Archive for the ‘Toys’ tag
Legoland
Carter is almost six years old and we just had Christmas, which meant Legos, lots and lots of Legos. He already has a huge bin of them at home full of pieces for cars, submarines, a pirate hideout, and a fire boat with a plastic hull that can float in the bathtub. But he wanted more of course, so this year he put the Lego police headquarters and fire station at the top of his list.
What’s Left Behind
I know I’ve driven on US-45 in southern Illinois on sunny spring and summer days, but I always picture it in the winter, with gray skies and two-week-old snow on the ground, the kind that’s been there long enough to start melting into ugly, misshapen ice and turn filthy black along the edges of the road. It’s one of the many routes I can take to get from Chicago to my parents’ house in Poseyville, Indiana. The towns along US-45 are drab and desolate, some slightly larger than others, delineated by whether they have a McDonald’s and a Marathon station or a Citgo with a quickie mart. Louisville, Geff, Hord, Cisne, Flora: they appear universally tired, towns you remember from childhood but left long ago, returning briefly to visit your grandparents once or twice a year, for only old people still live in towns like this. The houses themselves appear to be asleep, hunkered down on their lots, dirty clapboard sidings mirroring the mottled, sagging skin of their inhabitants. Some children must live there or at least visit regularly, according to the broken down Playskool cars and rusty swing sets scattered around the front yards of houses lining the road, but they’re never present when we drive through, as if they hibernate through the bleak winter days.
Thomas and Friends Recall
Topham Hatt’s off to James for sending me this recall notice for a number of Thomas & Friends toys. Apparently, many of the red wooden toys have lead in the paint, which goes a long way toward explaining the slack jaws and drooling that seem to afflict any 2- to 5-year-old boy who comes near them. As a fervid Thomas collector, this could have been a devastating development for Carter, but fortunately we have mostly the die-cast metal trains (all the better to scratch your wooden floors with). The West Loop Railway shall remain intact.
While I’m at it, though, I thought I’d do my part and pass along a few other Thomas toys that have been recalled for various reasons. If you have any of the following items, please contact the manufacturer:
- Blacklung Bernie, the Asthmatic Coal Car
- The Thomas Goes to Amsterdam “First Time” Red Light District Playset
- Scabby, the Union Busting Diesel
- Shakes the Hobo
- Sammy the Slaughterhouse Boxcar (with livestock figurines)