Starbuck...before Starbucks

Sorry for the neglect, but I finally had a chance to get back to this blog.

I will begin 2009 with this item from my childhood that continued to nourish my love of villains in film and TV. The Cylon Raider from TV's Battlestar Galactica had retractable sides to ready it for battle. Due to a child's death as a result of swallowing one of the ship's red torpedoes, later versions of the toy had torpedoes that did not fire. I was lucky enough to have one that spring fired and smart enough to know it wasn't a Tic-Tac.

Look! Up in the air!

When I found a picture of this toy I was so excited since I had such vivid memories of playing it as a kid. It was a helicopter on the end of a wire and you could control it's altitude and speed at which it circled the base. Kind of like a cool version of the Dumbo ride at Disneyland. Except this one you couldn't ride in. Believe me, I tried. It also came with objects that you could grab with the hook beneath the chopper. I loved this toy.

Then I slowly began to realize that perhaps I didn't actually own it at all. In fact it belonged to my friend down the street from us. So instead, I played with my friend's VertiBird. That's what she said. Is it possible that some of our fondest memories are actually those of other people's stuff? When you're a kid I guess it all kind of melds into one shared treasure chest of toys that every friend contributes to. Until you get one of them mad and they take their Nerf football home with them. I sure was an asshole sometimes.