I saw these two kits at Toys R Us and I had to have them. They are reissues of classic kits I built as a kid in the 1970’s. Although these were the only 2 in the store, the line also contained Frankenstein and Dracula but some peeking around online showed that TRU only carried these two. I have no clue if the others were reissued but if the were, I want them. As a kid I built all the monster models, including the glow in the dark versions, like Godzilla with his glowing hands and scales. So when I saw them on the shelf I snatched them up and ran to the register. Best part? They were on clearance- 50% off! I got them for $5.98 each! Not a bad price for a piece of my childhood.
So I learned a valuable life lesson on Thursday: It’s beyond humiliating to die on the first level of Burger Time while a 7-year old watches.
I suppose that odd epiphany merits a drop of explanation. Unfortunately you can’t get the whole story….yet. So for now, let’s just say that on Thursday, Mr. B and I had cause to be in a certain New Jersey town for a certain appointment, which we will definitely both be writing about in the near future when we are able. And during our stay in that certain town, we passed the coolest vintage arcade, where I beclowned myself in front of a slackjawed kid.
This was the coolest old-school arcade, they had all the BEST games from when I was a kid:
So of course, I basically dragged Mr. B in. Not that he needed much convincing, I could barely tear him away from the Turbo machine when it was time to go.
I was a fat, four-eyed nerdy kid with a big mop of unkempt hair (I’ve changed plenty over the years – I’m going bald) but when I walked into the arcade, it was my dojo and I was the black belt star pupil. I’d go for an hour on Centipede, or beat you in Street Fighter 2 faster than you could say Hadoken Shoryuken! How good was I at these things – any and all of these things? Let’s put it this way: I beat Street Fighter 2 on one quarter using Zangief – and I didn’t once use his spinning piledriver. Now you probably had a life, so the last paragraph was gibberish for you, I’ll translate: I WAS THAT. DAMN. GOOD.
So I swagger in, still on a high from that certain appointment, and I see all my old favorites, and I’m so excited……until I start to play.
And die. And die. And die.
The fail started quick, when I lasted all of 20 seconds on Donkey Kong Jr. I mean c’mon, I do complicated data mining operations every day at work, and I couldn’t get any traction on this:
And it wasn’t just rust either. In successive order, I was quickly dispatched on the following: Spy Hunter, Double Dragon, Alien Syndrome, Mario Brothers, and Zaxxon, before bottoming out on Burger Time in front of the kid.
It’s kind of deflating to be defeated by primitive pattern-based 1981 programming. I rallied at the end with a good run on Mrs. Pac-Man (kind of a gimmie really, but I needed some something to salve my ego)
I suppose I enjoyed playing all those cool old games from my youth again, but stinking up the joint (and paying for the privilege) kind of takes the bloom off the rose. So what did I do? I went home and proceeded to get absolutely skunked at Call of Duty on my X-box. Some days you just can’t catch a break!
In the meantime, there’s a Donkey Kong kill screen coming up if you’re interested:
Mr. Blog's Tepid Ride 
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