'Playing' with your figures

[Hopper]

Bit of an odd one this, and a little philosophical. I was mulling over this driving back from France yesterday.

As youngsters we all played with our figures for hours on end, putting them into various scenarios, pitting groups against each other, sorting missions for them, killing and resurrecting them over and over. The ability to 'play' in this way is a characteristic of children, who can do it for hours, as anyone with a child will tell you.

Now (and I am aware here that I may be speaking for myself, but I suspect not) I no longer do this. My figures are all neatly put into a box in the loft, where one day soon I will put them on display. And I will then, occasionally, pull them out, 'pretend play' with them, make them into dioramas, etc, and put them back... in a very 'adult' and 'mature' manner.

At what stage did we grow out of imaginative play? When we mature, our brains seem to cease to be able to do this - I cannot 'pretend' that my figures are 'real' and play in the way in which I used to, my brain wont let me. I am pretending to play, not actually doing so. I have lost that ability.

So, cutting this rambling post into 2 points:
1) An observation: it is both interesting and a little sad that we lose the ability to play imaginatively when we reach puberty.
2) A question: How do the members of BFTB 'play' with the their figures? Dioramas, or has anyone still retained the ability to play? If so, what is your secret?

[wolforrest]

Very true, In my youth I would play in the back garden with my Action Force for hours. I still remember the scenarios and jungle warfare to this day. Then in my teenage years I brought an air rifle and took great delight shooting the figures off my garden fence, especially the Joes which would explode on impact! Then in my mid twenties I brought a complete Gi joe Barbecue figure from Ebay and the collecting began. I have never been able to play like I did as a boy but i take great pleasure out of looking at my collection and remembering a life less complicated and filled with sun filled memories. Plus I now get to waffle on to you guys whom seem to understand my madness lol

[action-figure-supplies]

I was thinking the same thing whilst I was sorting through my Action Man collection at the weekend, I always think I'll get them out and play with them but I never do and I rarely play with AF figures for more than a couple of minutes. I guess it's that nagging thought at the back of your mind that you should be doing something grown up like washing the car or fixing something.

[stkhlmdk]

I had some great battles when I was a kid but I dont feel like I have ever lost that "imaginative" touch. I know my collection is set up on shelves but I continously think of ways I would love to display my stuff and occasional take figures down to make mock-ups and take a DIO shot or two.

The main problem for me is space, my collection is simply outgrowing my office (damn those angled ceilings!) and as the two kids grow up I also have to secure some of the rare pieces. If I didnt care about the value I am sure my son and I could create some insane battles when he gets older I am keeping a bunch of figures and vehicles from the childhood collections I pick up so he can get at least some of the same toys as his dad.

[Thundershot]

What's the point of having all these toys if you don't play with 'em?

[Hopper]

What's the point of having all these toys if you don't play with 'em?

Couldn't agree more - which is why I stay away from MOC/MISB (that and the expense!)

I can play imaginatively, but not in the way that I used to, where I would literally be absorbed for hours, acting out different scenarios with the figures and vehicles and actually involving myself in their world, an almost living world of my creation.
Also doing this with mates; I can't imagine doing this now with my friends, not even with any of you equally deranged specimens who actually share my obsession!

Yeah, there is definitely a nostalgia-tinged element to my collecting! And a sense of trying to recapture the carefree time spent playing for playing's sake!

[Thundershot]

My thoughts exactly, I couldn't of put it any better.

[Quickfire]

"A man's maturity is to have regained the seriousness he had as a child at play."

As translated from Beyond Good and Evil by

[Hopper]

Who knew Freddy was Ironblood's real name!
And I love the idea of Quickfire camped out in the Galapagos hunched over a pile of 19th Century philosophy - self improvement indeed.

[Quickfire]

Who knew Freddy was Ironblood's real name!
And I love the idea of Quickfire camped out in the Galapagos hunched over a pile of 19th Century philosophy - self improvement indeed.

The sojourn was not without profit. As Thomas Mann so rightly pointed out in Nietzsches Philosophie und im Lichte unserer Erfahrung, Nietzsche was an aphorist without a centre, conditioned by "einem einzigen, alles durchdringenden Grundgedanken."

But as Karl Von Clausewitz pointed out, everything is about the schwerpunkt and the centre of gravity of yourself and your opponent.

Thus posing the question, if you're hanging onto a rising balloon, you're presented with a difficult decision: let go before it's too late, or hang on and keep getting higher, how long can you keep a grip on a rope?

Baudrillard or was it Deleuze said something of moment in this regard, mainly about 's potentially sensitive crimes, but this is a family friendly forum and so it shall be forgotten.

Basically it's a case of Sein zum Tode.

Yet the Forum is itself a manifestation of the toys being played with in the manner of a most serious child. At a certain level.

Probably why it got broken once or twice.