...
so I said, with honesty, "Sorry, I don't know what you're talking about."
With which she replied, "Well, you shouldn't be working in the toy department should you?"

I'm 20. My toy tastes date back to the 90s when toys were at their peak cool (G1 and 2 Transformers, the original Ninja Turtles figures, the premiere of the Nintendo Gameboy) Yugioh toys are not cool. Transformers these days are crappy (they have cars shaped as humanoids that transform into... humanoid robots) Lego made one of their biggest deficits last year. So its not my fault. I don't know anything about toys these days, just because they're not cool. Th coolest thing I'll recommend though are the Aquapets and the 5-in-1 Kid's art board.

Aquapets are these little ugly but cute midgety aliens in little, filled up tubes who flinch, twist and squirm when you press a button. It also plays some tune. That is cool.

The 5-in-1 board thingy, I'm not too sure of, but its educational, it doesn't suffocate the kids today with the mainstream toy business, plus it inspires creativity in them. If they don't use it as a weapon.

Other toys worthy of mention is the Star Wars 3 Scout Walker lego. Priced at only approximately $12.95, supplied with a trooper and a model resembling episode 5 & 6's AT-ST (All Terrain Scout Transport) aka Chicken Walker. That is the ultimate cool.

Which also reminds me how CCGs (Collectable Card Games) also totally suck now. Yugioh is stupid. If you wanna win, you just gotta be damn rich and get all these madass broken cards (e.g. Play Magic: Destroy All Creatures... I mean wtf???) What happened to developing strategies and utilising the weaknesses of cards that aren't so great? Pokemon relied too much on chance (coin flipping) so basically there is no structure to win. Hell, a Fossil set Geodude can kick 6 basic Pokemon in one shot if you're lucky with the coin.

And finally, Magic The Gathering. The game that was destroyed by Hasbro. When I first played it, I had this warm fuzzy feeling of entering a fantasy world, like when you first sit through a LOTR trilogy marathon (the fuzzy feeling not being the absolutely sickness you feel from watching it too much) Each unfamiliar card had some magic instilled in it; the smell of fresh or worn cards was extremely inviting, and you could easily fall into the fantasy world of Magic.

After the takeover, Hasbro gave it a new look (some people probably wouldn't even notice it) and it just looks... shit. It just lost the feel. It didn't feel like we were part of a culture; it felt like we are part of a fad. Maybe its just the sentimentality of the original Magic expansions. I think I left it off at Urza's Destiny or Mercadian Masques (Destiny: arguably one of the best sets to invest in, especially for green cards)

Either way, the memories of playing Magic will forever be in my heart. Magic has lead me to so many things in my teenage years, including friends, talking strategies, business ideas, being cheeky and playing during Maths... we should dedicate one day in the holidays purely to catch up on Magic. With out original decks, and we'll get sealed decks at EB or something.

Geek with no shame, signing off.