Dracula – toy model or pain in the neck?
Of all the toys a boy could have growing up, one of the worst had to be the plastic model kit. This so-called toy seemed to exist solely to prepare kids for frustration later in life. If a man ever finds himself clinging to a dead-end job just long enough to land something better, maybe he should thank those model kits. Not that it did me much good at the time—because as an eleven year-old, all I wanted was to build a model of Dracula. The first lesson a pre-adolescent learns about model kits is that looks can be deceiving, starting with the box. The Dracula package was incredible. It featured a lifelike, full-color illustration of the Lord of Transylvania, clearly preparing to bite the neck of some unsuspecting villager. Then I opened the box. Inside was a mishmash of pale gray plastic body parts, stacked haphazardly on top of one another. It looked like a miniature version of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. What a letdown. And no one told me I had to paint the stupid thing. That meant a...
