Childhood fantasies

Nostalgia feels good. Takes you back to those innocent childhood days, where even the stupidest jokes seemed funny, where 'action' in your favorite shows did not necessarily mean 'killing'. Remember the old TV shows? Remember the cool action figures? Gone are those days but they will always hold a place in one's heart.

Childhood, puberty, adulthood...one's way of thinking and tastes change in time. Still, the classics remain classics and you could always go back to enjoying them. Makes you feel glad that you had enjoyed it back then.

Yes, I regret giving my toys away to the neighbour kid. That was considered a part of being 'grown up'. If it was not your decision, it would be your parents. True, if I still had my favorite action figures around, I certainly wouldn't play around with them, but instead, I'd probably stare at them, recall the fantasy stories that we used to come up with when we were kids and smile at the nostalgic goodness, no matter how embarassing it might be. I could have used them for stop motion animation too. Its actually similar to the childhood stories; the hero beats up the villain; even if he didn't do it in the cartoon (censorship issues), except that here it has more of a professional feel.

Last night I was browsing Wikipedia and checked out the classic He-man and the Masters of the Universe (MOTU) article. There was a picture of He-man sitting on Battlecat. Back then that was pure awesomeness! Remember the cool He-man comics that used to come free with your favorite character? You wouldn't throw the box away. You'd just stare at the cool artwork and drool over the 'Collect them all' range of characters shown on the backside that you didn't have and wanted to buy.

Back then the He-man line of action figures were being distributed in India by the collaboration of Leo toys and Mattel. So if you purchased your favorite He-man episodes on video cassette, you'd also get to see those cool He-man toy commercials (epic back then) as well Leo toy's cool range of indoor games. You can watch the cool toy commercials on Youtube. A friend and I were watching those the other day. It was just awesome.

Do you recall how awesome it felt when Prince Adam raised his sword and said "By the Power of Grayskull" and the music and the cool effects that followed? And when he went "I have the POWER!!" and turned Cringer into Battlecat?

Not just He-man but Gi-Joe, TMNT and others too. The cool accessories that you'd get and the vehicles that the hero would drive to stop the villains? Didn't that just make your day?

I sure wish they continued the new He-man animated series. It feels good when you get to see cool remakes of your favorite shows. The TMNT animated series follows the story of the comics, so I welcome it in my collection. However, you can't keep everyone happy. Case in point; Check youtube comments, forums or even ask your friends. You'd probably get to hear "The new show is not so good. The old show is the best" etc. Now don't get me wrong. I enjoyed the classic shows back then but I also enjoy watching the remade shows. Tastes and interests change and we move on. I do watch a couple of classic He-man or TMNT episodes from time to time, just for old time's sake. But...some of the shows feel kinda corny. Last night I was browsing youtube and I saw this video clip; "He-man vs Skeletor" from the episode the Arena. The video description said "The best action moment in the episode" or something like that. Curious, I got that video loaded. Now, I can't help but laugh at it. I don't know and I don't mean any offence, but since violence was restricted back then, I guess that was how it was. Not a single fist fight. All Skeletor did was use his magic and create some stuff that He-man just jumped out of the way to avoid. Now I know older people would consider this awesome or would complain about the level of violence in TV shows and games these days but that's how it is. We move on. I would watch the classic He-man shows just for old time's sakes and recall those days. But it just won't satisfy one's adrenaline rush. Know what I'm saying? That's why in terms of action I'd prefer the newer shows, but I'd also like to go and watch the classic shows. Think about it. Old may be gold, but "new can be silver". And silver is valuable too.