New toys: Avengers Nick Fury, Avengers Black Widow

My Ebay score arrived today. I had a tough time getting a hold of these but was it worth it? In a word, yeah!
Nick Fury has weak knees literally. Not sure if this is the problem of all Nick Furies or I just got a bad one. This one feels like it's going to snap if handled too roughly. I have to caution my kids about that I (yes, these toys are for playing). The head sculpt is good though. Really can see the resemblance to Samuel Jackson.

Black widow is well made with nice details on the costume and good articulation. You can actually put pistols in the hip holsgters. These two toys are the hardest to find in the Avengers Movire toy line.
My Avengers characters are complete. Time for some serious play.

Making your own toys

Lately the kids have been curious about how I was when I was growing up, the tv shows I watched, the games I played, and so on.

I shared with my daughter how when I was I kid I didn't had a lot of toys. My action figures back then were "paper dolls" made by my neighbor Ram.

These were not girly dolls. They were Spiderman, Batman, Superman, Robin, hand-drawn colored and cut by my friend and me. He'd draw a figure on a piece of cardboard folder. We'd color it with Pentel pens, cut it and fold them at the right places to make joints. (Those were the days).

I told my daughter that we had to be creative since we didn't have much. We nade our own toys back then. I lid from a Magnolia ice cream container was precious material. We could make swords, guns and Captain America's shield from it. From a piece of red cloth we could make Superman's cape. And to make the "paper heros" hold the accessories we'd use chewing gum.

After that conversation with her I dug deep to bring out long dormant creative energies to show her how me and my friend used to do it.

Shown in photos:
Iron man on his Avengers computer terminal (the kids helped with this one).

Spiderman needs to dispatch the guard to save Mary Jane who's strapped to a Hydra missile.
=)

Bonding over "fairy tales"

Having kids is really cool. And one of the best things about it is that I get to be a kid again. I have an excuse to watch cartoons, read comic books, and play video games. Best of all I get to play toys (with them) again. I never realized I still love toys until I started joining them at their play. My kids are 9 and 8. Yeah I played with them when they were little but never with this much gusto.

They are finally at that stage where they love super heroes (thanks to movies and tv shows). Our bedtime stories are now fairy tales of a different kind: tales Ultimate Spiderman, World War Hulk and such. I'm looking to reading Secret Wars with them.

I admit it's thoroughly enjoyable. I get to share the things that I love as a child and teen.

We've trawled Youtube for old 60's episodes of Hulk, Thor, Ironman and Captain America.
My son makes me sing their theme songs sometimes:

"When Captain America throws his mighty shield.
All those who chose to oppose his shield must yield..."

Thanks to Youtube they know how the original Spiderman theme song sounds:

"Spiderman, Spiderman, friendly neighborhood Spiderman.
Spins his web, any size. Catches thieves just like flies.
Watch out, here comes the Spiderman."

Good stuff. We play. We bond. We're happy.

Hello World

(tap, tap, tap...)

"Uh... sound check, testing."
"Is this thing on?"
(technician: "You're good to go Ben.")

"Hi! Uhm.. my name is Ben and this is my first blog."
<<whispering to backstage technician>> "Do I have to do this?"
(technician: "Yes you have, if you want to be a blogger. Now say something interesting.")

"This is my first blog. And uhm.. I made to blog to share my passion about toys."

Tog! <<drops microphone>> ZZZIINNG!! <<audio feedback>>

"Oops my bad. I'll be right back."