Toys, glorious toys
Oct. 27th, 2005 10:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thebitterguyThanks to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ps238principle, I found TV Cream's top 100 toys.
Rom, Spaceknight is #50! Cool!
Rom The Space Knight
Futuristically armoured action toy
Our first exposure to Parker Brothers' easy-to-spell Space Knight came courtesy of the Bullpen Bulletin page in Marvel Comics, bigging up the antics of this new cosmic character. We have to confess that at the time we thought him to be yet another also-ran from the pantheon of rubbish second-string comic characters like Ghost Rider, Ka-Zar, Deadlock or any of the other losers who'd appear for an issue in Spider-Man Team-Up, and we were totally unaware of his exciting action-figure origins. For some reason, we also had him mixed up with REM, the android one off of TV’s Logan’s Run series. Jam-packed with LEDs (two for his eyes, two in his chest, two in his rocket packs plus an extra one in his utility cable – whatever that was) Rom could also boast the essential additions of an Energy Analyzer, a Translator and a Neutralizer. All in all it made for high-octane action around the sandpit at lunchtimes. But better yet, Rom could also make electronic noises thanks to two buttons on his back; one of these being the sound of heavy breathing. We're wondering if latter additions to the Rom kit included a space-age inhaler. The best thing about Rom The Space Knight, however, was that in UK he was marketed as part of the Action Man range. Cue hundreds of kids trying to pull his space head off to cop a look at the familiar Clayton Hickman-with-a-duelling-scar visage below.
I'd really like one of those toys, since I always enjoyed the Rom comic book. It did cyborg pathos ("I have given up my humanity to fight this ultimate evil and save faroff Galador"), cosmic adventure (Galaxy spanning spaceknights!), cold war intrigue ("the Dire Wraiths could be anywhere! Anyone! They could even be... YOU!" "Well, if I am one, it's not like I'm gonna be surprised."), and superheroic action.
He was like Green Lantern but with an actual mission and pathos.
Although the Ditko days at the end of the series were ass. The comic managed to outlive the toy line significantly, and was my introduction to alittle known comic book called "the Uncanny X-Men".
No, seriously. I read X-Men because of Rom friggin' Spaceknight. And Contest of Champions. Ain't that a bitch?
Just a widdle further down the track, we find Dungeons and Dragons at 44.
Dungeons & Dragons
“Alternative reality” adventure role-play game
Amplified by the almost permanent presence of The Hobbit on ‘70s and ‘80s English Lit. syllabuses, Dungeons & Dragons offered those who were unpopular in the playground some solace in an imaginary Tolkein-esque world they could control. Manufactured in Standard and Advanced D&D flavours by US company TSR, and based on an original premise by Chicago-born college dropout E. Gary Gygax, it mixed medieval Britain with magical folklore and monsters to create a fantasy magpie's nest in which an unlimited number of pretend, non-cardiovascular, but meticulously detailed battles and adventures could take place. How to play? Extensive rule books (but no board) and fiendishly complicated challenges (requiring the appointment of a “Dungeon Master” to preside over events) made it difficult to get to grips with, but AD&D soon established itself as a sort of lunchtime school club sub-culture in much the same way as chess, astronomy and orchestra rehearsals (largely due to it being legitimised by an allocation of early-lunch tickets). A typical game exposition: “Your attempt to cast a spell on the Orc fails and he strikes a blow with his axe. You lose three stamina points”. Much talk of druids, clerics and the Call of Cthulhu; players would grow up with real ale and Marillion-aping folk pub bands called Arcadian Pentangle. For the less dedicated, the Fighting Fantasy books by Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson were a portable alternative. For the disinterested, there were at least the multi-coloured, translucent resin dice with an unexpectedly large number of sides (our favourite was the tangerine dodecahedron).
Well, I think it's safe to say that not everyone 'gets' it quite the same. Ah, well. And this sentence ("...players would grow up with real ale and Marillion-aping folk pub bands called Arcadian Pentangle.") fails to make any sense the more I read it.
I still can't get EITHER PS238 or Dr. Blink in my FLCS. That really pisses me off.
ps238principle, I found TV Cream's top 100 toys.Rom, Spaceknight is #50! Cool!
Rom The Space Knight
Futuristically armoured action toy
Our first exposure to Parker Brothers' easy-to-spell Space Knight came courtesy of the Bullpen Bulletin page in Marvel Comics, bigging up the antics of this new cosmic character. We have to confess that at the time we thought him to be yet another also-ran from the pantheon of rubbish second-string comic characters like Ghost Rider, Ka-Zar, Deadlock or any of the other losers who'd appear for an issue in Spider-Man Team-Up, and we were totally unaware of his exciting action-figure origins. For some reason, we also had him mixed up with REM, the android one off of TV’s Logan’s Run series. Jam-packed with LEDs (two for his eyes, two in his chest, two in his rocket packs plus an extra one in his utility cable – whatever that was) Rom could also boast the essential additions of an Energy Analyzer, a Translator and a Neutralizer. All in all it made for high-octane action around the sandpit at lunchtimes. But better yet, Rom could also make electronic noises thanks to two buttons on his back; one of these being the sound of heavy breathing. We're wondering if latter additions to the Rom kit included a space-age inhaler. The best thing about Rom The Space Knight, however, was that in UK he was marketed as part of the Action Man range. Cue hundreds of kids trying to pull his space head off to cop a look at the familiar Clayton Hickman-with-a-duelling-scar visage below.
I'd really like one of those toys, since I always enjoyed the Rom comic book. It did cyborg pathos ("I have given up my humanity to fight this ultimate evil and save faroff Galador"), cosmic adventure (Galaxy spanning spaceknights!), cold war intrigue ("the Dire Wraiths could be anywhere! Anyone! They could even be... YOU!" "Well, if I am one, it's not like I'm gonna be surprised."), and superheroic action.
He was like Green Lantern but with an actual mission and pathos.
Although the Ditko days at the end of the series were ass. The comic managed to outlive the toy line significantly, and was my introduction to alittle known comic book called "the Uncanny X-Men".
No, seriously. I read X-Men because of Rom friggin' Spaceknight. And Contest of Champions. Ain't that a bitch?
Just a widdle further down the track, we find Dungeons and Dragons at 44.
Dungeons & Dragons
“Alternative reality” adventure role-play game
Amplified by the almost permanent presence of The Hobbit on ‘70s and ‘80s English Lit. syllabuses, Dungeons & Dragons offered those who were unpopular in the playground some solace in an imaginary Tolkein-esque world they could control. Manufactured in Standard and Advanced D&D flavours by US company TSR, and based on an original premise by Chicago-born college dropout E. Gary Gygax, it mixed medieval Britain with magical folklore and monsters to create a fantasy magpie's nest in which an unlimited number of pretend, non-cardiovascular, but meticulously detailed battles and adventures could take place. How to play? Extensive rule books (but no board) and fiendishly complicated challenges (requiring the appointment of a “Dungeon Master” to preside over events) made it difficult to get to grips with, but AD&D soon established itself as a sort of lunchtime school club sub-culture in much the same way as chess, astronomy and orchestra rehearsals (largely due to it being legitimised by an allocation of early-lunch tickets). A typical game exposition: “Your attempt to cast a spell on the Orc fails and he strikes a blow with his axe. You lose three stamina points”. Much talk of druids, clerics and the Call of Cthulhu; players would grow up with real ale and Marillion-aping folk pub bands called Arcadian Pentangle. For the less dedicated, the Fighting Fantasy books by Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson were a portable alternative. For the disinterested, there were at least the multi-coloured, translucent resin dice with an unexpectedly large number of sides (our favourite was the tangerine dodecahedron).
Well, I think it's safe to say that not everyone 'gets' it quite the same. Ah, well. And this sentence ("...players would grow up with real ale and Marillion-aping folk pub bands called Arcadian Pentangle.") fails to make any sense the more I read it.
I still can't get EITHER PS238 or Dr. Blink in my FLCS. That really pisses me off.
