And Then Matter-Eater Lad Eats to the Rescue

Since we like odd stuff, I thought I'd feature a superhero who believes in food and knows nothing about diet at all.  No, I'm not talking about the Cookie Monster. 

People, meet Matter-Eater Lad.

Power:  The ability to eat and digest anything.  I mean, anything.
Real Name: Tenzil Kem
From the Planet: Bismoll.  A pun on Pepto-Bismoll, an over-the-counter drug for indigestion.
Why?:  Because microbes in his native planet have rendered all food inedible, so his race developed the ability to eat just about anything.  Even this keyboard.

Hate the President?  Let Matter-Eater Lad do the chowing. 

Yes, be prepared to overhaul all your preconceived notions about the superheroes in the DC universe.  Not everyone is a Batman who relies on gadgets and utility belts, or a Superman with all-purpose superpowers.  Some of them actually specialize, and turn to their digestive juices instead.   This may sound silly, especially in this age where superheroes have to be cool to make it inside a Happy Meal bag, but Matter-Eater Lad, for all his supposed appetite, has a legion of fans up till now.    

Below, an article in defense of the often-denigrated Matter-Eater Lad:

“With A Name Like Matter-Eater Lad, You KNOW He’s Got To Be Good…”

Tasty guns, anyone?

"Gail Simone, one of the best comic writers of our time, recently said something incredibly wise about the creators who claim to only want to work on the the top-of-the-line characters.  Gail’s response to this was something akin to “if they’re not first-rate characters, MAKE THEM first-rate characters.”  Her advice goes double for today’s review subject, one of the most denigrated characters of all time.  Matter-Eater Lad has never gotten any respect, sometimes not even from his fellow Legionnaires, and he’s often trotted out as an excuse for internet wags to wax poetic about how “lame” old comic-book heroes are, and how “all the good names really ARE taken, huh?”  They then go on to talk about airline food, Oprah, and how marriage means you don’t get sex anymore, am I right, guys?  In this, the Age of Irony, I feel it’s much more constructive (and more difficult) to make a case FOR a particular concept than it is to shoot it down.  Since Legionnaire Tenzil Kem is already dodging his particular slings and arrows, it behooves me to take arms on his behalf, and by opposing, end the snottiness.  Grab some popcorn and your favorite frosty beverage, while I take a few moments to explain why Matter-Eater Lad exemplifies heroism rather than emblemizing it’s failures.  This is your Major Spoilers Hero History on Tenzil Kem of Bismoll…  Matter-Eater Lad!

Matter-Eater Lad is actually one of the earliest members of the LSH, joining as #15 on their impressive roster (after the three founders [Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad, & Saturn Girl] Triplicate Girl, Phantom Girl, Superboy, Chameleon Boy, Colossal Boy, Invisible Kid, Star Boy, Brainiac 5, Supergirl, Sun Boy, Ultra Boy, Shrinking Violet, Mon-El, and Bouncing Boy) and even upon his induction, Tenzil seemed to have a slight inferiority complex.  Given that the team consisted of four guys who crush planets and then some other kids (including the girl whose power is being men’s three-way fantasy), I don’t think he should have worried…"

* * *

Maybe Matter-Eater Lad didn't pan out because they didn't know how to turn him into an salable action figure toy.  What do you do, have his action figure eat a grand piano or a railroad car to hammer the point home?  Actually, here's one where his action figure prepares to devour an Armalite.

Still, it would have been interesting to see Matter-Eater Lad make it through the decades up to the present, especially in this age of anorexia and crazy diets.

He'll still have a feast, no doubt.

Bioman Vs. the Power Rangers | And Why You Already Know the Winner

A long time ago, there was something called Mighty Morphin Power Rangers on TV.  I think I watched only a few staggered episodes and then my interest faded.  I could never memorize the characters' names, and hence could not care for them.

Then years later I chanced upon another episode of Power Rangers on TV.  But this was a different group.  It was Power Rangers SPD, and I'm thinking the PD probably stands for Police District, though the S eludes me.

The heroes and heroines made a lot of arrgh noises every time they got hit by the villains.  Arrrgh here, arrrgh there and everywhere during the battle scenes.  Okay, I get it: heavy fighting with costumed baddies hurt.

Two-thirds of the show, I was listening to the Power Rangers either arrghing or grunting or screaming or shouting or arrghing more inside their polyester suits and helmets.  It's like the more sophisticated the stunts get, the more arrgghing  there must be.

 * * *

Which is why I like the Biomen instead.  I'm a proud fan of the BioMen.  I don't like cheap knockoffs.  Cellphone companies fall over themselves trying to come up with original new designs every day, while the Power Rangers casually dress up in color-coordinated suits in the tradition of BioMan.  And they had the gall to be so heavily-merchandised for the kids.  Nice.

With Bioman, I actually cared for the characters.  I looked up to Kenny, Sammy, Franky, Casey, June and Kimberly as heroes.  I loved the fumbling helpless Peebo.  I was scared for Peebo and was hurt whenever he got hurt.  I wept when Yellow Four June died.  I sort of hoped Red 1 would court Pink 5.

And I loved (and still do) Bioman's opening theme.  Listening to it again after such a long time brings tears to my eyes.

* * *

S is for Sappy?

Update: SPD means Special Patrol Delta

The World's Largest Twister Mat

 A few weeks ago along Commonwealth Avenue, I saw a nice alternative use for an old Twister mat: a tarpaulin awning for a market stall.

I should have snapped a photo of it because now whenever I pass by, the Twister mat is no longer there, a plain old banig mat has replaced it.  Guess the owners figured out what all those colored circles are for, and took to playing the game.

 
I don't know anyone who has a Twister mat.  I don't have friends who have it, and before that apparition on Commonwealth Ave., the only times I've ever seen a Twister mat is in the movies.  Specifically, lovey-dovey movies where the boy and the girl happily entangle themselves into pretzels of bliss.  A game of Twister was excellent foreplay.  

 
During its early years, Twister was even branded by competitor toy manufacturers as "sex in a box".  Of course, that was the 60's.  Since then, we've made drastic leaps regarding our concept of personal space.


I suspect that's the reason why Twister never was a hit in the Philippines.  We're too conservative; we value our personal space.  The Catholic priests and bishops will surely frown upon girls and boys--or worst--just boys or just girls entangling themselves into pretzels of bliss.

Trivia: The original patent for Twister by game developers Chuck Foley and Neil Rabens was: an "Apparatus for Playing a Game Wherein the Players Constitute the Game Pieces.”

The Little Search Party of Three Meet Stop & Go

For some unknown reason, the impromptu search party of three find themselves in the thick of the forest.  The Little Colonel is reminiscing...

 -We were a hundred exemplary and valiant men, and now I'm the only one left of our battalion.  I know not their whereabouts or whatever happened to them.

-What battle were you fighting anyway?  

-I have no idea either.  

-Could it be you just let your men go ahead?

-Are you insinuating I'm a coward, Dinkey?

-Er, Colonel, I didn't say that.  Actually, I meant, um, well maybe you accidentally lost sight of your men, what with your perfect vision and all.

-Yes, I did mistake you for Matilda.

 















-And the golden reindeer too!  He was very pissed off.

-These new prescription glasses ought to change all that.

-Stop!!

Prodded by such urgency announced by the silver robot, the little search party of three feel compelled to stop.

   

 -Pray tell, why do we need to stop?

-And what are we supposed to stop?

-Hi, I'm a woolly mammoth!

-Just stop.  Honestly, I don't know why I keep saying stop.  It just seems the right thing to say, what with my perpetual palms-out pose.

-Oh, okay.  I'm the Little Colonel and these are my friends Dinkey and the Woolly Mammoth.

-Stop!

-What now?

-Stop that straddling of yours!

-The colonel can't help it.  He's cursed to straddle the air forever until he finds his horse.

-Her name is Matilda.

-Occasionally, newly-circumcised men have no choice but to resort to straddling too.

-Dinkey!

-Stop!

From out of nowhere, another robot materializes.

-Excuse my impertinent friend.  His name is Stop, and Hi, I'm Go.

-That's not entirely accurate.  You see, the more appropriate moniker would have been Going, as he's always in the act of going.  Anyway, it's never clear where he is to go anyway.

-You're not so sure yourself what we're supposed to stop doing!

-But it got them to stop all the same!

-The woolly mammoth isn't woolly at all, but made of paper.  Parchment paper, to be exact.

-Dinkey, I don't think they're listening.

-You keep stopping everyone, why don't you try it out on yourself for a change?

-Oh, just stop would you!

-No, you go!

-STOP!

-GO!

The two robots proceed to battle it out with each other, the bloodshed of which we cannot show here for reasons of decency. 

 

-Dinkey, I think my glasses are fogged.

Deleted Toy Story Scene | and a Lot of Confessions

Confession time: I still haven't watched the first Toy Story movie.  I know.  It's a sacrilege.  Neither Toy Story 2.   (More sacrilege.  And to think this is supposedly a toy blog.  Harhar.)  I did get to watch Toy Story 3 though, but just on DVD.  And a pirated one at that.  (Smite me now.)  And since it was the Russian version, you get those Russian alphabets from time to time.  Amazingly enough, everything else was in English. 

Anyway, even without having seen the first two movies, I still enjoyed the final (?) installment.  And now that the Golden Globe has heaped praises upon Toy Story 3 (Best Animation, no surprise there), I have this feeling I should have watched the darn thing in 3D in the first place.  

Is your decision to watch a film in 3D influenced by whether it garners awards or not?  Yet more sordid confession: I should have watched Avatar on the big screen, not just on DVD when all the hype has faded.  Avatar made me cry with big teardrops.  End of confessions.
 
Here's something from circa 1995: an animation storyboard for Toy Story, that unfortunately did not make it to the film.  

Toy Story 3, btw, is the third animated feature to ever get an Academy nomination for Best Picture, (after Beauty and the Beast and Up).  And since there were Pinoy animators who worked on the project, the Filipinos take their slice of the pie too.  No, the sun is not gone!

Onyanko Town

Ever played Onyanko Town in Famicom? (It's called Animal Town at Edge's CD-ROM, although the only animals in there are dogs and cats, and the occasional fish from the fish vendor.)  

It's fun.  You play the role of a Mother cat who must find her wayward kitten son among the maze of suburban houses while evading killer dogs.

That was what we had for a game of maze back in the days of Nintendo Famicom.  Of course, there's Jim Henson's Labyrinth* game too (based on his 1986 film ), and this is exponentially harder than Onyako Town, because let's face it Onyako Town is just a dogs-chase-cat-around-the-neighborhood gig.

One thing about the mazes in the Famicom days: your game universe had boundaries that you can't get past no matter what, or else had no boundaries at all--in which case you walked into one end of the screen and emerged out of the other.

(Think of Neo, trapped in the eternal loop of the Mobil Ave railroad station in the Matrix--Mobil being an anagram for Limbo.)

* * *

When I first played Grand Theft Auto, I didn't follow the prescribed procedures of gameplay.  

I simply hijacked a nice cool-looking car and drove off as fast as I can and explored the game universe, wondering how far do I have to drive before I hit the artificial boundaries that would stop me on my tracks.  Naturally, I got tired even before I hit any of those boundaries, if there ever were.


Sandbox games, where were you when I was a kid?

 _______________
* Jennifer Connelly played the role of Sarah in Labyrinth, while David Bowie with androgynous disheveled hair played the role of the Goblin King.

Goodbye Piracy with New Sony PS3 Serial Codes?

Three things are certain now: death, taxes, and piracy.

After iPhone hacker GeoHot broadcasted PS3 root keys online--for everyone--including game pirates--to grab, Sony is now doing some damage control.

Their solution: PC-like serial codes which players will be required to key in to successfully launch the game.  From now on, all Sony game discs will carry a unique serial code, which can be inputted up to five (5) times only.

Hopefully, this will prevent not only game piracy but discourage trading of second-hand game titles as well.  Now, retailers will be wary, being unsure of how many times the serial code has been keyed in by the trading customer.

But are serial codes for the PS3 really an effective deterrent to game piracy?  Edge Magazine says that, for years, PC game titles have employed the serial code method but crafty hackers still found their way around it.  

At the end of the day, they feel that the biggest losers would be the gamers who purchased the legit Sony game titles, which they can neither sell or trade.  A dilemma indeed.

Trust the Japanese to Know Cool Toys | Toys List in Video Form

There's 49 of them cool toys in this video.

Trust the Japanese to know cool when it comes to toys.  Heck, we'll forever be grateful to them for giving us Famicom and Gameboy and Wii, and game titles such as Super Mario Bros., and the insatiable Pacman, and a host of other video games that made our childhood all the more fun.  And who can forget the Tamagotchi too?  But they just never stop, and instead keep on giving and giving.


I bet it'd be such bliss to visit a toy store--any toy store--in Japan.   Makes you wish you were in Japan.  I bet it'd be nicer if I can spend the night in said toy store after closing time.  

Wait, I take that back--I'm still haunted by that episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark? where the pinball-machine-obssessed boy gets trapped inside a mall at closing time.  Later he later finds out that he has become a player in the giant pinball machine which is the entire mall, and he must elude the bad guys and play forever and ever.

The Little Mermaid Turns into a Fruit Preserve

Overheard from a little girl at Toy Kingdom:

"This is  is Cinderella, This is Marmalade, This is Snow White."

Sure. :)

Baby Rooms

I've made some updates to the following baby pages. Please check them out:
Baby Savings - Huggies Diaper Coupons

Baby Rooms - Round Cribs, Rocking Chairs for Nursery, Babies Bedding

If America Were a Game of Monopoly

And now for something political, satirical, and a real good dose of creative writing:

If America Were a Game of Monopoly

The Ateneans Disguise Themselves | Cosplay Event

Happily Bankrupt at Monopoly | & Why You May or May Not Love the New Monopoly Revolution

 Now they have Monopoly Revolution, featuring a "revolutionary" circular game board, fake credit cards, and matching sound effects from the electronic banker--there's a chugging train for instance, when you land on Reading Railroad, or a door slamming on your face when you're sent to Jail.

And listen to this--Monopoly Revolution even plays music from the past five decades.  So one minute you're hearing Rhianna's Umbrella, the next Queen is declaring "I want to ride my bicycle."

No doubt, there's a lot of getting used to with the new Monopoly Revolution.

Thing You'll Miss About the Old-School Monopoly Boardgame

1. The tangible feel of cold cash in your hands, especially when you're on the receiving end.  There is still something to be said for counting physical cash, you know.


2. No more cards to flip over.  The Chance and Community Chest  cards are now rendered electronically.    (Said one person about the Community Chest cards, "...I hope they are updated. If I win a beauty contest, I want a lot more than $100.00.")

3. Now that there's electronic banking, no chance of cheating,

4.  You can't boast to the other players about how fat your wad of cash is.  Let's see you try that with a credit card.

5. With the classic Monopoly, it feels like you're really traveling from end to end.  In Revolution, true to its name, it feels like you're just going in circles.

6. No more tokens in the shape of a racecar, thimble, top hat, etc.

But hey, Hasbro is just keeping up with the times.  [Check out If America Were a Game of Monopoly].

The best places to own a property in Monopoly:  

Illinois Avenue, 
New York Avenue, 
B&O Railroad, 
& Reading Railroad


The least-landed-upon places:  
Mediterranean Avenue & Baltic Avenue.  

: : . .

Journal entry four years ago (May 25, 2007): 

"Played Monopoly yesterday, me, my sister Van, and Edge.  Haven't played that game in a good while.

When we were young and school was suspended because of typhoons with women's names, my cousins and I used to Monopoly.  We'd dressed up in our best heavy sweaters, nonchalant that there'd be tomorrow and that school uniforms would then have to be worn back.

There was urgency of the Monopoly board in front of us, and the dice and our tokens, and the crinkly paper bills in our hands.  Back then, I lamented the fact that my sister and I had to visit next door every time, just to play Monopoly with our cousins, because they happened to own it.
 

Now, more than a decade later, sharing funds with Edge, I finally get around to buying the darn board game.
 
And yesterday, I lost big time.  But, what with all the shrieks and laughter and nervous rolling of the dice, getting bankrupt has never been this fun."

: : . .

At Amazon, they're slashing the price of Monopoly Revolution by as much as 56%, from $39.99 to $17.65.  Don't worry; the classic old-school Monopoly boardgame is still around if your purist tendencies won't let you sleep.

Maybe I Should Have Bought that Dinosaurs Sticker Album After All

The canteen in my old Mater Carmeli school sold snacks, school supplies--and Panini sticker albums.  I wonder if it's still around, the sticker albums, not the canteen.   On the glossy-paged album, you stick on the dinosaur stickers, which you also have to buy per piece to complete the book.  Otherwise, you end up with just blank white spaces of dinosaur outlines.  

It's kind of an extinction in reverse: you buy the album with just an empty ancient terrain and then one by one you stick on the dinosaurs and bring them back to life.

Somehow, I still remember the name Panini even if I never bought the album nor the dinosaur stickers.  The knight with the looong jousting stick was kinda hard to forget too.  I wanted that sticker album so badly back then, but it never occurred to me to save up for it. 

My cousin Ryan had it good; he was a proud owner of that album of my dream--out of sheer frugality probably or maybe because his parents just gave him more pocket money each day.

The Panini dinosaur sticker albums preceded the dinosaur animated film Land Before TimeJurassic Park.  My childhood was full of dinosaurs, it seems.  Land Before Time made me cry (and want the Little Foot toy), while Jurassic Park had my jaw dropping in amazement.  Man, those were a lot and the landmark film of running dinosaurs on the field. 


When you're that young and dinosaurs appear onscreen, in full living, breathing detail, they're scaly skins up close even, their movements rendered as scientifically accurate as possible--your jaws will drop.  The old sticker album is now really brought to life.  Things will never be the same again. 


Nowadays, kids don't have that.  They don't have a point of reference; they don't have a past to look back to and compare with the now.  Sure, they can watch the old copies of movies and compare, but it's a different thing.  There's simply no transition to awe, not like the first time you saw Jurassic Park back in 1993, the same way they'll never know what the cassette-tape days or Famicom days or rotary telephone days were like.  So we're lucky, in a way.

Now I feel as old as a dinosaur.

He-Man! | This Used to Be My Favorite Toy #6

So I got my friend Jada to ask her friends about their favorite toy, and they were cool about it.  Thank you, Jada, and to your friends.

Here's one from Durbin:

"He-Man action figure - it made me smile because it was a present to me by my lola (grandmother) who raised me, and also i had fun playing with it."

* * *

Somehow, He-Man is the only guy with close-to-bursting muscles that I don't find repellent.   

* * *

Durbin, I took the liberty of posting a He-Man toy pic right off the web.  What are the chances it's the same exact action figure you have? Thanks again.

The Toys of Peace | by Saki

What?  Saki, the author of the short story Tobermory, was British and not Japanese?!

Okay, disbelief over.  But seriously, I had no idea the guy wasn't Japanese. 

It's one of those moments of mistaken identity that really shakes up my paradigm and my other long-held beliefs.  Like when I discovered Jordan Sparks wasn't a guy after all--but a woman.  And that it's not Jordan, but Jordin.  Etc.


Back to Saki, aka H. H. Munro (or Hector Hugh Munro).  You'll love his Tobermory--whatever your feelings are about cats--especially ones trained to talk.   

And since this is supposedly a toy blog, Saki has a short story too about toys.

In the story an uncle presents to his unimpressed nephews their unlikely toys--experimental and totally peaceable.

"It's a municipal dust-bin," he says, hoping to take their mind off violent guns and miniature soldiers.

But of course, you know what happens to experiments.

Read The Toys of Peace

How Green is Your Toy?

Now that eco-awareness is all the rage, eco-toys like Green Toys --the wonderful brainchild of Robert von Goeben* and Laurie Hyman* --are becoming popular and relevant.  And Green Toys look cool too!

Things You Ought to Know about Green Toys:


1. They'are made from recycled plastic milk jugs.

2. Because they reuse already-existing materials, they help reduce fossil fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions that would have otherwise resulted from manufacturing new ones.

3. Green Toys do NOT contain harmful BPA and PVC toxins usually found in some children's toys.

4. As a result, they're 100% safe. (You won't have to worry about kids putting toys in their mouth.)

5. Green Toys have a whole line of classic toy vehicles, toy kitchenware, toy building blocks, outdoor toys, and toys for babies and toddlers.  They have everything covered.



Eco-awareness--whether it be in the form of a red firetruck, a green recycling truck, or a complete dining set from Green Toys--might not mean anything to your little tykes just yet, but over time they'll learn what a simple eco-toy can do for the environment.

With Green Toys, you know both you and your kid are doing your share in saving the planet.  And, hey, it's always nice to start them early. 


___________

*Robert von Goeben's all-time favorite toy is the Bing Bang Boing.
*Laurie Hyman's all-time favorite toy is the Gnip, Gnop.



Green Toys

Hand Puppet Toy Your Way Into My Eco-Responsible Heart

The hand puppet toys of my childhood were either made of old socks or brown paper bags.  

The former tended to stink, while the latter tended to shred.

But gee, these hand puppets from Canadian-based company Cate & Levi are made from old repurposed wool sweaters. 

 

Because it's reclaimed wool, you know you're doing the planet a favor.  Also, each hand-made hand puppet--whether it be a walrus or a monkey or a frog, or a dog--is totally unique.  There's no-two-alike, and with all that colors going for it, definitely not a boring personality.  (There are 10 animal hand puppets in the collection, by the way.)

If there's anything that kids should be busy with instead of their PSP's and Xbox, it's toys like this that let them unleash their imagination.  Ideally, you should buy two, so you can get in on the act.

And hey, to make matters all the better (or noicer, a word I recently discovered), 10% of the profits for every purchase of these Cate & Levi hand puppets is given to charity.  

You're buying an eco-toy, check.

You're helping a charity, check.

You and your kid are having fun, check.

Now excuse me because I need to wash my dirty socks.

* * * 
How 'bout a dose of absolutely non-commercial eco-friendly toys?

Be Evil with a Toy SpongeBob

Something from the 80's: Elevator Action and other Famicom Games

No, not that kind of elevator action, silly.

We're talking Elevator Action, the 80's Family Computer arcade game involving, well, elevators. 

1.  Yes, there was a time when video game graphics looked crude, the storyline basic, the sound tinny, and everything else was hopelessly 2D.  
 


2. Apparently, you're not a burglar breaking in a building in Elevator Action, as I had previously thought.  Instead, you are a spy out to steal top-secret documents from inside the red doors.

Retro Famicom bag

3. Our Family Computer was sent to us by Uncle El who was working in Japan.  We still have the Famicom, now abandoned and yellowing in a drawer.  The game titles he sent along included the classic Super Mario Bros., Dragon Buster (one of the first games to feature a life bar), Labyrinth (based on the Jim Henson film), Gradius, a racing game called Final Lap, Dragon Slayer IV: Drasle Family, and an inscrutably hard-to-play game called Hydlide Special.

4.  The 80's was considered the Golden Age of Arcade Games, and man, me and my sis, and my cousins had a blast taking turns with the controllers.  (Or rather, it was more of hogging the controller.)  Back then, the controllers were ruthlessly rectangle, not ergonomic at all, but that didn't stop us from developing hand and eye coordination.

5. Those were single-title game cartridges.  Later on, the 100 in 1 or 300 in 1 game cartridges came to being, which made more sense.  I remember swapping cartridges with classmates.  They loaned me Ice Climber, Balloon Fight, Goonies, Mickey Mouse, and a really scary Friday the 13th.  Of course, my all-time favorite was Street Fighter, and Super Mario 3 (sent again by Uncle El).


6.  Thirty years later and China-made DVD players throw in a free CD with as many as 300 games included--all the beloved titles I've come to love as a kid.  Seems like no one's suing regarding copyright issues.  Titles like Battle City, Contra, Rockman, Pacman, Legend of Kage, Popeye, Yie Ar Kungfu, Dig Dug, Ice Climber, and yes, Elevator Action too--now made available in CD form, although there still is something to be said for the bulky cartridges of the 80's.

7. That spy in Elevator Action has a name, or rather a codename: Otto, and the black-clad guys chasing him with guns apparently aren't  police officers but enemy agents.  Sure, burglars look cool, riding up and down elevators, evading bullet.  But come to think of it, spies are cooler.

8.  Elevator Action is one of the few video games in its era with an enjoyable soundtrack,composed by Yoshino Imamura.  Other arcade games had loud, annoying, intolerable soundtracks, it makes you wonder if they had intially tested it with bats.  

9. Of course, in my opinion, the game with the best and most memorable soundtrack is Super Mario 3, composed by Koji Kondo.  

10. I've never been comfortable riding an elevator.

Alone with Jackstones | This Used to Be My Childhood Toy #5

Jackstones!

From Jen, who jumped right in, less than 24 hours after I told her about my little toy-related favor:  Thanks, Jen! [nice photo on the left, her choice too.]

"

When I was young I like playing with Jackstones. I think it's mostly because I can have a lot of fun playing it even if I'm alone. I was my self's only playmate so there are only a few toys that I cannot get tired of so easily.

Jackstone is a challenging game especially when the jacks are either so close together or so far away that I will have difficulty picking the right number of jacks before the ball bounces back to the ground for the second time. 

"

* * *

Apparently, Jackstones is one of the oldest games around, dating back hundreds of years ago.  

Every time you pick up that ball and play with jackstones then, you're participating in a centuries-old game of little kids back when toy stores were unheard of and all you had for toys are the tiny things in the house and your imagination.

Can't get enough of Jackstones? 

http://www.inquiry.net/outdoor/games/beard/jack_stones.htm

Yes, You Heard Right--Free Play at SM Cyberzone!

Happening on January 30 at the 4/F Annex of SM North EDSA: 

Launch of the partnership between SM Cyberzone and Datablitz,

with free play featuring Electronic Arts' latest game titles.

Retro Toy: Gnip Gnop

...or Ping Pong spelled backwards.  
Something from the 70's by Parker Brothers.

And three decades later reincarnated and updated by Fundex Games into this: