I remember when I was a little kid, my toys were everything, well... not everything, but they sure were a lot of fun.

Gosh, I guess I was spoiled, I really did have everything... Star Wars, Transformers, GI Joe, Voltron, Masters of the Universe, all of the usual suspects. How great it was that these marvelous pieces of plastic, carefully crafted just for me and my friends and bought with my father's hard-earned money brought all of us together... even the kids all the way down the street. You know... THE ENEMY! Hehehe.

This brings me to a point, I promise.. how old were you when you stopped playing with your childhood toys?? I'm not talking about collecting, having a collection, being a big kid, (and I fall into all of those categories), but just really stopped playing with them... you know, as a kid? Full of imagination, making the sounds yourself for the X-wing, Falcon, whatever... with no help from batteries (even though I really love the battery powered ones with all of the cool effects, awesome!), making the bad guys chase the good guys as the sun was setting and you could hear the sound of Mom hollering for you to come inside for the night, only to yell back "Just 10 more minutes! Rusty and I are almost done with the battle!! Please, Mom... plllleeeeeaaasssseee????"

Those are warm, sunny summer memories I revisit often especially during this time of year, hearing kids play outside with these new toys they have (I don't care what anyone says... we had the best toys in the 8o's!!). Of course, looking back, most of those cartoons weren't that great, anyway, and were basically just half-hour commercials to sell the products. Some were actually good though, *tries to avoid mutiny*, but of course nothing in my opinion rivals the Star Wars toys I had, and it's so great that after all of these years, I still have most of my Star Wars stuff, and in really great shape. And it's also great that they relate to something I still love, and is still so relevant, instead of an old, repetetive cartoon. Weren't alot of those episodes the same? I mean, really!

Boy, I could really use a cold cup of grape Kool-Aid with 50 pounds of sugar in it that my neighbor used to make....

Some of the vehicles I had, like the AT-ST and my original Falcon were annihilated-looking when I came across them in my mom's basement a few years ago, missing decals, guns, no radar dish, no cockpit cover, very yellowed, so they were pitched. Doesn't matter though, for my birthday a few years ago I bought myself the Electronic Lights and Sounds Edition Millenium Falcon, which is awesome, and I'm sorry, but it so overrules the older one. All of my figures were thankfully sealed in an extremely scuffed-up Darth Vader case, so none of them turned yellow or anything! And I still had (have) most of the weapons. For some reason I was real good with my figures, honestly, they really look great, but my vehicles got really beat up... I guess because of all of the outdoor playing, and crash landing them into "Tatooine" (sandbox) and "Dagobah" (slimy mudhole in alley).

Yeah, those were really great times. But I can still remember the day, and it seems like this happened overnight, when I just thought.. "Gee, I really can't play with these anymore... they're little kid toys... time to put them away, I guess... "

And like I said, I'm not referring to collecting stuff as an adult, and having them displayed, but do you remember when it was "that time"?

The time to put away the toys?

I do... and sometimes I really want those old summers back.