As I mentioned in the previous post the wife and I picked up Jack's stocking stuffer's at the Dancing Bear in Downtown Frederick Md. They pretty much have every nostalgic toy you could imagine, from A Barrel of Monkey's to Pick Up Sticks. Most of these toys can be connected to a childhood memory. Christmas, Easter, or a friends birthday party perhaps.
One toy immediately caught my eye and brought back memories of great disappointment and frustration, The Plastic Army Parachute-man. If you are a female reading this and have no idea of what I am talking about then I can understand. Any male however will remember vividly the excitement of getting one of these toys. It consists of exactly what it sounds like, a green or red figure tied to several strings and a flimsy sheet of plastic that was supposed to represent a “parachute”.
Oh sweet youth did us boys ever imagine the imminent invasion of our neighbors yards with our airborne regiments. All we had to do was fold the action figure according to the precise and very complicated instructions, throw him in the air with all our might and jump for joy as he floated harmlessly to the ground so he can wreak havoc upon the enemy.
Of course our hope were quickly dashed shortly after we tossed our soldier into the air and he promptly suffered a chute' malfunction and G.I. Joe fell to the earth like a stone. Mission failed. Evil lives another day. And no matter how much we tried we could never prevent the dang thing from getting tangled up and failing over and over.
 |
| Old Design with Soon to Be K.I.A action figures |
Not quite knowing why, I picked up this knick knack for Jack's stocking. Thinking that he would probably not even notice it, or would lose interest in it as I did. Never did I expect to find that some genius had redesigned this horribly flawed toy and turned in into a gem.
Almost every toss into the air resulted in full deployment and a safe landing for our hero red plastic soldier. The major difference in the design is the elimination of strings, and the use of a fishnet material to attach the soldier to the the chute'. The plastic parachute has been replaced by a nylon fabric, which allows for a more flexible deployment, and nixes the need for overcomplicated folding before the toss.
 |
| New Design on and Old Toy Brings Our Boy a Lot of Joy |
Okay I admit it, I probably love this more than my son, but that's the advantage of being a dad, you get to play with neat toys again. Heck, you even get to see a bad toy's evolution into something fun and enjoyable. Believe it or not I got 8 successful deployments out of ten on the first play session. All of which had Jack jumping and shouting with glee.
No comments:
Post a Comment