Note the numbered post its sticking out - Rockstar ranks the collectibles he wants, and then we have conversations about how many more (or less), based on how expensive an item is and whether the same provider carries other stuff he wants... And btw this is a great book for Cars obsessives to read a little small print, it details all the characters however obscure...
We are about gender equality, in this household – Rockstar also has a shopping habit. It manifests in Disney Cars collectibles and new gadgets. I have semi-seriously apologized for not naming him Lightning – then decided not to take it further when he appeared to seriously consider this, in case he makes me google how to change his name at the HK Births Registrar’s.
The obsession however comes in handy for Reimbursements For Jobs (fine, bribes. Potato, po-tah-to.) He gets to go on Amazon.com for Cars collectibles (because we have long since bought up all the Lego – it was a tough pregnancy!) if he agrees to say, Entertain Daddy’s New Auntie Friend who – wait for it – speaks Putonghua and might pinch his cheeks. (You see how desperate times called for desperate measures.)
(In the end he erm, did not have a Putonghua conversation <disappointed> but then he endeavored to bring a National Geographic Weird Facts book to entertain her (HOW is this even close to a Putonghua conversation, I would like to know) and took the (karaoke) mike to wish her Happy Birthday several times. The Rockstar is unmanipulative as they come – looking into his eager, expectant face waiting for me to “call it”, I couldn’t not call it a Job Well Done and let him go searching online.)
I search “Disney Cars 1:55 die cast” on Amazon.com and hop in the shower. When I emerge, there are – wait for it – 55 items totaling USD 938.35 in my cart.
Not what you think, don’t faint yet 😀 I then login so those that don’t ship to HK are flagged (just because the seller listed themselves as “international shipper” still didn’t mean they shipped to HK, I discovered) and whittle away a few more which do ship but are from different suppliers (shipping costs can be quite high).
You can imagine The Rockstar is now keen to find “work”, but can you imagine kids shopping in this way nowadays? Rolling on floor in toy store having hissy fit is so last generation. <shudder> No, actually I’m happy they shop on computers nowadays.
We have company, too – if you actually read the reviews you find umpteen comments of the “I got this for my son/ grandson” variety, some of em for kids who are under 3, even.
The most interesting was when Rockstar then went on to the Monster Truck Mater collection (which I had never heard of until Kings finally brought home a Mater’s Tall Tales DVD – I put the sound on low and switch on the subtitles so Rockstar will at least read something) – some of these characters feature for like, a minute? 10 seconds? on the video, and then there are grandparents who post comments on Amazon saying that is the only way to buy Paddy-O-Concrete (masked green apparently Irish cement mixer top left in pic above) so they bought aforementioned full set when they already have every other character for their grandson.
Around this time Rockstar also discovered the gadzillion Cars-related Youtubes out there. But no, he’s not watching the cartoons – he wants to check for new toys/ Cars characters figurines to collect. People Who Upload These Demo Youtubes Hoping Someone Might See Them And Want To Get Your Stuff – It’s working!
Which is how Rockstar found this Disney Appmate thing. I downloaded the (free) app and then felt guilty seeing one of the comments: “Goodbye imagination” 🙁 According to the review you can use other cars not just the Appmate ones to roll around on the screen (make sure you have a screen protector), but Rockstar found the function where you can use your fingers to move a virtual “paper cutout car” on the screen.
Rockstar went through a period of driving the “paper car” around for as long as we’d let him, before bedtime. Strangely reminiscent of days putting investment products together, I have this thing where every little non-necessary bit in the product has to be good for something. So I was itching to find some usefulness in the Appmating – finally decided to use it for “adjusting” bed times to school timing (especially as he was an afternoon session Kindy child) so he doesn’t nap and then end up awake at 11pm. Cos he’ll Appmate no matter how tired he is. Added bonus: “You know you get lotsa Appmate before bedtime, so why don’t you read something/ play the piano/ whatever now?”
The only two I could find that shipped to HK (note Appmate Mater has only one light too…) Rockstar’s starting to get bored; according to him each different Appmate car meets some different characters in the game. I didn’t follow closely enough, but at least we had a conversation about how the iPad touch screen works..
They should seriously come up with a Cars Math And Spelling App. Like what I heard of Disney English in the Mainland.
Meantime, the Disney Cars mania continues.
ps: This was almost a National Geographic Angry Birds/ Space Angry Birds post. My point (hopefully) was I didn’t think kids necessarily had to be “miserable” while learning something. <sheepish> even if I don’t completely know what it is! They can be really happy playing with seemingly brainless toys/ watching cartoons and you can still find some use for that – it’s what you do with the toy, whether it’s reading small print out of the Cars Character Encyclopedia or subtitles off the DVD, or surfing Amazon for collectibles…
Men and their cars – I guess Rockstar is starting young. 🙂