magnetic “bullets” come in a separate bag and are to be loaded through a small hole in the back of the game.  Not realizing this, C ripped off the protective plastic shield from the front of the game.  Plastic model glue to the rescue and we had a good game of shooting gallery booth in the house last night.  C has a natural Barker in him, though he’s a bit greedy.  When I told him it should be a dollar a game for his brother and I, he instead charged me $40 for 3 games.  He upped his price when K got home, to $101 for 6 games.  Thankfully he took credit cards.

The next game was a request from the boys.  Rock’em Sock’em Robots was a very useful distraction a few months ago when I had to get fitted for a Tux for a wedding.  The store had the game in their kids corner and we were hooked (especially after we remembered they were in Toy Story 2).  The boys were very excited that Santa had remembered and C happily announced that he loved “Fox in Sox Robots!”

The last was something of a comic tragedy.  Mousetrap was a game that K had told the boys about.  I had the game growing up too, but never really took to it.  This was a big hit and we set out to play it right away.  I dutifully separated all the plastic pieces from the punch sheets and set about following the guide to setting up the trap.  I followed the directions as they were numbered, explaining each part to the boys and how each section of the trap worked with the section before and after it.  Once assembled, I proudly announced that we were ready to play.  Then I read the directions.  Now, in my defense I will say that the copy of the game I had was purchased for me at a garage sale and did not come with instructions, or a guide on how to set it up.  I messed around with it as a kid, but obviously had no idea how to play.  So, the directions carefully pointed out that I now had to disassemble the game and that putting together was actually part of the fun.  This took some explaining, but we set off and actually had a good game.

These games were a big hit as were some other newer games I had never heard of.  Chuck-it Chicken is a fun little game with a vaguely Qbert feel to it.  Legos were also a big hit, but I am now quite ready to talk about them.  Hogwarts Castle had 1300+ pieces and I am still in recovery…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*


+ 3 = eleven

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>