With December’s gluttonous orgy of spending behind us, let’s look at a toy we cannot easily buy.
It’s the Extraterrestrial Minivan by Gospel House Handicrafts! Yep, it’s a wooden green minivan with a roof that pulls back for interior access. Four alien family members fit inside, along with two pieces of luggage.
The minivan measures 3.7 x 10.2 x 3.9 inches. If those dimensions seem funny, it’s because America, Burma and Liberia are the only countries in the world who haven’t entered the modern era by adopting the metric system. The slightly cleaner dimensions are 26 x 10 x 9.5 centimeters.
Oh, come on, give me a break. There’s not a lot to say about a toy car I’ve never seen. I have to pick apart something, so it might as well be our country’s math and science education. Join me tomorrow when I review and assail the dangers of tricycle rollover incidents.
Anyhow… This toy minivan struck me as cool because it reminded me very much of my daughter’s book, Visit to Another Planet, where the aliens are a lot like us, just very green.
Gospel House is a Sri Lanka outfit, fair trade, giving poor youth a decent wage and so forth. They sell their wooden toys in America and Europe, but unfortunately I’ve been unable to find an American retailer selling the alien toy. Maybe it has a different product name in America.
It sells for 37€ which is almost $57 USD, not including shipping charges.
[Insert rant about our country's response to 9-11, Hurricane Katrina, two invasions of countries, the continuation of the mortgaging of our children's future through obscene military spending, etc. all resulting in the rapid devaluation of the American dollar that puts this awesome toy out of my reach. Thanks George for ruining my child's imaginative play!]
Join me in a couple days when I take on the ghost of Mother Theresa for keeping my daughter up at night.
