Re: Sigh

[larrys@zk3.dec.com]

>Actually, if anyone else has any dino-toy memories
>and experiences to share, I'd appreciate hearing them -- one of several
>papers I need to complete over the next few weeks is a study of how toys can
>effect kids' perception of science

Hmmmmmm.  My first dinosaur set must have come to me in my low
single digits - say, around 1964-65.  It did _not_ have a rust
monster or bulette.  It _did_ include a mammoth, but he came
with several plastic caves and cavemen (and one cavewoman) along
with some plastic trees and shrubs as part of an expansion set,
so the dinosaurs were more or less pure.  There are two iterations
of them, on different scales, different colors, different dies
used.  Apatosaurus is marked brontosaurus, edmontosaurus is marked
trachodon, pterosaurs are always in a crouching bat-like pose.  All
drag their tails (very convenient for the stability of the toys,
I'm sure, which may be why they are slow to change).  One set
included a plesiosaur I've not seen elsewhere since.  Another
included a not-very-formidible looking allosaur, who looks more
like he's about to beg table scraps than tear into living prey.
I have one t-rex who closely resembles the deep-bodied version in
that mural whose artist's name escapes me now, the others are more
"natural" looking.  I can recall endless hours working with these,
setting up dioramas - in fact, I can recall a determined effort to
set one up with the dinosaurs segregated by the respective periods,
each with a little name-tag.  And I still have them, too.  I can
also recall how impressed my grandmother was that I could remember
and pronounce all those hard names.  :)  I seldom used them for
"play" though - my dinosaurs never had massive battles or ate
cavemen.

My interest was rekindled years later with "The Hot-Blooded Dinosaurs",
which was the first I'd heard about the changes to the old theories. I
bought and read it in one session, and found that, while some of the
details needed work, the vision the book communicated made dinosaurs
a lot more _real_, as if they were real animals that could have existed
in a functioning ecosystem.  From the sluggish, slow-moving behemoths
to the modern concept of the speedy and successful dinosaur in one go.

How they affected me, I find it hard to say.  I've always been interested
in science, and never had any use for religion, and aside from dinosaurs
I was keen on almost any aspect of science I could latch onto, from as-
tronomy to chemistry, traits I still hold to a large degree - and which
served me good stead when genetics and evolution suddenly hopped over the
fence from biology to computer science...dinosaurs are a part of every
kid's growing up process.  To me, the plastic pieces were not toys, and
so weren't played with _as_ toys.  They were more like 3-d illustrations,
almost like a reference.  Perhaps that is why it bothers me that I find
rust monsters in the dinosaur bag.

I'm rambling.  Outta here.

regards,
Larry