The night before my birthday, my sister-in-law e-mailed me that I needed to open one of the birthday packages she'd sent when I was home alone. She said I'd understand why when I opened it. She also said she'd been saving it for a while and felt like now was the time to give it to me. When she said that, I knew what it was. So after I came home from my birthday party the other night, I opened the box. Sure enough, there it was:
Fort Apache. Yeah, baby! It was really my older brother's toy, but we usually played with it together. Who wouldn't like a toy like this? The plastic picket gates swung closed to shut out the invading Indians (see the unfortunate settlers who got left outside in the picture above). Now check out a wider view:
I mean, come on. This toy has it all: gun turrets and towers to put action figures in, plastic horses, even a plastic tee pee. Imagination opportunities all over the place. My brother and I played with this for hours. Here's a taste of the Indian contingent:
Fort Apache. Yeah, baby! It was really my older brother's toy, but we usually played with it together. Who wouldn't like a toy like this? The plastic picket gates swung closed to shut out the invading Indians (see the unfortunate settlers who got left outside in the picture above). Now check out a wider view:
I mean, come on. This toy has it all: gun turrets and towers to put action figures in, plastic horses, even a plastic tee pee. Imagination opportunities all over the place. My brother and I played with this for hours. Here's a taste of the Indian contingent:
The Indian chief on his horse was my favorite. Of course, he was the only Indian who could actually ride a horse. Several horses are in the set, but all the Indian figures have plastic bases to stand on, which makes it impossible for them to ride the horses. The settler figures have the same problem. Here's the one lone settler rider (and even he doesn't balance very well):
My camera didn't focus on him very well for some reason. Does that give the illusion of speed? Since we couldn't use most of the figures for riders, apparently at some point during the years we created a solution:
I was wondering why there were astronaut figures in the play set. This one's got a little camera and he's documenting the, um, well, the carnage from the fort attack. Yeah, that's it!
Play potential aside (and even as an adult, this play set is FUN), this gift meant a lot to me. My sister-in-law signed the note accompanying the gift with my brother's name. He's been dead almost 15 years, but she felt like he needed to be part of this birthday.
If anyone wants to do some role play with cool little action figures and a fort, let me know.
2 comments:
What a fun, yet very sentimental gift. Something like that would mean the world to me. I love all the cool memories you have associated with it! Maybe I'll have the kids get out their (boring old) "army guys" to play with tomorrow.
Army guys are fun, too. We had a set at my grandma's house. Don't know where they ended up, but we had fun with them.
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