retreat

2025-08-22

Of course Hot Toys will release figures based on Fantastic Four: First Steps; not only the Fab Four, Galactus as well¹. I remember a time, when their figures cost from 100 to 200 figures a pop … their range of Batman wares, and what collectors are willing to pay for them, once saved my hide.

Kirby earned time to play video games. We tried out Bushido Ball out of UFO 50². That was fun, Kirby wanted something more dynamic, he said, while be both ran around the room, trying to keep the CPU opponent from winning for as long as possible.
We fired up TMNT: Shredder's Revenge³. Kirby loved it. I enjoyed the game too, haven't played it in a while, always came back to Turtles in Time⁴.

Later that day, we went to the birthday party of one of Kirby's mates. He got figures from a fantasy monster series by Schleich⁵, and although he didn't specify which figures he wanted, and without any of the gift givers coordinating who buys what, no doubles were bought. Except for two, all the kids were a treat to deal with; and the two basket cases got corrected by the other kids in the most adult way possible—"Please don't wreck this party, you two have troubles, tell us about it, and we'll find a solution."

On the way home i listened to the latest episode of Kermode & Mayo' Take, a movie podcast i usually enjoy, this time however, it made me mad, when a Dad wrote in, telling that he saw Superman with his two year old kid, who told him, he didn't want to stay at the theater, and got shut down with "Don't worry, Superman wins at the end." Usually, the hosts are very sensible when it comes to such topics, and tells people off if appropriate; in a classy manner of course, they're brits after all. This time, there was a discussion about how age recommendations for movies are buzzkills, because Parents know best. That's why we have Newborns in rehab, Parents always know best… I wrote an e-mail to the show, telling them about the cases of children in trouble due to inappropriate media consumption at an early age the Wife and her colleagues are giving their all to fix as best as possible in the clinics were Parents who can't afford the high end care—which they also provide, and finances the "low income therapies"—, in the knowledge, that they win small skirmishes on their retreat. The war against the screens is already lost.

Watched The Life of Chuck; as if he knew it, Kirby woke up and asked for one of us to sleep in his bed, as the credits crawled. I volunteered, the Wife goes back in the trenches next week, and i haven't slept in Kirby's new bed, and was curious.

#hot toys #parenting #screentime #toys #videogames