The end of toys?! [Sfârşitul jucăriilor?!]

Among so many ‘blessings’ of contemporary civilisation, one is the steady suprimation of the beautiful toys of yore.

Children are pushed into a forever incomplete growth, and the toys they wish for are but soulless consumer goods.

They are not the little treasures they once were, cherished along the years and passed on to younger siblings or to grandchildren.

On the one hand, the replacement of healthy toys made of wood or clay with plastic versions (often but not exclusively ‘made in China’), has been taken place for decades.

Who remembers the lovely Matchbox little diecast vehicles ‘made in England’, now found only on eBay, in toy museums or in rare personal collections?

On the other hand, there’s an accelerated process of removing toys altogether from childhood and replacing them with all sorts of gadgets and video games.

Instead of simple instruments for stirring creativity and fostering intelligence, children are taught to yearn for objects that rush them into a false adulthood.

Most fashionable toys of today are devices that need electricity to work. Unplug them, and they’re a bunch of useless electronic junk!

A child can rarely break such gadgets and repair them. All that the brat can to is to cry and drive the parents mad, so that they buy another device of a newer generation.

They also run on softwares that impose prefabricated universes on children and impede their creative thinking.

Inventing new games and putting imagination at work are no longer at hand, as children are mesmerized with gadgets that apparently do everything by themselves.

It’s good to know that at least Lego is not doing too bad… But can the family owned company from Denmark reverse the tide that is taking toys out of childhood?

[For all the posts on this blog go to/Pentru toate postările de pe acest blog mergi la: Contents/Cuprins]

Into a fairytale realm of wooden toys [Într-un tărâm de basm al jucăriilor din lemn]

In the first day of the summer, I was writing about the death throes of the Eurozone, and I fear this dismal topic will be recurrent in the following months.

An insane autumn, at least as frenzied as the one of 2008, is awaiting us – there are fewer and fewer doubts about it :-(

Today, in the last day of 2011’s summer, “let’s get away, just for one day,” like a dear song of Depeche Mode invites us, into a a fairytale realm of wooden toys.

This is a series of photos, that the photoholic I took during my second raid into Scotland’s heartland.

The fact that I was in a store in Inverness, waiting for a 12-hour night bus journey to London, is the only connection with Scotland or Great Britain.

These lovely toys were – as I thought when I was a child, that the world’s best toys come from there :-) – made in Germany.

I couldn’t help taking pictures, because, apart from being a such a photoholic, I guess I’ve never grew out of love with toys.

Some blog posts (here + here) have already proven it, while unknown to most people visiting MunteanUK, I hold a collection of diecast military vehicles.

At 19, I was no longer a child when I started collecting, and there was a time when I even wanted to start up a website (like this one) about diecast toys.

Eventually, my passion waned, although it never become extinct; it’s somehow always with me, without being a compulsion.

In the meantime, wherever I find a toy store – be it a ‘megastore’ in London or a little shop in a Romanian provincial town – I enter.

So I did in Inverness, where I found these toys, theoretically destined to smaller (age 3 to 10 I guess) kids… Yet some children are ageless, aren’t they?

Some grown-ups may like playing cards or playing video games, and could end up being addicted to those activities; I never stopped liking ‘old fashioned’ toys.

No electronic gadget, nor other sophisticated devices could ever leave me mesmerized as simple toys could…

Even simplistic wooden toys like these can be likeable for me, so maybe this photoholic blog post could be a little emotional haven for others as well.

However, let us not forget that no fairytale refuge, nor other illusions we may cling on to – but only faith in the Lord – could help us through hard times!

[For all the posts on this blog go to/Pentru toate postările de pe acest blog mergi la: Contents/Cuprins]