When I was a kid, I was very psyched to get a Star Wars ATAT for Chanukah, only to be extremely disappointed when it couldn’t actually crush rocks.
I’ve long remembered a commercial that showed the ATAT doing this; over the years I’d come to believe I must have imagined it. Today I was discussing this with a co-worker who has an ATAT in his office (yes, Scholastic IS that awesome to work for). He suggested I google it. His version is a reproduction that he got from the Scholastic store (again, awesome) so he could not speak to its ability to crush anything… much less the heart of a young Star Wars fan.
After a few minutes, I found the ad and after watching it again, I want to send a big F-U to George Lucas for misleading me. About to turn 5, when the commercial said (and showed) that the plastic toy’s legs were “big enough to crush obstacles” (rocks), of course I believed it could.
When I wrestled it out of the box, took it outside (in the SNOW, mind you, it was probably 50 degrees below zero in SD in Dec) and tried to crush rocks, I was devastated to see the underside of the feet were, in fact, hollow. They could not even crush an ant. Or a snowflake.
Too late to sue? I’ve been traumatized for decades.
