toys

Sitting in The Counterfeit Heist with Elfboy. I have no idea what brought it up, but I tell Tom about the time I flooded that kid’s room.

My folks used to drop me at this kid’s house, so his mom could babysit us both. We used to have fun playing together - he was way into Star Wars figures, too. And of course we would play make-believe. One day we were playing as pirates. We took the cushions off the couch upstairs and used them as islands. The couch then became our boat. That was fun, but somehow we decided that we needed water…

So we found this long piece of tubing. We arced the tube into a large U shape and stuck one end under the bathroom faucet. Filled it up as much as we could with water, ran into the other room and dumped it. We must have made a lot of trips, because there was probably a good half-inch of standing water! We also had the presence of mind to put towels under the door frame…

So then Tom and I start talking about Star Wars figures. If memory serves, the day we flooded that room was the same day my parents bought Walrus Man for me. But they wouldn’t let me have him as punishment!

Then we naturally segued into G.I. Joe. Tom had a boatload of ’em! He even remembers almost all of their names. I was talking about the Cobra plane, and floundered for its name. Tom immediately exclaims “The Rattler!” He even remembered the Water Moccasin, and gawd only knows what else!

I think it might have been fun to play G.I. Joe with Tom - once. He has a wild imagination, and I’m sure we could have had a lot of fun. But Tom told me how he used to play. G.I. Joe would always hold the nuclear threat over Cobra’s head, but never actually use it. So Cobra would get some nukes and blast the shit out of the Joes! Game over! Of course, the Duke and Lady Jay would always make it out, somehow…

I used to disassemble my Cobra Rattler. I’d take the gattling gun out of the nose, and put a small pen flashlight in its place. Then I’d have the Joes hold Cobra Commander in a secret interrogation room (in my basement). So the Cobras would assemble a search-and-rescue team to infiltrate the dark basement.

And I always had Stormshadow defect to hang out with his brother Snake Eyes.