Kids and ROTS (SPOILERS)

[CHEWIE]

Even the Friday the 13th movies were awesome in my book.

 

Were? You watch your mouth!

Kevin

Yeah, when I was that young I didn't think they were scary at all.  Just really cool.  I always liked those type of movies.

 

[Brian]

The last couple of days I've had a chance to start breaking open some of the April 2 swag, and it got me to thinking, if we were kids (for those of us who aren't ) would you have fun with this toy line?  I got to thinking about it at first because I couldn't have imagined getting this much stuff at once when I was a kid, but also thinking that some of these toys would have been pretty cool.  Granted, times have changed a lot since the vintage toy line days, but I played hours on end with my vintage figures, a handed-down Falcon and snowspeeder from my cousins, and my Jabba's Dungeon playset.  The rest of the environments were capably filled by carpet, furniture, boxes or anything else handy.  Although outside of possibly trying out the "action features" and posing them on a shelf, I don't really play with this stuff anymore....but I would think for a kid really "into" Star Wars (if that happens anymore), you could really have a hay day .  Sorry for the random thoughts, just curious if anyone else felt that way about the line nowadays.  Not necessarily limited to ROTS stuff, but all modern stuff for that matter.

[CHEWIE]

I'd have a blast with this stuff if I were a kid... but two things are lacking that I loved as a kid - huge vehicles and playsets.

 

[Brian]

Yeah, excellent point CHEWIE.  Although I didn't have any "big playsets", I did have the Falcon and played the heck out of that thing.  Also, a friend of mine had about everything, and playing with that Death Star was pretty cool.

[Newman]

Well I'm still kind of a kid but I miss the days when I would play with my figures and not just display them.  I can't tell you how many times I had Vader strike down countless Rebels.

[CloneF13Y35]

well my son who'll be 5 over the summer absolutely loves this stuff! His favorite characters are r2 and 3p0, plus chewie. He knows the movies as he's watched them on dvd as much as I have since last sept. he likes playing with the ships, we have anakins' starfighter, the otc x-wing and tie-fighter, we flythem around the den shooting at eachother.
he also likes playing with the lightsabers.

[Aaron_D]

I've been seeing a lot more kids in the Star Wars sections the past several weeks.  I don't recall that being the case so much with the prior two movies, but this one really seems to be bringing the youth back into the Star Wars franchise for some reason.  Perhaps it's the mass media advertising campaigns that are going on everywhere you look nowadays.

I did actually here a mother in the aisle this week saying that she wasn't going to let her son watch the movie, since she's heard some pretty bad stuff about the voilence factor.  I was a little bummed to hear that, but oddly enough, she was still buying him the figures apparently.  No idea how old the kid was though.

[Brian]

I agree, I think this is the most I've seen kids in the Star Wars aisles since I started collecting the modern stuff.  Very rarely I saw any kids interested in Star Wars stuff during Episodes I and II (except for lightsabers maybe), but I think I see a kid or two looking at ROTS stuff about every time I go anymore.  I'm not sure what it is either, if it is the mass media campaign (Star Wars is everywhere, and on TV a lot this time around), the fact that there are more OT "name" characters showing up (Vader, Chewie, droids), or maybe just that it is a good Star Wars time coming off the OT DVD release.  I started seeing more and more kids around that time, when the OTC was hitting pegs.

[Xander]

Its so true. I'm usually the first guy to suspect anecdotal evidence about who's buying what in the toy section.  Every time I see a report of "the scalper at this Target" and how that means scalpers are buying everything everywhere, I don't believe it. But time after time when I'm showing up at the Star Wars section, I see kids out the wazoo.

Kids having light saber battles, kids trying to buy figures while mom is having to limit the number that they can get, kids discussing Star Wars....I keep seeing this over and over, at multiple stores. The other day a group of three kids saw some new figures, and one goes "this is what so-and-so had on the bus!".  I can't explain it - it seems like I never had to dodge kids on toy runs, but now I'm pleasantly surprised that yes, I'm now competing with kids instead of hot wheels guys!

[Scott]

The big question still remains, when Parents next week finally find out this is a PG-13 movie, what's going to happen. I fully expect this to be some bit of an issue.  "How could they make this a PG-13 movie and market all of this stuff to our kids?"

Spider-Man was the same way, although I really think most kids over 7-8 could handle that.  My son though loves Spidey and has never even seen him anywhere

[Scott]

So...what age is appropriate for the movie?  I think its around 7-8...old enough to be able to realize fantasy from reality...but even then, the Immolation scene is very graphic

[Brian]

The Mrs. and I were discussing this after seeing it last Thursday, and I'd say you're about right with that age range Scott.  We have nephews that are 3 and 5, and I know it would be a bit much for them, at least I think it would.  Overall, we didn't think anything was "too" graphic, the simmerin' Anakin scenes probably being the worst.  Otherwise, I don't think there was anything worse than what kids see in other movies (and other Star Wars movies)...limbs a flyin', lightsaber battles, and blaster shots.  There is a bit more "main character" type death, instead of random clones, droids, or stormtroopers biting it.

That being said, we went to a 1 o'clock matinee, and there were a fair amount of kiddos there...with their parents.  They probably ranged in age from a baby (which I don't understand) up to jr. high and beyond, with several 6-10 year olds in there.  No one seemed scarred for life from it though .  My wife was actually kind of paying attention to the movie for that, as so much hubub was made about the PG-13 rating...but she didn't think anything was all that bad, aside from Anakin burning.

[Scott]

I fully expect this to be some bit of an issue.  "How could they make this a PG-13 movie and market all of this stuff to our kids?"

Parents Protest BK Toys

[Jim]

I totally disagree with this crap.  Mainly because the majority of the toys in this line are not even from E3  

[Scott]

I totally disagree with this crap.  Mainly because the majority of the toys in this line are not even from E3  

Agreed, its stupid, I see it more as a publicity stunt