Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Holiday Memory Fun Time

I was reading an article today about a return to "classic" toys this season since there is not a "must have" toy this year (did I drive all around northeast Ohio in 1996 looking for a Tickle Me Elmo for myself? Yes. Yes I did.) and also because no one has any money.

This reminded me of the greatest classic toy of all time which is, of course, Domino Rally. For those who are either to young or too old to have any memory of this masterpiece, Domino Rally was a toy where you would set up a couple hundred dominoes in an elaborate pattern and then knock them all down.

The product itself was a piece of crap. The dominoes were injection molded plastic and hollow on one side. They were also way too thin and it was an enormous chore to get them to stand up and stay up. We eventually took to taking out every 10th domino or so until we were ready to avoid having the whole thing come down before it was finished, usually due to vibrations from someone walking around in another room. It was hours of painstaking and often frustrating work, for about a 20 second payoff, and even that never went according to plan. The knock down always stalled on the included bridge due to it's poor design, and also here and there along the line since we were little kids and sucked at spacing. We loved it. It was the go to holiday game for Cap, Simmy, Kelly, me, and occasionally our two younger cousins when we let them play (we were afraid that since they were younger they would knock stuff down. Because we weren't knocking everything down ourselves already.). It was a mixed blessing for the adults in that while it kept us quiet and occupied for most of the day, the only place we could set it up was on the kitchen floor where people were trying to cook for 20 guests. We played this at just about every holiday until we were old enough for more awesome games like Crack the Case, despite the fact that in all that time we were never once successful.

Who else had a crappy-ass toy they were in love with?

Bryan, is our failure at Domino Rally what led you into engineering? Because that would be awesome.

3 comments:

S.Vincent said...

one year, my parents got me a 6lb baby sister to play with. All she did was cry and poop and her humor function was broken. I got bored with her after 2-3 months and stashed her in cardboard box in the basement labeled "old toys". I wonder what ever happened to it?

Anonymous said...

yeah, bryan thought he'd be able to fill the world with a domino rally that would dominate the world, but instead designs planes with flexible wings. or whatever it is that he does.

a-member the weight-and-chain thingy that was supposed to go up and down and continue the path of domino destruction? yeah, that never worked. god, it was a cheap game. i never realized it until reading down memory lane today. the least they could have done was actually put some weight into the actual dominos, right?

it was a step up from the town built of pennies, though, right?

you'll be missed at turkey day!

ps -- relating to an ealier post, why order the wine that 'tastes most like candy'? just order the non-wine. that stuff still rocks! in fact, i might request a glass for missy elliot...

amberance said...

S.Vincent - They probably threw the box out when it started to stink. Which is a shame, cuz build-a-baby skeleton is a fun game. Um, I've heard.

simmy - I thought he made flying inner tubes. I'll ask him this weekend. I kinda liked town built of pennies; you guys must have had $1,000 in pennies in the basement. I sometimes get the non-wine for myself at home, but at a restaurant they make me pretend like I'm a grown up. Also it makes me laugh to ask for it cuz it's funny. I think it is definitely time Elliot got addicted to pretend wine. It's never too early to start!