Things I loved to an unreasonable degree as a kid
I was thinking about this, what influenced me, and I was trying to remember what things I really, really loved when I was younger.
* Star Wars: Pretty much every kid of my generation loved Star Wars. This is no big deal. I loved the monsters the most, as is generally true of my loves. I had a massive collection of Jabba the Hutt's goons. I went through a long period where I didn't even remember what happened in The Empire Strikes Back, now my favorite Star Wars movie, since HBO (or maybe Showtime) was showing Star Wars constantly, and I saw Return of the Jedi in theaters at around age 8, while I had seen The Empire Strikes Back at more like 5.
* Clash of the Titans: I still have a metal Clash of the Titans lunchbox somewhere around here. I remember my parents taking me to see it for my birthday, age 6. We came in late, when Perseus was fighting the giant scorpions, and so came back later to see it again. I had the toys for Perseus, Pegasus, and the Kraken. (The Kraken is quite rare and was going for over $200 after the crappy remake came out!)
* V: I don't remember much about my love for V, but I sure did love it. It ran two hours, one of which was after my bed-time, so I consistently missed the second half of each part. I was obsessed with seeing the monster Julie was afraid of, which turned out to be not much of anything. I even liked the series, which I've heard likened to "Dynasty with aliens."
* Transformers: I had a Transformers lunchbox too! I used to stare at the sheet that showed all the Transformers for hours, trying to make out all the details and figure out how they transformed. I distinctly remember impatiently waiting for the first episode of the cartoon to come on with my brother and cousin. I loved Ravage and Soundwave, in particular, though I got Prowl from my grandma that first year. (My poor aforementioned brother and cousin got Ratchet and Ironhide, which were just awful toys.) I saw the movie in theaters with my brother, possibly for my birthday, and it was like a religious experience. We came home and cornered the kids across the street, babbling at them madly about what we had just seen for about ten minutes. Then season 3 and the later toys came out and boy did they suck. Despite its warts, Transformers left a strong impression on me -- and judging from the internet, a lot of other people too -- unlike any of the other great 80's toylines.
* Night Court: I don't think my family and I came in until about season 2 (when I was 10?) for Night Court, but boy, did I love it. It left a strong and lasting impression on me, even the later seasons that were pretty bad.
* David Lee Roth: My mom's boy-crazy friend and her two daughters threatened to kill me once when they were staying over and David Lee Roth's video for California Girls came on, as they were fans and had not seen it yet. I somehow became a fan, and he probably wasn't a great role model. I used to say that Billy Idol was my idol (and somebody was my hero, and somebody else was my role model; I forget who, but Mr. T was probably in there), but I didn't know anything about Billy Idol at the time: it was all Dave!
* The Truth About Dragons: I loved checking out books about monsters in the library, and this one was my absolute favorite. My brother bought a copy for me off of ebay a good ten years back, and man, it really brought me back.
* The Mouse and the Motorcycle: I really loved the idea of small people (like the Littles, which was also a great series of kids' books) or mice that acted like people, and I loved the mouse more than the Motorcycle in this book. Beverly Cleary was one of my favorite authors, and this was my favorite.
* Wolfie: This was a book about a kid who catches a wolf spider and keeps it in an aquarium. It started a love of catching bugs -- flies, beetles, ants, caterpillars, etc. -- that lasted much of my youth. I loved feeding spiders and even had an Ant Farm. My mom was amazed at how I could spend hours watching bees collect pollen or yellowjackets rolling mud. Heh!
* The Secret Hideout: This was a book about kids who discover their father's secret club from when he was a kid and follow in his footsteps. It inspired a lot of attempts at making clubs or organizations from me, as well as building forts (such as they were), most of which were ruined by the apathy of my friends, something that still makes me hesitant to try and rely on other people for much of anything.
* Endless Quest books: These were the D&D pick-your-path adventures. The first six were really cool and lead me into D&D, along with the rubber toys and lead minatures. My favorite was the second, Mountain of Mirrors.
* My Side of the Mountain: This book was about a kid running off to live a year or so in the mountains, complete with how he accomplished it all. This book depicted a breed of rugged, manly kid that doesn't exist anymore. I was always saying how I wanted to run away and live in the wilderness. I don't think my mom took me seriously, but I sure did dream about it. I didn't want to get away from my family and friends or anything, mind you.
* Xanth: The first adult-length novel I read was A Spell for Chameleon by Piers Anthony. The great cover featuring a manticore entranced me and I cautiously dived into it. I'm not sure if the second book, The Source of Magic, was out yet, but the third wasn't. At any rate, these books were very important to my development. Special mention to the first three Apprentice Adept books.
* Spellsinger: My mom's aforementioned friend was with us when we were visiting my dad's mom. She had a book that was consistently making her laugh uproariously. It turned out to be the third of Alan Dean Foster's Spellsinger books, Day of the Dissonance. I read those first three books in reverse order (which turned out to be a bad idea, since books one and two were actually one book split into two parts, without much of a transition added) and they became just about my favorite thing ever. Mudge the otter was as bad a role model as David Lee Roth and Dan Fielding on Night Court...
* Dungeons & Dragons: A kid at school showed me how to play this, then my cousin got it for Christmas, and I was hooked. It took me a while to piece together enough books to play properly, not to mention the dice, but it took over much of my time from around 5th grade on. My brother, his friend, and later, my friend, all played every day for hours for a few months there. It was a good influence on me and I'm pleased to have returned to my 1st Edition roots in my current game!
* dinosaurs: I loved dinosaurs so much. I have a box of plastic dinosaurs somewhere. I think my mom kept the pile of dinosaur books from my childhood.
* animals in general: When I was really young, before I wanted to be a video game designer, I wanted to be a zookeeper. I thought I'd be more working with the animals than what I later realized being a zookeeper was about -- scooping poop, raising funds, etc. My desire to live like a wild man has been replaced with a desire to let the wilderness be as much as possible. To truly care about animals is to realize that they're happier without us bugging them. Heh!
* stickers: I loved collecting stickers. I started getting a series of sticker albums called Stuck on Stickers in 5th grade (maybe 4th), which I still have.
* video games: No form of entertainment drew my eye like video games. In the interest of brevity, here are the ones that particularly entranced me: Arcade: Donkey Kong, Joust, Berserk, Centipede, Gauntlet, Double Dragon; Atari: Pitfall; Mac: Dungeon of Doom; Apple ][: Aztec, Below the Root; NES: Castlevania. Boy, did I love Dungeon of Doom. That was my cousin's game (the cousin who was into D&D and Transformers), since we didn't have a Mac. My list of best classic arcade games is VERY different from that list these days, let me tell you. I really liked the bear trap guys in Donkey Kong Jr, too. We played Aztec and Below the Root on the computer at the library, as well as the Oregon Trail and a crappy game called Snooper Troops. I liked Aztec so much that I had a spiral notebook at school (5th grade) whose pages I partly filled with Aztec levels that I would traverse with my imagination. Heh! I loved my NES like it was my child, but Castlevania definitely stuck out from the crowd. I really became obsessed with becoming a video game designer for a while, designing tons of games. Alas for lost childhood dreams!
This list is up until about age 12-13. I was also into writing and drawing, particularly the latter. I have a much shorter list for high school age too. Heh! What were some of the things you guys obsessed over when you were kids?
* Star Wars: Pretty much every kid of my generation loved Star Wars. This is no big deal. I loved the monsters the most, as is generally true of my loves. I had a massive collection of Jabba the Hutt's goons. I went through a long period where I didn't even remember what happened in The Empire Strikes Back, now my favorite Star Wars movie, since HBO (or maybe Showtime) was showing Star Wars constantly, and I saw Return of the Jedi in theaters at around age 8, while I had seen The Empire Strikes Back at more like 5.
* Clash of the Titans: I still have a metal Clash of the Titans lunchbox somewhere around here. I remember my parents taking me to see it for my birthday, age 6. We came in late, when Perseus was fighting the giant scorpions, and so came back later to see it again. I had the toys for Perseus, Pegasus, and the Kraken. (The Kraken is quite rare and was going for over $200 after the crappy remake came out!)
* V: I don't remember much about my love for V, but I sure did love it. It ran two hours, one of which was after my bed-time, so I consistently missed the second half of each part. I was obsessed with seeing the monster Julie was afraid of, which turned out to be not much of anything. I even liked the series, which I've heard likened to "Dynasty with aliens."
* Transformers: I had a Transformers lunchbox too! I used to stare at the sheet that showed all the Transformers for hours, trying to make out all the details and figure out how they transformed. I distinctly remember impatiently waiting for the first episode of the cartoon to come on with my brother and cousin. I loved Ravage and Soundwave, in particular, though I got Prowl from my grandma that first year. (My poor aforementioned brother and cousin got Ratchet and Ironhide, which were just awful toys.) I saw the movie in theaters with my brother, possibly for my birthday, and it was like a religious experience. We came home and cornered the kids across the street, babbling at them madly about what we had just seen for about ten minutes. Then season 3 and the later toys came out and boy did they suck. Despite its warts, Transformers left a strong impression on me -- and judging from the internet, a lot of other people too -- unlike any of the other great 80's toylines.
* Night Court: I don't think my family and I came in until about season 2 (when I was 10?) for Night Court, but boy, did I love it. It left a strong and lasting impression on me, even the later seasons that were pretty bad.
* David Lee Roth: My mom's boy-crazy friend and her two daughters threatened to kill me once when they were staying over and David Lee Roth's video for California Girls came on, as they were fans and had not seen it yet. I somehow became a fan, and he probably wasn't a great role model. I used to say that Billy Idol was my idol (and somebody was my hero, and somebody else was my role model; I forget who, but Mr. T was probably in there), but I didn't know anything about Billy Idol at the time: it was all Dave!
* The Truth About Dragons: I loved checking out books about monsters in the library, and this one was my absolute favorite. My brother bought a copy for me off of ebay a good ten years back, and man, it really brought me back.
* The Mouse and the Motorcycle: I really loved the idea of small people (like the Littles, which was also a great series of kids' books) or mice that acted like people, and I loved the mouse more than the Motorcycle in this book. Beverly Cleary was one of my favorite authors, and this was my favorite.
* Wolfie: This was a book about a kid who catches a wolf spider and keeps it in an aquarium. It started a love of catching bugs -- flies, beetles, ants, caterpillars, etc. -- that lasted much of my youth. I loved feeding spiders and even had an Ant Farm. My mom was amazed at how I could spend hours watching bees collect pollen or yellowjackets rolling mud. Heh!
* The Secret Hideout: This was a book about kids who discover their father's secret club from when he was a kid and follow in his footsteps. It inspired a lot of attempts at making clubs or organizations from me, as well as building forts (such as they were), most of which were ruined by the apathy of my friends, something that still makes me hesitant to try and rely on other people for much of anything.
* Endless Quest books: These were the D&D pick-your-path adventures. The first six were really cool and lead me into D&D, along with the rubber toys and lead minatures. My favorite was the second, Mountain of Mirrors.
* My Side of the Mountain: This book was about a kid running off to live a year or so in the mountains, complete with how he accomplished it all. This book depicted a breed of rugged, manly kid that doesn't exist anymore. I was always saying how I wanted to run away and live in the wilderness. I don't think my mom took me seriously, but I sure did dream about it. I didn't want to get away from my family and friends or anything, mind you.
* Xanth: The first adult-length novel I read was A Spell for Chameleon by Piers Anthony. The great cover featuring a manticore entranced me and I cautiously dived into it. I'm not sure if the second book, The Source of Magic, was out yet, but the third wasn't. At any rate, these books were very important to my development. Special mention to the first three Apprentice Adept books.
* Spellsinger: My mom's aforementioned friend was with us when we were visiting my dad's mom. She had a book that was consistently making her laugh uproariously. It turned out to be the third of Alan Dean Foster's Spellsinger books, Day of the Dissonance. I read those first three books in reverse order (which turned out to be a bad idea, since books one and two were actually one book split into two parts, without much of a transition added) and they became just about my favorite thing ever. Mudge the otter was as bad a role model as David Lee Roth and Dan Fielding on Night Court...
* Dungeons & Dragons: A kid at school showed me how to play this, then my cousin got it for Christmas, and I was hooked. It took me a while to piece together enough books to play properly, not to mention the dice, but it took over much of my time from around 5th grade on. My brother, his friend, and later, my friend, all played every day for hours for a few months there. It was a good influence on me and I'm pleased to have returned to my 1st Edition roots in my current game!
* dinosaurs: I loved dinosaurs so much. I have a box of plastic dinosaurs somewhere. I think my mom kept the pile of dinosaur books from my childhood.
* animals in general: When I was really young, before I wanted to be a video game designer, I wanted to be a zookeeper. I thought I'd be more working with the animals than what I later realized being a zookeeper was about -- scooping poop, raising funds, etc. My desire to live like a wild man has been replaced with a desire to let the wilderness be as much as possible. To truly care about animals is to realize that they're happier without us bugging them. Heh!
* stickers: I loved collecting stickers. I started getting a series of sticker albums called Stuck on Stickers in 5th grade (maybe 4th), which I still have.
* video games: No form of entertainment drew my eye like video games. In the interest of brevity, here are the ones that particularly entranced me: Arcade: Donkey Kong, Joust, Berserk, Centipede, Gauntlet, Double Dragon; Atari: Pitfall; Mac: Dungeon of Doom; Apple ][: Aztec, Below the Root; NES: Castlevania. Boy, did I love Dungeon of Doom. That was my cousin's game (the cousin who was into D&D and Transformers), since we didn't have a Mac. My list of best classic arcade games is VERY different from that list these days, let me tell you. I really liked the bear trap guys in Donkey Kong Jr, too. We played Aztec and Below the Root on the computer at the library, as well as the Oregon Trail and a crappy game called Snooper Troops. I liked Aztec so much that I had a spiral notebook at school (5th grade) whose pages I partly filled with Aztec levels that I would traverse with my imagination. Heh! I loved my NES like it was my child, but Castlevania definitely stuck out from the crowd. I really became obsessed with becoming a video game designer for a while, designing tons of games. Alas for lost childhood dreams!
This list is up until about age 12-13. I was also into writing and drawing, particularly the latter. I have a much shorter list for high school age too. Heh! What were some of the things you guys obsessed over when you were kids?