Comments on: Boys’ Toys

By: Niklaus Pfirsig

Niklaus Pfirsig — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 17:11:36 +0000

I agree with NINJUN09 and G.F.Brunner.
When I was a child, my mother was of the opinion that violent toys were bad, so instead of toy guns as such, I eas given a large set of American Bricks. Although similar to Legos in concept, American Bricks featured a slightly different design from legos that permitted more ways to interlock the blocks and I made brick buildings, I made brick guns, I made brick airplanes and bombers with little brick bombs, and brick spaceships.
I did not grow up to be a weapons designer or a soldier or a serial killer. Years ago, when looking for toys for my sons, I was surprised to find that modern construction sets are very limited in what you can build with them. I looked at link-its and legos, construx, bionicle, robotix, capsela and others. The most impressive buildit toy I found was geomags which are now scattered throughout the house.

I don’t think the toys teach violence. Violence is learned from friends and parents. My dislike is the specialisation of the kits. It is more important to build a rough model of anything you can imagine than to build a refined model of a few things someone else imagined.

By: NINJUN09

NINJUN09 — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 19:48:39 +0000

The guy’s exaggerating. I’m a kid and play with Bionicles, actually, I must own half the global stock. I also am a fan of Exo-Force, and I’m NOT walking ’round the neighborhood, blasting everyone with my dad’s gun. I also recently discovered the site BrickGun, and I’m impressed. I’m still not a serial killer. See? We can play with toys that implicate slight violence without becoming a hell-bent murderer. Just chill, man.

By: G.F.Brunner

G.F.Brunner — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 07:01:05 +0000

The real sad thing are not those weapons but the specialisation of those kits especially those lego kits, in my childhood there are only rectangular plain bricks,some 45 degree ones that could be used for roofs and wheels that we used for any kind of vehicle. we use the same brick to build anything that we can imagine without any restrictions that come from special designed parts as they used today.
Yes if we want to have weapons we simply use plain branches from nearby trees and our imagination let us have a machine gun at range and if the opponents close in the same weapon become a sword because fighting with
branches in sword style is more realistic than using them as a gun and yell “Bang!”
Even if the build of arms led into pewter six guns with black powder ammo for the real bang we rely on
our proven wood sticks at close range if the ammo run out.

By: Boy monkeys prefer boy toys | Dangerous Intersection

Boy monkeys prefer boy toys | Dangerous Intersection — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 07:00:10 +0000

[...] See also, this related post: Boys’ Toys [...]

By: grumpypilgrim

grumpypilgrim — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 15:41:44 +0000

gatomjp says, “You cannot sell people something they don’t want.”

While I agree with that statement, it ignores the fact that what people want is highly susceptible to influence and manipulation. If this were not the case, the huge global advertising industry would not exist. As long as humans are vain, ambitious, egotistical, greedy, stupid, hypocritical, etc., advertisers will find ways to push their buttons. Just this morning, I saw a television advertisement for a huge SUV that the ad referred to as “fuel-efficient.” The ad then touted the ability of this SUV to pull a trailer loaded with a pair of jet skis. How anyone could overlook the absurdity of “fuel efficient” being used to describe a monster SUV pulling jet skis is beyond me, but some ad agency, and its client, must have believed it would fly. Given the hypocrisy with which many Americans view their conspicuous consumption, it no doubt will, at least with some viewers.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 07:46:18 +0000

Toys aren’t at all the problem. Having been to Japan, I can tell you children have been watching cartoons with far more death and violence since the ’80s than we show to our own here now in the U.S. They buy and play with toys from these cartoons as well. Yet, despite this, Japan maintains an extremely low overall crime rate when compared to modern western nations such as the U.S. or Britain. Taking all of this into account, if violent toys have any effect on the development of children, it is by far outweighed by how parents raise them along with so many various cultural and environmental factors. A child is more heavily influenced by his family and friends than little colored pieces of plastic.

By: Dan Klarmann

Dan Klarmann — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 12:29:43 +0000

Combine learning with explosions: Baking soda, vinegar, and a corked bottle. Or Mentos and diet cola.

By: Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 03:19:49 +0000

Richard: It sounds a bit odd to buy violent toys for young boys and to take on the task of convincing those boys to avoid using those toys to act out violence. Why not just start with non-violent toys? Why not have our kids spending more time learning about nature and the scientific method, rather than pretending to blow up so many things?

By: richard

richard — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 19:26:18 +0000

Their just toys. kids enjoy playing with them. Tell children not to be violent. if you do this from a young age the kids wont be violent… hopfuly. These toys sell ask a supermarket

By: Dan Klarmann

Dan Klarmann — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 03:38:30 +0000

I was taking snapshots and digital video in an East Berlin subway in 2003, and was berated (in Russian, German, and finally English) by a passenger for not having first gotten permission from everyone in the train before taking pictures!
East Berlin hadn’t existed as a separate political unit for about a decade, but their subway trains are quite different from those in West Berlin. I was fascinated by how I could look down along the whole train from the inside and watch it writhe as the tunnel dipped and turned.
When I am behind a lens, I just see subjects, never individuals.