Viewmaster

I'm a sucker for classic toys. "Classic" as being defined as toys that I grew up with. :-) I was so excited about the Fisher-Price record player that I hung around eBay for weeks looking for a good one and on a tip from Enoch, won an auction sneakily with Auction Sniper. The record player was an obvious case of me wanting the toy more than Tobey. He and Eli played/fought over it for a couple of weeks but never really got into it. I think I finally put it away to be pulled out another day.

But one classic toy making a comeback in our household is the Viewmaster. I don't even remember how I got one, maybe a gag gift or something won at a crazy white elephant Christmas exchange. It was previously ignored and in the last several months, used as a camera for Tobey, usually backwards. When it became apparent that maybe he could actually see through it, we pulled out some Monsters, Inc. reels (again, don't remember how we got them) which have since been rather mangled by both kids, to stick into the Viewmaster. He was able to see what was inside and he's been having fun with it ever since.

I even went to Toys R Us the other day while picking up a birthday gift and went looking for some reels. Selection was only in the form of gift packs which included some new fangled viewer. Did you know some come with sound now? That seems kind of wrong but I probably shouldn't balk at innovation. I'm glad we still have a classic one without any character advertising on it. Didn't find any decent reels though and from the Fisher-Price website, it didn't seem like there were any on space shuttles.

Speaking of "new fangled", here's something I didn't know about the Viewmaster, or maybe I did but forgot. That the whole "thing" about the Viewmaster is that you can see 3-D through it. I suppose I should have known because I think it says "3-D" right on the toy. But that was never a big deal for me since I can't see 3-D with my lazy eye. When I see through the Viewmaster, I'm basically only seeing with my right/good eye. The Viewmaster was just a fancy slide projector for me, not a 3-D experience.

Tom wanted to make sure I mentioned the lazy eye stuff because he's been making fun of my lazy eye lately. Thanks a lot.

At least Tobey's having a good time with the Viewmaster.