Wow... That's just exactly how I felt.

I had a hard childhood. It was no body's fault, it just happens that way for some of us. Star Trek was one of the very few safe places I had and I wanted the Enterprise too.

It must have been about 1972 and my Dad and brother came back from the local radio store (that was what my brother was into) which happened to be next to the Toy and Hobby shop (May the gods of imagination rest it's sweet soul) and handed me a paper bag. Inside it was the "big box" version of the AMT USS Enterprise space ship model kit. The one with the photograph rather than the artwork. It was also the one with lights.

I remember feeling stunned, elated and somehow fulfilled in a way that I didn't understand until I was much older. I was all of 8 years old and it was the single greatest "whim" gift that anyone has ever given me.

You grow up. Things fall into perspective and those things that seem perfect finally reveal their flaws. In Star Treks case that's a lot of things but it still remains some of the best television ever made in many respects. It's also something that future iterations can't really hold a candle to. Where memory is concerned, however...none of that matters. The feeling of pulling that big box out the that brown paper bag and seeing the photo on the front and realizing what I held in my hands is incorruptible. It's also what sci-fi modeling is all about in my humble opinion.

Thanks for sharing that.

Fiver

wow a Major Matt Mason, I had one of those but forgot all about it until now. I guess that and some rockem sockem robots I had as a kid. Now a days as an adult I really like the Star Trek toys, full size 1:1 stuff including the Enterprise toys and models. Jeff aka Steeljaw.

My faves as a kid were the Corgi Bat Mobile which fired mortars from the back and had a chain cutter in the front. My Thunderbird 2 which had 4 inside the pod. I can remember stuffing the TB4 with plasticine so it would go under water and skim along the bottom of the bath. The Fab1 was another one that got alot of attention as well. Not sure of the brand but I had a Longtom gun that had a working breach and could hit a plastic indian from one side of the kitchen to the other. All these were put back into the box once I had finished playing so I managed to sell them for a tidy sum about 15 years ago. Sorta wish I still had them now.

Rodger