The chilling trials of a Han Solo figure....

[Mwak73]

Just a daft memory that popped into my head just now.
I usually preface my posts, by stating that I don't collect the old toys now, but that my interest on here, lies mainly in reminiscing about having them, back when they came out, as a kid.
And today's memory is this -
It's not something I've ever discussed with anyone before, so I'm genuinely interested to know -
As a child of about eight years old, I would take one of the bubbles I'd kept from a cardback of mine, and lay poor old Han in it, fill it with water, and bung the whole thing in the freezer.
Ready to emerge, hours later, as a do it yourself carbonite block, to play with.
I wouldn't have bothered with all of that faff.... Not to mention cold fingers... But this was in the days long before any official carbonite figure was released to buy, so imaginative inspiration, had to come into things.
And its got me wondering - I'll bet money it wasn't just me who did it. I'll bet it was a fairly widespread thing.
And if so, it makes me smile. Because of one thing - we'll all have independently done that - without being told to... Without seeing it in a magazine.... Or a TV show... Or YouTube (twenty odd years before it's invention)... Or anything.
We just did it for ourselves, because the places a child's imagination, can take to them to, within themselves, is always a brilliant thing.

 

[stu70]

There's a piece in this book where the author talks about doing a similar thing, just read it again the other week, it's a good book, about sci fi and sci fi conventions and growing up in the 70s and 80s.

Amazon product ASIN 1473680956
I was about seven or eight when I got my first Star Wars figures, to be honest I can't really remember how I played with them, apart from instantly losing all the weapons and lightsabers. I've still got all of them in pretty good condition so I think they had a fairly easy life. Now my Britain's deetail figures and Action Man, we're talking body parts here, they went on a lot of missons which they didn't come back from, at least not in one piece. A couple have melted limbs where I set them alight.

I agree a child's imagination is a wonderful thing but probably shouldn't be coupled with pyromaniac tendencies.

 

[Walrusbumface]

There's a piece in this book where the author talks about doing a similar thing, just read it again the other week, it's a good book, about sci fi and sci fi conventions and growing up in the 70s and 80s.

Amazon product ASIN 1473680956
I was about seven or eight when I got my first Star Wars figures, to be honest I can't really remember how I played with them, apart from instantly losing all the weapons and lightsabers. I've still got all of them in pretty good condition so I think they had a fairly easy life. Now my Britain's deetail figures and Action Man, we're talking body parts here, they went on a lot of missons which they didn't come back from, at least not in one piece. A couple have melted limbs where I set them alight.

I agree a child's imagination is a wonderful thing but probably shouldn't be coupled with pyromaniac tendencies.

As a child, I'd set fire to my figures. I loved watching them burn. The figures I destroyed were either damaged goods, given to me by friends, or shoplifted. The figures I purchased were spared.

Wouldn't dream of doing it now - not with today's prices.

 

[Mwak73]

Ha, I love all the reminiscences of playing with, and/or mistreating the toys.
I particularly liked the reference to shop lifting - I see you also likely shared an upbringing similar to myself - of being a far cry from a cosy household, safe and secure with two loving parents, a comfortable upbringing and spoiled with lots of toys.
Yeah...we shoplifted on occasion too.
Left to our own devices mostly, without parental control. I'd say that's what led to it.
But, y'know, you soon grow out of all of that, if it isn't really part of who you are, and so I only did it once or twice.
I think the caution from the coppers was enough to scare the s*** out of me
And the mention of action man and brittains brought back brilliant memories there.
My favourite was the SAS action man I had.
Cool black outfit, with grey hood, gas mask and heckler sub machine gun.
Bloody loved that fella.
Also had the space action man.
Let's face it - back then - late 70s/early 80s, because of star wars, they could have slapped the title "space" onto a pile of dog muck, and we'd have wanted it
Which reminds me - I also had the Britain's space soldier figures....I was never a great admirer of toy soldiers as a kid (only ever had a few) but because of my fascination for anything spacey, I had to have them.
Overall though, y'know,I must say - I would never have willingly damaged or destroyed any toy I ever owned.
They meant too much to me. Took me away from the sometimes hard reality of life, and so therefore I kept them lovingly.
While I had them. They always seemed to just get thrown out after a while, or when I outgrew them.
Wish I'd kept the bloody lot now..... Nostalgia is a funny thing, isn't it, the way it grips you, the older you get.

 

[AndyPreston]

I didn't freeze poor Han myself, but I've definitely heard from several others who did. Great memories, thanks for sharing!

 

[Dinosrus]

I once put my Bespin Han in a glass of water and put it in the deep freeze for a night.
Then I panicked when i returned to the deep freeze and saw the expanded frozen water.
Being an impatient kid, i didnt have the foresight to let it thaw out gradually. In my panic i broke the glass to retrieve him.
Only did it once
Putting him in the blister, then freezing seems a much better idea

 

[Mwak73]

Ha ha.... Yes.... Frozen water in glass is never a brilliant combination
Well, it's the shape of the blister isn't it..... The perfect dimensions for a carbonite box
But yeah .... You've awoken long sleeping memories now, in me.
I definitely also used a cup to freeze him, too, when I didn't have a plastic blister at hand.
Although it wasn't glass. I'm getting images of a plastic breaker.

All of this makes me wonder how a kids mind works, exactly..... What on earth did I then go and do, with a frozen cup full of Star wars figure??
I'm guessing maybe just had it stood off to one side, and pretended Luke or someone had come to rescue him.
With his special x-wing cup carrier, or whatever

 

[Dinosrus]

Ha ha.... Yes.... Frozen water in glass is never a brilliant combination
Well, it's the shape of the blister isn't it..... The perfect dimensions for a carbonite box
But yeah .... You've awoken long sleeping memories now, in me.
I definitely also used a cup to freeze him, too, when I didn't have a plastic blister at hand.
Although it wasn't glass. I'm getting images of a plastic breaker.

All of this makes me wonder how a kids mind works, exactly..... What on earth did I then go and do, with a frozen cup full of Star wars figure??
I'm guessing maybe just had it stood off to one side, and pretended Luke or someone had come to rescue him.
With his special x-wing cup carrier, or whatever

Hehe.
That was the great thing about a simple plastic figure, the kids mind had to bring it to life!
I played with my figures relentlessly, they went on many adventures, which mostly werent star wars reanactments!
I might sound like an old git now, bit i feel the x box generation are missing out on the imagination enhancing simpler toys.
Although im sure xboxes etc have their own qualities too, but the fun i had with a few sw figures and a staircase was immeasurable!
Simpler days hehe

 

[Mwak73]

I'll tell you something - I don't care if we sound like old gits - there is a solid truth in what you say.
Experience is invaluable in life....IE if you've been there, done it, and lived through it, it gives you the right to speak about it and have an opinion.
If not, you should keep your gob shut.
I'm saying this, in reference to all of the smart arse replies, we'd no doubt get, from the youth of today, if they heard us say it was a better time to be a child, 40 years ago.
They'd simply say it was prehistoric, boring, and with nothing to do.
"No internet, and extremely basic computer games?? How on earth did you get through such awful times??".
But we know the answer to that, because we were there.
LUCKY enough, to be there.

For example, take a look out in the street, any day of the week. You'll be lucky to find many kids even playing out.
And its complete crap, to say that either
A) it's so much more a dangerous world these days, with maniacs on the prowl.
They were always there.
Most of them worked at the BBC
Or
B) It's COVID, that keeps the kids indoors.
This has been going on, for a lot longer, than the existence of COVID.
At least about fifteen years.

I had a wonderful childhood.
Did I have a loving family unit? Not really. Divorced parents, and left to our own devices most of the time. Certainly no parental involvement, to take us anywhere, to keep us entertained.
Was I spoiled and given all the toys I wanted? Definitely not. One main present on birthdays - about a tenner, and one at Christmas, about thirty, and not much else.
So what was it that made it brilliant?
It was where I grew up.
Next door to a frigging massive Coke works site, that had zero security men on it, which meant being able to roam wherever we wanted.
Great big Coke heaps, and dark underground tunnels. And old disused railway lines, and derelict buildings.
Me and my friends played around there for years, pretending to be star wars characters or later on, the a team, or maybe robin of Sherwood.
If a health and safety person these days, could actually see what we got up to, they'd have a coronary. No question.
But I wouldn't trade those wonderful early years for anything.
And you know why?
Because we LIVED.
Our imaginations and thirst for adventure, drove us forward, into so many great times and places.

Nobody forced us of the house.
Nobody twisted our arm to get out there.
We bloody loved it.
Dawn till dusk in the holidays, and straight out after tea, on school nights.

I mean, of course a great deal was spent indoors as well.... Especially under the age of ten.... Where my imagination took me to the edges of the universe.... And usually all by myself most of the time then.
But I loved it so much.
Didn't want money.
Didn't need entertaining.
Or taking places.
I never knew the meaning of "bored".
And I still don't, to this day.

None of this, is blather, or looking through rose tinted glasses.
It was exactly as I've said it was.
A simple, magical time and place, to be a kid.

What do kids largely do now?
Oh, I'm sure they grow up a lot faster now, with all the knowledge of the internet at their fingers.
Their maturity at age ten, it probably took us til about fourteen to reach in our more closed off world, back then.

But is that such a good thing?
I don't think so, one bit.
Naivety is a golden thing for a child to possess. It keeps imagination strong, for one thing.
When a kid knows it all and has seen it all, by the age of ten these days, they haven't got as much of a sense of wonder for the world.
And they just can't be bothered to go out and find it.
Largely I mean.
Of course there'll always be exceptions to the rule.

But generally, the world is such a different place now, compared to even twenty years ago.
Example - I drove around on Christmas Day this year.
I don't think I saw one kid out playing with their new toys.
Oh, but COVID keeps them all in, at the moment.
Not really. They could have been out purely on their own step to play in the fresh air.
I didn't see anyone.

Think back - you know I'm right, when I say 40 years ago, you'd have seen the streets fairly full of kids on Christmas Day, trying out their bikes, roller skates, footballs, what have you.
It stopped happening, largely, a few years ago.
The rise of the internet and flashy computer games at the same time, simply can't be a coincidence.

So summing up, I'd say you aren't an old git at all. But merely stating the facts you see with your own eyes, your memory, and the most valuable thing in life - the experience of having lived it.

 

[stu70]

Too right, kids today don't know they're born, sitting in their rooms on their games consoles and on Snapchat wanting to grow up to be influencers, when I was young we used to live in one room, all twenty six of us, no furniture, half the floor was missing, and we were all huddled together in one corner for fear of falling.

And you try and tell the young people of today that, they won't believe you.

 

[Mwak73]

Ha ha, I do sense a smidging of sarcasm in there.
But you know.... It doesn't make an ounce of difference, to the truth of things, to take it to the extreme like that, and take the piss.
Because what I've said.... From my own viewpoint....is spot on.
What a truly awful thing to want to aspire to be...... An "influencer" ..
Child or adult.
It's code for "look at me, everyone..... I'm important, and I change lives. Hey.... You aren't looking!".
It's all about ego now, and feeding it.
What the hell kind of kid, would even have the thought of being an "influencer" (God, it's hard to even say that word.... It's along the lines of f***ing "life coach". So far up it's own arse, in self importance, it has to bend over to smile.
Childhood should be about nothing.
Nothing at all.
No concerns for the future.
Not thoughts of being an internet star.
No thoughts of tik bastard tok.
Nothing.

Except getting out there into the world, getting dirty, and having FUN.

None of what I've said, previously even gets near to being "in my day, this was all fields, and we worked down't pit for fotty hours a day".
And frankly, its bloody ignorant.... And highly insulting.... To suggest it was.
It WAS a hard life. Certainly personally.
But God, we made the best of it, smiled, breathed the air and had adventures and fun, despite all the crap, at home.

Childhood nowadays is empty.
Online and empty.
So what if they can go online, brag on Facebook that they just topped their own personal best score on call of duty.
And then switch it off at 2am, to eventually fall asleep, and dream of perhaps one day, growing up to become an influencer, on YouTube, and then make videos, to show everyone just exactly how good at video games they are.

If that's living, then whoever wants it, is very welcome to it.
My very best wishes, to them, so they can achieve their goals and dreams.