Passing the Torch...

[MPJ]

It was a difficult day today. My 7 year old son has finally \'found\' Star Wars and after much deliberation on my part I decided to hand over to him my entire collection of Star Wars Action Figures. It was a very difficult ordeal for me, quite torn I was but in the end I had to go with my feeling that toys (no matter the monetary value) are meant to be played with else-wise they are wasted.

On the plus side we just finished watching Empire Strikes Back together and he asked my why Luke chose to fall from the platform rather than join his father. After my explanation my son told me that he would have chosen to side with me as I am his father and evil or otherwise he would always be at my side. I\'m telling you, ya can\'t buy love like that.

 

[fieldarchy]

The old era has finally ended as the new one has just begun!

Congrats on the kid being interested in them but bummer that you had to finally give up your toys.

 

[darthfoley]

Originally posted by MPJ
After my explanation my son told me that he would have chosen to side with me as I am his father and evil or otherwise he would always be at my side. I\'m telling you, ya can\'t buy love like that.

I\'m guessing you haven\'t killed his mentor and cut off his hand...I imagine that might have had some bearing on the decision. lol

 

[johnboyjjb]

Originally posted by darthfoley

I\'m guessing you haven\'t killed his mentor and cut off his hand...I imagine that might have had some bearing on the decision. lol

You\'ve probably seen a lot more of him in the last few years than Luke saw of Anakin.

 

[pez5767]

@MPJ

From one dad to another, \"Way to go Dad>\" :yes:

This weekend my g/f, daughter, and I went for a drive to a nearby town and we stopped off at the local Toys R Us in said town. I have to admit I was pretty excited when my daughter asked not for dolls, bratz, or barbies, but a huge Lego Batman set that was on clearance. As a high school teacher I am constantly remindend to embrace those moments we truly share ourselves with our young ones (even with Star Wars toys), because it wont be long before they decide we are not the coolest person they know.

Congrats on an awsome \'Dad moment\'.

 

[lizcam]

Sounds like you have the \"Dad\" thing down pat. Good job!

 

[Theomar Pius]

You should play action figures with him, how awesome would that be?

I can\'t lie, I still make spaceship noises...

 

[Manus]

Lovely lovely -
know that father think all to well - yesterday my boy (7 years old) just starting to read said he needed to take a p-i-s-s, \"that\'s how it is spelled isn\'t it dad?\" Wanting to cheer him for the spelling I reluctantly said yes that is correct.
\"that\'s good dad, tomorrow in school I\'ll just call someone p-i-s-s head, because it doesn\'t sounds so bad\"

 

[MPJ]

It was a proud \'dad moment\'. I made sure to give him a good hug (a bit odd for a dad moment just having seen Vader slice off Luke\'s hand, but I\'ll take what I get). He did clarify, after a little further discussion about him helping me take over the world, that we should \'turn good again\' when we were done which I pretended to go along with. :twisted:

As for playing action figures... Oh yeah. Spent an hour with him just describing what each creature/character did and what they were like and which figure when in which ship (Tie Pilot in the Tie Fighter, etc...). I must admit I was unable to keep the \'order\' part of my grown-upishness in check here by wanting the correct figures in the correct ships and the correct guns in the hands of the correct figures. Eventually I had to back off and say to myself \'dangit, they are just toys\' but it was hard with old Obi-Won wielding 2 lightsabers.

Not to leave out my 4 year old girl who wanted the princess Leah figures so of course she got them. Since her mom, brother, and baby sister are all blondes and she\'s a brunette (like me) she quickly identifies with brown haired females as I think she feels a bit left out not looking like mommy.

I did purchase the D&D collectable miniatures game the other day as well as the Axis and Allies miniatures game to play with my son. He\'s quite into WWII history and such so I thought this might be a great way to start him into the hobby and he quite likes them so far.

Anyway, enough gushing from me. Mostly had to share my moment. :drunk:

 

[Einion]

Originally posted by MPJ
...but in the end I had to go with my feeling that toys (no matter the monetary value) are meant to be played with else-wise they are wasted.

Kudos on being the good dad, but duuuuude, you\'re SO going to kick yourself in the buttocks if you discover in 10, 20 years that any of those action figures is now worth $$$ (or more!)

Einion

 

[Highbulp Billy]

\"The circle is now complete\"

Be very proud of what you have achieved there. I can only hope that Baby Bulp is as understanding when he discovers my plans to build a new Death Star using all his lego.

 

[Logan]

I was (am) a huge Batman fan and much as it was a pain in the backside, I always bought two of everything - one for me, one for the kids. Theirs ended up trashed whilst mine are now still sitting proudly in a cabinet at home. Needless to say, they always asked to play with my pristine Batmobile as theirs had a wheel missing. Needless to say, I said \"No\".
(Man, not only am I such a geek, I\'m a mean geek)

 

[PegaZus]

Hey MPJ, your kid as excited about this summer\'s movies as mine is? Batman, Iron Man, Speed Racer, Narnia, Indiana Jones, Kung Fu Panda, Hulk, Wall-E, and Hellboy 2. Gonna be a great summer to be a little boy!

 

[Einion]

Originally posted by Highbulp Billy
I can only hope that Baby Bulp is as understanding when he discovers my plans to build a new Death Star using all his lego.

lol lol

Einion

 

[pez5767]

@PegaZus:
Wow, little boys nothing!
I\'m excited to see those movies for myself!

Maybe I\'m still a child afterall.

 

[freakinacage]

Originally posted by Einion

Originally posted by MPJ
...but in the end I had to go with my feeling that toys (no matter the monetary value) are meant to be played with else-wise they are wasted.

Kudos on being the good dad, but duuuuude, you\'re SO going to kick yourself in the buttocks if you discover in 10, 20 years that any of those action figures is now worth $$$ (or more!)

Einion

indeed

you are a brave man mpj!

 

[PegaZus]

Originally posted by pez5767
@PegaZus:
Wow, little boys nothing!
I\'m excited to see those movies for myself!

Maybe I\'m still a child afterall.

Oh, I am too! I just have someone to actually GO with now! For some reason, my wife just does not see the artistic merits of The Incredible Hulk. lol

 

[Gilvan Blight]

At this point I just can\'t see doing it. I\'ve been a collector for a long time. One summer instead of having a summer job I made $5000 selling some (note some) of my old toys. I kept the box for everything, and the instructions, etc. and made out like a bandit for it.

Now that I have a daughter, I\'ve put some thought into what to do about the collectables that I know she will be asking to play with. One option is of course let her have what she wants. At this point she isn\'t quite convincing enough to get me to do this, but then again she can\'t talk yet, so who knows. Another thought is to sell everything now! Before she is old enough to want it all. This is a pretty good idea, but right now the collectable market is at a near all time low, and the Canadian dollar is doing just way too well vs the US for online sales to be worth it. The next idea I came up with I liked, but my Wife didn\'t: that was convince the kid there was a Dragon/Troll/Monster down in the basement and that she is never to go down there. I still like this idea, my wife still does not. We\'re still not sure exactly what I am going to do with all our collectable stuff. One things for sure though, if she wants the Star Wars stuff she can have it. 1 Original 1983 X-Wing with Box $300. 1 Jawa with Plastic Cape $3000. 1 Daughter that prefers Star Wars to Bratz = Priceless.

 

[Zora]

Yeah, it always brings a tear to my eye when my 8-yr old son is awed at all of the \"cool miniatures\" daddy has.

That\'s why I gave him a lot of my HeroClix. I never use them and they\'re already painted miniatures (as dad can\'t paint worth a lick) for him to play with. Eventually he\'ll be a gamer just like his dad.

Currently the big thing for him are the HALO Clix. He loves Halo. He and I are going to start learning the actual miniatures game this week. Should be fun.

And it puts a HUGE smile on my face when his mom and her boyfriend get him a bike for his birthday and a Nintendo DS, but the things he\'s the most jazzed about are the 2 packs of HALO Clix special miniatures Dad got him. :flip:

Being a dad is the best.

Now I can\'t wait to see what he thinks of the Speed Racer LEGO set I got...

 

[MPJ]

Well I done gone and ruined the Dad moments when I dealt with my middle child (daughter, 4 yrs) today. She wanted her obligatory good bye hug and kiss when I went to work but she was eating a Popsicle (very sticky fingers) and when she went to hug me I jerked back exclaiming \"Don\'t touch me!\" (was wearing a suit)... This of course made the saddest looking face I\'ve ever seen her make with a 5 second delay before the tears started streaming. Talk about feeling like the biggest arse on the planet. Felt so bad in fact that I only went to work for 2 hours before skipping off the rest of the day to take her to the Discovery Center (local science type museum thingie) for the afternoon.

As for upcoming movies... My kids aren\'t really into movies that much. And other being two of the smallest HUGE He-Man fans (yes, the old He-Man TV series) they watch few DVDs, preferring mainly to stick to kid tv shows. I on the other hand am anxiously awaiting many of the flicks to come out, especially Ironman.

Now what I really can\'t wait for is my kids to be old enough for that LEGO Mindstorm stuff. That programmable LEGO really blows my mind in how cool it is.

My boy did paint his first mini last week, a space marine. I\'d post it for voting but I don\'t want him to get discouraged by being flamed, which I figure would happen even if I put a \"Painted by 7 yr old\" in the description.