Stick ’em if you got ’em.
What can you really say about the Swamp Thing puzzle (from RoseArt, a company that’s gone on to license slightly more profitable characters)? It’s got a hundred “fully interlocking” pieces (I know I’d be pretty steamed if none of the pieces fit together), and you get that great picture you see on the box lid once you’ve assembled it. (And before you ask…yes, I once spent about 15 minutes or so assembling the puzzle. I’m a lonely, lonely man.) I’m fairly certain that not once in the comic did Swamp Thing fire a weapon even remotely like that, um, log-lasso cannon-thing. And I’m sure giving the Native American chararacter (who’s already saddled with the name “Tomahawk”) a giant crossbow-gun that shoots huge Indian arrowheads isn’t demeaning at all.
The Swamp Thing Colorfo…er, “Presto Magix” set (also from RoseArt) lets kids create their own exciting Swamp Thing adventures with a whole seven different Colorf plastic removeable stickers. Now, I don’t really see the potential for a whole lot of exciting adventures in combining the stickers they give you:
Quite frankly, they all look like they’re dancing. That Swampy in the lower left corner is “raising the roof” or something, as you kids say.
Here’s the equally-exciting background:
Ah, yes, the ever-popular “Romantic Swampland at Dusk” setting, certain to fire children’s imaginations with visions of action and derring-do. However, maybe I’m being a little hard on the “Presto-Magix” set…when I was a kid, one of my favorite toys was the Evel Knievel Colorforms set, and I played with that thing until it fell apart. Maybe I’m too old to appreciate the play-potential for the Swamp Thing Presto-Magix set.
But then again, just look at the Evel Knievel Colorforms:
That thing comes with a ton more stickers, with a lot more variety…you could have Evel completely dismembered, flaming pieces strewn across the track in the aftermath of some horrible motorcycle-stunt mishap! (Er…not that I ever did that.) What does the Swamp Thing set get you? A bunch of characters waving their hands around and pointing things at each other. Feh…today’s (well, 1991’s) kids got rooked.
