As a kid I always wanted an ant farm. It was all about bringing nature inside so it could be viewed nose-up-to-glass. Of course there was no way my mother was going to allow me to keep creepy crawlies as pets. One errant elbow and we would have a serious infestation problem. Since being a father is about living vicariously, I’m debating whether I should get one for the Creatures. Creature One will love it it. His fascination with science is growing everyday and without a doubt he’ll be transfixed. It’s the other one I’d be worried about. At three she might think it’s cute to shake them up.  Or set them free. This is probably the finest looking ant farm I’ve ever seen.

Creature Two had a thing for rubber duckies and who can blame her? They’re damn cute. They’re kitsch. They squeak with uncontrollable abandon when handled by a toddler. But sometimes a plain old duck is just boring. Let’s all be thankful that there are ducky designers out there that think the same.  In fact, where do I sign up to be a ducky designer?

Did you ever want to bring your Star Wars play to life? Do you want to build something for the wee-ones, which has the benefit of keeping some cash in your pocket and out of the hands of Lucasfilm? This is you project then.

This is an amazing set. I’m not sure who it’s really marketed towards, kids with an amazing level of concentration, or adults with too much time on their hands. This has to take hours and hours to complete not to mention a certain level of  focus that I don’t think most humans can obtain without help from  a few pills.  Getting this done though has to a real sense of accomplishment. And relief.

These kids do have a point. We get millions of toy catalogs and just about every toy is represented very ‘traditionally.’ Boys play with trucks and  action figures, and girls play with dolls and dress-up. It’s so accepted it’s a given.

So while these kids are right on target, and a very serious one, maybe filing some sort of official complaint is jumping the gun a bit. What happened to organizing an old-fashioned protest or boycott?