During a recent visits to my parents, I brought back some boxes and bags that were taking up space in the wardrobe of my old room. It was more than time to free my parents of all that junk.
To use the same always annoying formula that clickbaits popularised on social medias, “you won’t believe what he found out next”. However, far from me the idea of sending you off to an ad infected webpage where you just see something far from extraordinary. I give you the answer right away: I just found a bunch of old souvenirs, most of them forgotten for a long time. Through all those, I want to elaborate on a category in particular, the games that were in those boxes.
Goblin
The first piece I want to talk about is a single plastic goblin arccher from the Warhammer Fantasy Battle 4th edition starter box. The minis from that box where not the first one I ever owned, those where instead Ral Partha minis for role playing games, horribly painted using the old Testor paint. However, this intro box was my first step into the path I still mainly follow, that of miniature wargaming. I remember vividly accidently leaning on a unit of the spearman brother of that goblin, and when I lifted my hand, the whole unit was now stuck to my hand, thanks to their tiny pointy spears. Painful memory…
Dragon Dice
This bag and its content bring me back to the Holidays family parties. I always played it with my cousins, whom I most often saw during that end of the year period. We traded and fought over flimsy paper maps a lot, using cubic elves, dwarves and undeads. The game is still available, from SFR now, but the rulebook exploded in length with the various extensions and variations that came out since I bought the starter kit. I should try to play it again some day, if I can find the original rules, as I don’t want to go over the new one.
Pokemon CCG
Even when I bought this premade starter deck for the Pokemon CCG, I was already way into miniature gaming, and cards were just a nice palate cleanser. I did play Magic a bit, going to small tournaments with a friend who was way more into it than I. For the Pokemon ones, it was mostly curiosity that got me, and I must confess, I did like the anime show and gameboy games. I recently tried, before finding back that deck, to buy back some old original starters online, to play with my boy when he would be old enough to read them (he’s only 4 and a half now). In the end, I put that aside. It was a good thing, as he got hooked into a newer serie (Black & White) that’s available on Netflix right now, and the pocket monsters in the new serie are really not the same. It isn’t so bad a thing though, as the new animations are far better, and I’m getting used to the new cast of creatures. Out with the nostalgia.
Battle Beasts
In the whole list, those are the oldest items. Those Battle Beasts are more toys than games, but I was still really surprised to find them in that box, as I thought them long lost. As soon as I found them, still at my parents’ place, I got them out to play with my son. Since then, we have fought multiple battles, but strangely, his battle beasts more often then not end up with the guns from the newest serie (Laser Beasts, with a marble instead of a thermo sticker to identify them), which gives him an advantage over my mainly close combat force… No hard feelings.
There were other games in the boxes, like Citadel Combat Card and Arcadia: The Wyld Hunt, but I don’t even remember trying those. There was also some puzzle type toys, Rubik cube style, as well as a pretty important super hero cards collection, but nothing that’s really worth looking deeper into like the previous four.
Have you ever found back old childhood toys and games? Have you tried playing with them again, and most importantly, was it worth it? Share your experiences in the comments.
