I love magnets. Sure sure, they make monitors and speakers work and not work, but I’m not talking about the technology and application of magnets. I’m just talking about magnets. If I had a big pile of magnets to roll around in all day, I think I’d just be the happiest little monkey on the planet. In fact I have 4 magnetic monkeys who could keep me company in my magnetic mountain. Ah the joys that my mini monkeys and I would share, maintaining marvelous monuments to monkey madmen, charging headlong into the field to wage war with mighty monstrosities molded from the magnetic mud of their monkey minds.
Ah, sweet release. Victory and vacation with my monkey minions.
ahem… um… sorry about that… where were we when I wandered willfully… sorry sorry
Magnets. They’re exciting only within the confines of my imagination. They don’t shoot little missiles or change into robots. They just stick together or don’t stick together. That’s it. Right now I have a tank sitting behind me made out of Geomags. Jane is driving and the gun is manned by Bonzo who is taking aim at Kongo. But never fear! George is coming to Kongo’s aid, hand grenade in hand.
These aren’t toys, these are friends in time of need, or at least in time of extreme boredom. Right now they’re in the middle of a monkey war. Next week they’ll probably be back to monkeying around a magnetic jungle gym. Or maybe I’ll rebuild the flying saucer for them and let Kongo play the recently abducted cow. Try getting that kind of versatility out of those spinny top things or the latest “action figure”. Action figures come with little rocket launchers that look like rocket launchers and guns that look like guns. George’s hand grenade is a ball bearing. Last week it was a pineapple.
Remember Lincoln logs? I loved Lincoln logs. They’re just sticks, but they were so much fun. Or tinker toys, or the old fashioned legos that didn’t move and didn’t have weird shapes or bendy hose thingies. They especially didn’t kick a soccer ball around a plastic field. But the old fashioned legos, rectangular blocks with circles on top and all the circles said “Lego”. No excitement, no movement, just fuel for the fire of my imagination.
These toys aren’t gone forever, there are still new toys being developed that are exciting only because we’re human. Geomags, PixelBlocks, or do-it-yourself toys like soda straw tensegrity structures, or online toys such as SodaConstructor… there is no reason to let the light of human creativity, ingenuity, and imagination be opaqued by the toys and games which think, play, talk, act, and imagine for us.
And because deep down, I will always love Legos, no matter how stupid they become, here are the good, the bad, and the beautiful.
http://www.wowrobot.co.kr/Shop/index.php?var=Good&Good_no=234
Posted with : Bare with Me
Amazing, absolutely amazing. Go to the site, watch the movie. Finally, I’ve found the midget I’ve always wanted.