Word: toying
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...that could sell miles and miles of Kodak film. Whistling cheerfully, he cruises downstairs past a wall smeared with bloody handprints. Tension and soundtrack build as we wonder just what our cheerful quick-change artist is up to. Then, smiling wistfully, he pauses to pick up a child's toy. The camera follows him down, and there, sprawled messily across the living room, lies his butchered family...
Television programs for children seem to divide neatly into two mutually exclusive categories: the shows kids watch and the shows they ought to watch. In the first group are the platoons of super-heroes, Smurfs and toy-store transplants that fill the dial on Saturday mornings and weekday afternoons. In the second are those earnest after-school specials and occasional PBS offerings praised by critics and parents but seldom watched by more than a fraction of the youngsters who crowd in front of the set for He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. Square...
...Kubrick's hands, it often seems as if the madman were behind the camera. Among the weirdo perspectives offered here, the best is an extended shot that follows a child driving a Big Wheel through corridor after corridor of the cavernous hotel, capturing the sight and sound of the toy vehicle passing over carpet and linoleum...
...Captain Power toys will face at least two rivals. Nolan Bushnell, the founder of Atari and now head of a toy company called Axlon, has developed Tech Force and the Moto-Monsters, a group of mobile robots that are scheduled to go on sale this month. The Tech Force robots will move in response to a cartoon show that will debut in the fall, as well as to commands from a keyboard. The starting price is high: about $250 for a set of two hero robots, two villainous ones and two keyboards. Another competitor will be World Events Productions...
...toys have provoked controversy even before hitting the shelves. Critics of children's TV, who believe that too many programs have become vehicles for selling toys, think the new electronic link will increase the manufacturers' influence on youngsters and encourage unhealthy levels of TV watching. Says Dr. William Dietz, chairman of the subcommittee on children and television for the American Academy of Pediatrics: "The TV will now play with the toy for the child. There is absolutely nothing left for the child's imagination." In their defense, toymakers contend that the new devices prompt children to dream up creative strategies...