The TMNT craze continues (updated)

Buddy is still mad about the mutant turtles. When I spotted the TMNT T shirts at BHG department store recently, I bought some for him. Strangely, those are the only clothing merchandise available. I wanted to get him pyjamas, and there is none here; so a US relation ordered a set from Amazon for me. My nice boss also bought him another set when he travelled to NYC last month. My husband couldn’t help saying, “Buddy, you can open a TMNT store now.”  

Buddy now insists on wearing  his turtle T shirt to daycare because he refuses to wear the uniform top. I admit I had to use the turtle attire to get him to go to preschool a few weeks ago, when he became upset upon seeing his uniform after he woke up. He cried, “I don’t want to go to school!” 

I was at my wits’ end then, trying both carrot and stick to get him to leave the house. It might be due to the departure of his BFF after the Chinese New Year. Anyway the T shirt works for a couple of days before the protest against school resumed. 

Strangely, Buddy was fine once he entered the center. Still, it was stressful to get over the hump of leaving the house. Thank God for the recent arrival of a new boy, who turns out to be a TMNT fan, and that makes things easier for Buddy as he now has a turtle partner. 

Buddy doesn’t have any toys other than the combat gear that I bought online from Toys R Us. This is the Leonardo kit that comes with a sword, an eye mask and two flying disks. The sword attracts a lot of attention from small and big kids (aka men who are nostalgic for their childhood). 

  
The eye mask is not that great though. It has to be tied at the back and becomes loose easily and so irritates Buddy’s eyes. So he has stopped wearing it. Instead, I have found another one on Etsy made of felt and comes with an elastic band. I hope it is truly better.  

 
I had wondered if I should get the turtle figures for Buddy’s birthday present, since he has been eyeing them at the toy stores, or the other combat gears. As I dawdle, it turns out he is rather creative at make-believe. The sword doubles up as a staff when he decides to become Donatello instead of Leonardo. And he turns the long Minion socks as weapons, like the two Sais that Raphael uses. He will twist them round and round, so much so that I told my husband that they resemble nunchaks.

I had mentioned  in my previous post on the TMNT topic, dated 8 March, that Buddy uses the dinosaur models as his weapons, which also double up as the turtle figures. In fact, whenever he spots any turtles/tortoises, he will cry out, “Ninja!” So when we were at The Better Toy Store the other day, he saw a stuffed turtle, and I decided to get it for him. I figured it can be whichever TMNT figure he wants it to be, instead of me having to buy all four of them since he will change his ninja turtle preference.   

I was told that the second TMNT movie is screening in July, likely part of the summer action blockbusters. Buddy said he wanted to watch it. Well, let’s see since he may lose interest in the turtles by then.  

But Buddy does have a tendency of going through the different toys in phases. Like the Thomas Trains, which was his first major toy interest, and after he discovered the dinosaurs, he dropped the trains and went for the reptiles. But some months later, he returned to the trains and mostly abandoned the dinos. During those phases, I admit I had went to some length to procure various trains and dinos for him.  Now that he is into TMNT, the trains are again forgotten, and I am considering carefully before getting any toys which I regard as part of the movie marketing machine.

In fact, before the turtles, he had a big infatuation with Godzilla, and had asked for the figure. But there is hardly any merchandise available in Singapore since the movie fad is over. I refrained from getting it from Amazon because it doesn’t look as well made as the dino figures I got for him, and worse, it is also more expensive. It turns out to be a wise move now that he has lost interest in Godzilla. Even when the infatuation returns later, he can always use one of the dinos to double up as the fantasy Monster. After all, the image of Godzilla is likely to have derived from a dino. 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

In case you’re wondering, I’m not the one crazy over TMNT. It’s buddy. I figured he found out about them from the kids in daycare, because he watches little TV at home. (Most times, he watches what we do, which are mainly news or documentaries and only occasionally, drama series.) You can say he is deprived because he doesn’t get to watch cartoons, and only found out about them from his friends in daycare. I guess this explains why he doesn’t have interests in any superheroes or even the famous Mickey Mouse.

So, I was quite surprised when, some weeks ago, he started talking  about TMNT and told us he was Leonardo. I didn’t know who that was and had to Google to find out. (Ok, I was deprived as a kid too.) He started to use improvised objects as his swords, like the IKEA train track.

Other swords come in the shapes of paper towel rolls, paper plane, and even dino toys!

 

Buddy aka Leonardo’s weapon cache

 

 

Of course, not all the “swords” are safe for him to play. My Husband stopped Buddy from using the train track and this Allosaurus figure as swords since he might poke his eye or someone’s eye with them.

So Buddy went for the “safer” dino models for his swords: Parasaurolophus and Dacentrusus.

For the bandana, Buddy had this blue elephant mask that he made in school, which we then cut it to become a Leonardo bandana for him. The blue inflated dino became the baddie, Shredder.

Buddy wrestling with Shredder.

 

Shredder died!

 

Not long after, the paper mask was the first to kaputt and the paper plane got scrounged  up. Then, last weekend, both the paper rolls went into the thrash bins after a fight-off with a friend.

We had tried looking for foam sword at toy stores but there was none available. I finally found one on Toys R Us online store, but Buddy said no when I showed him the picture. My Husband then had the idea of making a paper katana sword for Buddy, like the one used by Leonardo.

Unfortunately the katana cannot withstand much action. My Husband had to stop Buddy from whacking Shredder after the sword looked like it might break apart. Buddy lost interest in it right after that. He needs a proper weapon  in his fights against bad guys! So back to the dino figures.

Luckily, the online Toys R Us  store sells the Leonardo combat gear set.

I told Buddy if he was a good boy and go to school, I would get it for him. Instead he replied, “I have my own swords!” Well, let’s see if he would say that again when I show him the real thing. Though, a couple of days ago, he told us he is now Raphael. My Husband and I groaned.

Anyway, TMNT must be out of favor with many kids here because I can hardly find any of its merchandise. Luckily we have some relatives coming over from the US, and I requested my sis-in-law to get the socks for Buddy. Despite the last minute shopping spree, she didn’t have difficulty finding them. Now, I have to look for pyjamas.