Remember the good old days? The action figures battling over landscapes of shag carpet and shoeboxes, Mom’s second best tablecloth pressed into service as a sleepover fort, and hours spent pouring through charts in black-and-white RPG manuals with all the intensity of cramming for the CPA exam. Debates about the Kessel Run, A-Team lunchboxes, Gobots smuggled into gym class, and video game consoles less powerful than a modern fridge magnet — pure ‘cool’ before it became vintage retro-chic.
Welcome to When We Were Young, a new occasional feature on the site that let’s us share our great old family photos and re-conjure a bit of that magic of childhood.
And what could be more magical than this picture of young Rick Maffei on Christmas morning? Some of you may know Rick from his work on the Original Adventures Reincarnated line and early DCC line, plus his recent appearances on Talking TSR. Clearly Rick has always had a connoisseur’s taste in the finer things — here we see him with some Original Kenner Star Wars and classic Micronauts — is that the infamous Baron Karza he’s got in his hands? It goes without saying the X-Wing t-shirt evokes just the right air of casual branded awesomeness that sums up the effortless cool of kidhood.
The Goodman Gang will be sharing more of their photos in the weeks to come — but fans, we want you to send us your old classics as well so we can share in the collective reminiscence of When We Were Young.
