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Good Afternoon You Most Excellent Citizens of Megosia!
Yesterday I talked about how cool it would be to create a custom Star Wars Mego that looked more like how it would have actually looked back in the mid 70's, before the movie really took off to be what it is today, and if The Fates had been kinder and Grandpa Abrams purchased the rights to Episode IV. As my son and I thought about the possible combinations of bodies, parts, accessories, re-used costumes, etc. that may have been used, an insight concerning creativity entered my mego-filled mind.
Creativity only needs a few scraps of inspiration to begin the flood of new ideas that come with a syncronizing of problem and solution. There's no real problem concerning play-time but rather the problem of choosing from a variety of potentials. "What do I want to do? Who do I want to pretend I am? Where do I want to go on my adventure?" Enter the lonely Mego doll/action figure.
Now, what does (did) a Mego give you? To today's standards, not much. An 8" figure with a costume and, if you're lucky, an accessory. However, the magic that is Mego helped to unlock all of that wonderful pop-cultural content that we all had (and still have) in our memories; Star Trek, POTA, Sat. morning cartoons, comics, early anime and live-action japanese Kaiju films, etc. We didn't need much to get the creative juices flowing. What we did need was a real good toy that would allow us to play out our fantasies, respond to our intentions and were presented in such a variety that allowed us as children to choose our own individualized path of fantasy-play. Megos became an addition to what we already had in our minds. They were the impetus that created the spark and helped our imaginations get kick-started. The fact that you could change costumes, combine different heads on different bodies, interchange accessories, etc. meets one of the most important indicators of creativity; flexibility.
They were also user-friendly. Textural qualities like soft plastic (heads), cloth, light-weight bodies and accessories made handling these toys a pleasurable, comfortable experience. Have you ever dropped a Rescue Hero on your foot?
I know I'm rambling but I'm really interested in this kind of thing and megos are a pointer (for me) to unlocking some mysteries about play and creativity.
In my third and final installation, I'll share my idea for a really awesome, alternate Mego-reality, 70's style Chewbacca.
Yesterday I talked about how cool it would be to create a custom Star Wars Mego that looked more like how it would have actually looked back in the mid 70's, before the movie really took off to be what it is today, and if The Fates had been kinder and Grandpa Abrams purchased the rights to Episode IV. As my son and I thought about the possible combinations of bodies, parts, accessories, re-used costumes, etc. that may have been used, an insight concerning creativity entered my mego-filled mind.
Creativity only needs a few scraps of inspiration to begin the flood of new ideas that come with a syncronizing of problem and solution. There's no real problem concerning play-time but rather the problem of choosing from a variety of potentials. "What do I want to do? Who do I want to pretend I am? Where do I want to go on my adventure?" Enter the lonely Mego doll/action figure.
Now, what does (did) a Mego give you? To today's standards, not much. An 8" figure with a costume and, if you're lucky, an accessory. However, the magic that is Mego helped to unlock all of that wonderful pop-cultural content that we all had (and still have) in our memories; Star Trek, POTA, Sat. morning cartoons, comics, early anime and live-action japanese Kaiju films, etc. We didn't need much to get the creative juices flowing. What we did need was a real good toy that would allow us to play out our fantasies, respond to our intentions and were presented in such a variety that allowed us as children to choose our own individualized path of fantasy-play. Megos became an addition to what we already had in our minds. They were the impetus that created the spark and helped our imaginations get kick-started. The fact that you could change costumes, combine different heads on different bodies, interchange accessories, etc. meets one of the most important indicators of creativity; flexibility.
They were also user-friendly. Textural qualities like soft plastic (heads), cloth, light-weight bodies and accessories made handling these toys a pleasurable, comfortable experience. Have you ever dropped a Rescue Hero on your foot?
I know I'm rambling but I'm really interested in this kind of thing and megos are a pointer (for me) to unlocking some mysteries about play and creativity.
In my third and final installation, I'll share my idea for a really awesome, alternate Mego-reality, 70's style Chewbacca.
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