The Mystery Of My Droids Fascination Has Been Solved

That's right. This article is about me. Bantha Skull: Egomaniac Edition.

I've written recently that I can't explain why I'm so enamored with Droids packaged product. It's not like it's some sort of classic packaging that will some day end up in the Art Institute of Chicago. While I do find the color palette pleasant, the graphic itself is a little tacky. It's typical of the time period, but not particularly elegant. I posited that I get a thrill from this line look because it's tied to some of the rarest vintage Kenner collectibles. That's certainly a part of it, but not the whole answer. I think I figured it out.

As evidenced by the ongoing run of the Vintage Collection, we are currently awash in nostalgia for the late 70's and 80's. The television show, The Goldbergs, is basically a love affair to the 80's. We can get mini-consoles of just about every video game system that came out during that era. Mattel's Masters of the Universe line lives again. Topps has brought back the 1977 Star Wars trading card look. Heck, the movie 8-Bit Christmas is essentially a soft reboot of one of the most beloved 80's Christmas movies, A Christmas Story, and replaces the Red Rider BB Gun as the MacGuffin with the ultimate 80's icon, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). That movie is like nostalgia squared.

Despite all of this mining of our childhood feels, there is one glaring omission from the era. There was perhaps no bigger childhood tradition from the 80's than Saturday morning cartoons. If kids of the era had the equivalent of water cooler talk, it was definitely about Saturday morning programming. When the promos for the upcoming new fall series were shown, it would be the talk of the summer. In the time before VCR's proliferated the landscape, oversleeping and missing your favorite cartoon could bring even the strongest kid to the verge of tears. I would never know what happened to Turbo Teen!

In no way am I suggesting that Saturday morning cartoons should come back. Aside from the fact that networks like Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network have obsoleted them, they were the epitome of cheesiness. The animation was terrible, and in retrospect, laughably bad. The producers preyed on kids' lack of taste. Droids was part of that relatively brief, yet highly memorable television phenomenon. Truthfully, I didn't watch it in 1985. I was old enough that I was becoming aware of the lack of quality, and I was becoming much more interested in sports than the things of my early childhood. This Week in Baseball was my must watch Saturday television by that time.

Nevertheless, it's become clear to me that the Droids packaging is a nostalgic proxy for one of my most beloved 80's traditions. Despite not being part of my personal watch history, the Droids series is related to that fond cultural phenomenon from my childhood.

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