Why don't more adults play with toys?
I suppose lots of things that adults like are similar to toys (e.g. real cars and electronics)--but I mean toy-toys.
What are toys, anyway?
I guess I'd say it's partly their function that makes toys toys:
they are anything you play with.
So a stick is a toy, if you play with it, right? but a toy that you never take out of its box is technically a toy, but is it more like a sculpture?
Well, no. It's still a toy, because the person who has it probably thinks of it as a toy---it represents the possibility of play, and sculpture doesn't.
And cars and electronics are like toys, but they have other uses, while toys are only for playing.
While I was out walking Astro, I got eleven little toy cars leftover from a garage sale, free.
I've been wanting to make toys that move--I'd thought toy cars would provide good bases to build on, but these're actually great in themselves--some have a ball bearing in their chassis for speed (I looked it up) so while they're very little, they have a pleasing heft.
I like toy animals, you know, but I don't have any toy cars. Now I must play with them!
I suppose lots of things that adults like are similar to toys (e.g. real cars and electronics)--but I mean toy-toys.
What are toys, anyway?
I guess I'd say it's partly their function that makes toys toys:
they are anything you play with.
So a stick is a toy, if you play with it, right? but a toy that you never take out of its box is technically a toy, but is it more like a sculpture?
Well, no. It's still a toy, because the person who has it probably thinks of it as a toy---it represents the possibility of play, and sculpture doesn't.
And cars and electronics are like toys, but they have other uses, while toys are only for playing.
While I was out walking Astro, I got eleven little toy cars leftover from a garage sale, free.
I've been wanting to make toys that move--I'd thought toy cars would provide good bases to build on, but these're actually great in themselves--some have a ball bearing in their chassis for speed (I looked it up) so while they're very little, they have a pleasing heft.
I like toy animals, you know, but I don't have any toy cars. Now I must play with them!
This post gives me an appropriate opportunity to confess: I've been jonesing now and then for Lincoln Logs, the kind I knew as a boy and then as a parent. Green roof slats, plastic red eaves. I think we have a set somewhere in the garage. They're impossible to find in stores, though they exist on eBay.
ReplyDeletePocket multi-tools — like the Leatherman Micra and such — provide some of the satisfactions of toys and have a portability that you just can't get with Lincoln Logs.
Lincoln Logs! I loved those. You'll want them for your soon-to-come grandchild, eh?
ReplyDeleteTools make good toys!
Thanks for this.
ReplyDeleteAnything little works for me, actually.
SPARKER: Watch your mailbox...
ReplyDelete