FIIF#20*: THE STRANGE CHANGE MACHINE. As I rustle through self-indulgent memories of my life for you to roll your eyes and scroll desperately past as I shrug/declare feck it, Im fifty, I think about the odd joy of growing up in what surely was the Golden Age Of Weird Toys - the late 1960s and early 70s. And I was lucky enough to have an older brother who got the cool toys I was too young for; as he was (still is) eight years older, they passed down quickly - oh the best hand-me-downs in my history**. Not having any close early-childhood friends (didnt really get out and hanging with the kids in the neighbourhood til elementary school), my very very early years were a wonderfully insular realm of books, toys, and tv shows til about age 7 when I HAD to start interacting with other human beings more often (I think a horrible mistaken tricking me into joining Cub Scouts occurred or something) - said insularity all in glorious 60s technicolour (well, b&w tv set til 68?I think). Among the best-(wierd-)est was this: THE STRANGE CHANGE MACHINE. My brother played with it for a few weeks, got bored, and presto! I had something I obsessed on for years, dragging it out of the attic repeatedly well into my double-digit years. It either melted in the uninsulated attic one peeA heatwave after I left state, or gathered dust til my mom sold just about everything after my father died and she moved into a much smaller apartment. Man - if only eBay had come along a few years earlier, online Baby Boomers, with their desperate and cash-fueled nostalgia, would have made my mom a wealthy woman with the classic-toy content (original Barbies & GI Joes! Matt Mason! full run of Hardy Boys books! etc) of our attic. Not that I would ever think of going back online and finding these great lost toys of glory ... no ... no, sirree ... Id .. never ... [sudden click away, scrambling sound as searchengines ignite] Anyway - the best explanation of the STRANGE CHANGE MACHINE is this rather clunky quick doco. Ignore the fellow talking about himself and fast forward ahead to see ToyEternity.
Posted on: Wed, 20 Aug 2014 08:23:42 +0000
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