Thursday, March 13, 2008

Remnants of My Partially-Remembered Youth

There was a surprise at the comic book store when I went to get my copy of Green Lantern Corps. My local shop had four boxes of My Little Pony sets. This wasn't a complete surprise, given how much of this store is dedicated to Hello Kitty collectibles.

What was a surprise was that they were anniversary sets, remakes of 1984 Ponies.

I remember very few toys that were definitely mine growing up, and it's entirely possible that my favorites were hand-me-downs from my sister. But many of my cherished (thought cloudy) childhood memories are of me playing with a yellow winged pony. I cut her hair. I drew on her wings. I may have burned one of her legs. But she was my favorite toy for years.

And she was at the comic book store.



Yeah, I shelled out the money. I'd been having an exceptionally crummy day and just seeing these packs cheered me up.

I was so excited that rather than read my comics tonight (Yes, rather than read Green Lantern Corps and Wonder Woman), I instead sat down to fix the hair on each pony so that it would flop properly on the side of the head. (They pack it in the package so it will look windswept, but the tape and the little plastic piece make it end up very messy and vertical when it's time to play. You have to wet the hair and comb it in the proper style.)

Also, I've been reading word-books. Why did no one ever recommend The King in Yellow to me?

8 comments:

  1. That's a great story -- it's nice to be able to recapture something special from childhood like that, and glad to hear it improved your day :)

    Take it and run.

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  2. Because KiY leads to madness? At least it did when my friend's Investigator totally botched his mythos roll. d10 SAN gone just for looking at the damn cover...

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  3. There's just something ABOUT finding your favorite toy from childhood. Makes you feel warm and safe all over.

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  4. "The King In Yellow" is available in the public domain at Project Gutenberg, right here. I always thought it was a shame that Chaosium completely missed the point when adapting it to their Cthulhu Mythos games. It's more about life, death, immortality, and the transience of human values than a platform for yet another scaly goo monster...

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  5. Because Yellow is the color of fear, that's why.

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  6. Because you're EXACTLY the kind of person to start shouting "Hastur Hastur Hastur" at people...

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  7. I'm not trying to spam you, but you seem like someone who'd appreciate dwelian.

    Apologies if you're already aware of this. In fact, I think you may be the source through which I found this guy.

    http://dwelian.deviantart.com/art/Justice-League-Pony-GL-38553057

    http://search.deviantart.com/?section=browse&qh=boost%3Apopular+age_sigma%3A24h+age_scale%3A5&q=pony+lantern

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  8. oooooo.

    er. you don;t suppose they had the original *original* MLP set? back when there were only about two pegasus and two unicorns? (one of which was majesty) I was so paid-up it wasn;t funny. hell, I remember narrowing my eyes when the boy ponies came in and going 'incomers'. Wallpaper. Comic. Three years' fan club subscription. I WANT.

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