Touchblue

For every child, there is a collection of toys. For every collection of toys, there is a missing link. A holy grail, of sorts. That which will never be. For myself, it was Grimlock: Transformer, and leader of the DinoBots.

To be honest, it’s not like I had all the DinoBots.. or even an extensive Transformer collection at that. My family didn’t have a lot of money for play things when I was a kid. Like many families, we got by. I did have toys though… and more than enough. I had Optimus, Bumblebee, and a motorcycle guy w/ no name from the film version of the cartoon… He was a henchmen and found identity in his mob.

So to say the least, my transformer collection was incomplete. And interestingly enough, Grimlock wasn’t even my favorite character in the cartoon. There were a number of characters that I did not own and had a significantly stronger emotional connection to: HotRod, the future of the Autobot clan and diamond in the rough leader. Jazz, a funky chicken sportscar with an affinity for blasting his volume to rock slide inducing levels. In truth, there were even Decepticons that I held closer to my heart than Grimlock. Shockwave, and all his minion tape-cassettes. Starscream. He was a jet, and I was all about Top Gun at the time.

And you weren’t?

Anyway, I loved all these characters more than I loved Grimlock. It’s true. Nonetheless, Grimlock was the toy I wanted and the one I never got.

My older cousin Ephraim was the only kid I knew who actually owned him. I remember visiting Ephraim’s room, gazing up at his seemingly infinite collection of Transformers, each with its own spot on the collection shelf. Grimlock would never leave that shelf. Consequently, I would never leave that spot under that shelf. Standing there, looking up at this elusive robot dinosaur, I would daydream about the times Grimlock and I would share together. And in my head, we’d get to play.

I remember, I would split Grimlock’s chest plate open while he was in Tyranosaurus Rex mode… and pull them back behind his shoulder blades. I created wings on a dinosaur. I thought I was so clever. I had never seen the character utilize this obvious blueprint loophole on the television program. I loved that I thought of it on my own. I could make a dinosaur that was never meant to fly… fly.

I would improvise and reenact storylines in which Grimlock’s newly found capacity for flight would be the single decisive factor in the survival of the Transformers, and consequently the human race. I would save Transformers, cities, nations, children, and mothers.. because I could make a dinosaur fly.

I thought of an impossibility and made it happen.

I’m glad I never actually got Grimlock. His void forced me to think about him more. Forced me to dream about his possibilities and his ever evolving capabilities. What if inside his rib-cage… there were gills? And by splitting them open, he became a water dweller…. I could save whales too.

--> This entry was posted on Friday, October 20th, 2006 at 11:35 pm and is filed under Pop Culture, Random. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.