"To play, or not to play"

Looked around but couldn't find this topic. This question is for all the dads out there. Should I let my kids play with the vintage stuff? Figures and vehicles. My daughter is 4, and my son is 2. They both haven't really got into the movies yet, but they love the toys. Dads collection, of course. Just like to know some parents thoughts.

 

I've got a three year old at home who loves her daddy's SW room and wants in there to play with his toys all the time. My rules are that there are some things she can and can't play with. These include things that I deem to precious to risk breaking, things that she could put in her mouth, and things I deem too violent.

She usually plays with droids, most of the vehicles, the creatures (like Jabba, Wompa, Rancor, Fumbaa), and most recently the Unleashed Battlepacks. She touches nothing without my supervision at all time.

The trick is to accept that if you put it into your child's hands, you might not get it back in the same condition, if at all. If you can accept that for some things, then let your kid play. If you can't, you can only blame yourself if something happens to it.

 

For a few bucks you could buy a couple of lots of POTF 2 stuff for them from ebay and let them have it with no worries.

 

i have plastic shelves that work well with my 18 month old. the top two shelves hold the more treasured items that i'm saving until she's older, and the lower two shelves are full of stuff i'm willing to share. she also has two vintage collections of her own: one set of "nice" figures that we keep on the shelf, and some well-worn figures we play with. when she's old enough to enjoy everything and take reasonable care of it, she will get it all. i'm looking forward to passing my collection on to her as soon as she's interested.

Juke mentioned the other thing we do: i live near a collector's shop that sells loose POTF2 figures for 2 bucks each. we have a ton of them. even some harder to find ones like kyle katarn. i grab a handful of new ones everytime i go to the shop or see the dealer at a show.

the best things for small children right now are the galactic heroes and the jedi force figures. we have them all, and she loves to play with them while i watch the movies. the galactic heroes seem to be more popular than jedi force. she digs through the box to find each character as they appear on screen.

good luck with the kids. and my last "words of wisdom" are: in the end, it's all a bunch of toys. let the kids play with them.

(i occassionally let her play with some really cool stuff, like vintage imperial shuttle or rebel cruiser! no accidents, yet!)

 

I have a 4 yr old and i just let her goto town they're only young once.

 

way to go, NWO. i agree. let them go. the only thing holding me back is that at 18 months she's not really coordinated enough to enjoy them the way she could in just another year or two, so i don't want them damaged until then.

 

Yeah but shes gets to swing the force fx's under MY close watch

 

I have a 2 and 4 year old myself. They learned from the begining that I have stuff they can't touch. But we bought them some of there own stuff to play with like a Darth Tater and there own lightsabers. My 4 year old used to take the figures i have in packaging off my old wall and look at it then put it back asking questions who it was and all that stuff. Plus they get most of my doubles in the CCG and TCG to play with slash bend up and destroy at there own leasure. basiccally i get them stuff too i guess.

 

I'm gonna explain my daughter too that there are items she can't touch. Of course, every good parent has to mold their child into a genuine SW fan , so there will also be toys Linet can play with. Maybe the Galactic Heroes and some plush buddies or something like that.

 

My daughter is still too young right now but I agree with rebelwookie in the end. They are all just toys. My plan is the few things that I would like to leave untouched will be put away in a box until she is old enough to understand what she can and cann't play with.

 

I have a 3-year old and 18-month old and I just let them have at my vintage figures. I played with them as a kid, they might as well too. I don't care if my kids are "into" Star Wars or not. I don't really push them towards it. Most of my what oldest has learned has probably been through osmosis from hanging around me, but the toys make them happy, so I let them play with them.

 

well, I wouldn't really know.
I'm not a dad and I won't be one in awhile because I'm only 14.
But I do have a 10 year old sister and she wants to play with my figures but their all in the package
so I won't let her.
she's not into the movies like me and other starwars fans.
she doesn't like science fiction.

My dad he's not into Starwars as much as I am either he likes Dune and Lexx.
and he also likes Star Trek.

 

Thanks for all the input. Aside from the figures, i've got the Falcon, skiff, snow speeder, and much more vehicles. Oh yea, Castle greyskull from He-man too.

 

My cousin had a bunch of these at xmas, her fav was Yoda or 'Greenie.' And she loves DR Who so Im sure she will turn out great.

 

if the kids are interested in he-man, you might look into buying some extras. they're pretty affordable right now, especially the common ones. even castle greyskull itself isn't very expensive in fair condition.

 

Almost anything can be replaced with eBay.
Splurge: buy some for your kids so they can do whatever they want to them. Buy extras. Let the kids chew on them, bounce them off the walls, cover them in nail-polish, or whatever. The kids will love the toys. That's what they're for.

These are TOYS. they are ment to be played with. Really, there's nothing so sad as a toy that doesn't get play time.

 

^i agree with most of that. but nail polish? who lets their kids play with nail polish?