Passing along the torch of nerd-dom
This is what was waiting for me in my mailbox Tuesday night.
When my wife asked me what it was, I strode with great purpose into our living room, positioned myself in front of the television, and gestured toward my 2 year old son as I answered,
"This is the core of a bonding experience between father and son that will last the rest of our lives. This is airplanes, aliens, spaceships, ray guns, and giant fighting robots. Often, thank Deity, all five at once. This is the moment when our little boy becomes a...ah, no ok he remains a little boy but this is the moment, the precise moment, when his imagination could begin to see the possibilities of aliens and giant fighting robots, and leave the boo-boo kissing to the mommies of lesser seed.
"This is Robotech.
"This was also a contributing factor in keeping daddy a very lonely young man".
Never one for a straight answer, myself.
And with my brief oration, I put in disc 1 of Robotech: The Macross Saga, Legacy Collection.
I'll have you know that I went with the Legacy edition over the competing boxed collections (of which there are at least three, each purporting to be the "complete" series) because the Legacies are the closest to what I watched in 1985: original sound, original animation, original voices. If I could've ordered a set that came with original smells- overheated VIC-20s, Dorito residue, Raid flea bomb, and shame- I would have.
One must be cautious when using the word "original" here, though. These are original in the sense that they are how I first came to them; one must be cognizant of the fact that the American series is/was at least two steps removed from the original Japanese productions- first, by marrying three distinct and unrelated original shows into a single story for us roundeyes; and two, dubbing Engrish such that the new tri-fold program made some kind of sense. The redone effects characteristic of the other collections, with their surround sound this, updated graphical that, and en-spiffened other, are not for the man who wants to see these episodes, just one last time, through his little boy eyes.
And it is the last time, because once they've been watched as an adult they will have been spoiled in a way. Our awareness of the advances in animation in the last 20+ years is enough on its own to undercut the series' impact, but the death knell is the decades of intervening real life that crush the ability to enjoy these shows again. The most we can do is keep the weight of adult consciousness off our senses for a bit, to be 14 again if only for a half an hour.
And at the very least, I can expose something fun and interesting to my son, but be there to teach him that with great animation comes great nerdiness, and it is a path to tread cautiously.
Yeah he's still a little young for all that other noise. But he's certainly old enough to express preferences, and now when I hear him say, "Daddy I wannawatch spaceships", I believe I am doing right.
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My boy turns one in about two weeks. I'll give the speech at the top of your post to my wife in about 18-24 months, I think.
...and, to continue a…
...and, to continue a discussion Buckethead and I had the other night, lest anyone happen upon this thread and wonder why anyone would even consider pushing their boys in this direction, they should shut the hell up: It's the way of the world, and would generally happen even without external stimulus.
So there's that.
I got the Starblazers from…
I got the Starblazers from netflix, but my boy (just over four at the time) just wasn't into it - despite explosions, spaceships and robots. Actually, just a few minutes ago we were watching "My Name is Earl" and you'd be amazed at what a nearly five year old can take away from that. Good practice for off-the-cuff, Calvin's Dad explanations.
And not that he isn't into spaceships, robots and explosions. He wants to build an R2D2. A real one, that does all the stuff from the movies. So we went to a garage sale and picked up some toys to take apart, to start to learn all we'd need to know about building robots. A real treasure was a chintzy magic wand thingy. LEDs, a small electric motor, a speaker. Fun, fun, fun.
There are many faces to geekdom, and I think I'd prefer the boy to have a focus on the technical skills type of geekery, rather than mere mastery of pop culture. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I certainly have plenty myself. And John does play with my old Millenium Falcon and Landspeeder.
Maximum Leader,
I am interested to know if you're waiting for something specific before you begin your indoctrination. Is it a certain age?
I think 2 is awfully young for alot of things, but we only have 1 tv, it was only a matter of time before he saw me watching it, so I said wtf. Besides, he can only sustain interest in most things for about 15 minutes anyway, and the broader backgrounds of malevolent aliens and wanton destruction are largely lost on him.
As far as he's concerned, "Sesame Street", "Caillou", "Bob the Builder", and "Robotech" are just different faces of the same thing.
Great question. My boy is three. I am not really waiting for a specific event. It is more a question of "knowing" when to begin. I am trying to observe him, like a patient Jedi master and then directing him when his geek-force powers manifest themselves.
Star Wars metaphors aside... The Wee Villain is entertained greatly by my collection of Batman cartoons and old episodes of the TV show w/Adam West. He also entertains us at the dinner table by farting and belching at will. He also likes making pig noises at the most in opportune times.
Typical boy...
Hail to fellow geeks and dorks! I still have my old SDF1 toy up in my closet somewhere, along with a box full of half broken down robots and airplanes, and I think a Transformers Jetfire repainted to look like Max's airplane. I wont even get into the Japanese Macross toys and models I horded when I was twenty or twenty two.
Alas, I have no spawn to pass down my boxes of used goodness. Maybe some day...
MO,
The Legacy's have the jerky style, the washed out cels, and the crappy dubbing that I remember so well. Even have the original begin and end credits, and the 5 second cut scenes for commercials.
Are the Remastered episodes that crappy-cool?
Brilliant work. I am waiting to do much the same to my boy.
I used what I believe to be the same discs as the Legacy collection only packaged separately for my kids. I didn't break out the Robotech until they were older, my oldest was probably eight or nine.
I've since picked up the Robotech:Remastered set, but while it's lightyears ahead in picture and sound quality, it also has a few things put back in. Most of it is incidental and fine, but the nudity is not really something that I'm interested in for the series. There's not a lot, but be warned if anyone is looking at that particular collection.
We're actually just now watching Starblazers, and the quality sucks, incidentally.