As a child we would all make-believe we were prince’s and princesses. Cops and robbers. Cowboys and Indians. In the late 60s and 70s we chose to be astronauts. We grew up surrounded by movies, comics and stories brimming with science-fiction themes. In those early days of space travel and the Apollo program, toy-shops were full of robots and rockets. Science was the stuff that dreams are made of.
Whenever we got a toy we would play with it all day long. If it broke, we would keep it in our collection and use it in our imaginative play as battle-damaged. We would inspect it closely and we tried to figure out how it worked. All too often taking a robot apart and attempting to put it back together. There were always pieces left over. But that didn’t matter.
Twenty five years on, as an adult, I can still recall the excitement, smell, texture and magic of discovering a new item. But that recollection is something much stronger than mere nostalgia for the toys that had once fired my childish imagination for many many years.
One of the curious attractions of rediscovery lies in re-noticing the colour and texture of the material, and the insane eye for detail with which many were made. I never fail to be astonished at the idea of toy companies of yesteryear investing so much passion, technology and high quality material in creating a toy space station computer control centre, let alone a radio-controlled robot. It is probably this design approach that makes them more than mere toys, giving them solidarity and material presence that comes across even in two dimensional graphics and photographs.
Many technological advances that were once confined to the field of dreams and all possibilities are now within our grasp and more are yet to come as the century progresses. Little did we imagine in those early days when a pencil stuck in the back of a pencil case became a space-age walkie-talkie, that our children would soon be chatting on their mobile phone on every street corner.
This care .. this passion .. this love seems to be missing from the creations of today.
My new interest is called Space Patrol Car. And we believe in creating with fanatical care. Most of us understand that a great idea can change the world. But when it is done in a Delorean it's so much better. Put the k back into creativity.
