Late addition: Pirate Update, good guys score one! http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081213/ap_on_re_af/piracy
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A pair of Christmas toys from my childhood today.
First, from Marx, is the Big Bruiser tow truck that I got when I was eight or so. Big Bruiser was huge in comparison to my other toy cars, made of white nylon-like plastic, and incredibly brawny. It had an electric winch that could pull any of the toy cars, except that Big Bruiser's tires were a pretty hard rubber that slid on the tile floor, so you couldn't hook up to his collar and pull the dog across the kitchen. Equipped with blinking lights and a siren, too (I think), Big Bruiser had one overriding flaw: it had an alkaline battery appetite in a non-alkaline world. It simply ate batteries like crazy. I loved it. Still photo below, and a commercial here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJHO8AP8Gx0
Toy number two today is even cooler http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCVjT2N8dIg This is maybe the ultimate child's toy from a cold war world: the Steve Canyon fighter jet. Play the video, and imagine little me sitting there at the controls. It was all about air superiority in my childhood.
Scary Christmas.
