The Intersection of Build-A-Bear, Star Wars and Harry Potter

As I’ve mentioned in a few previous posts, NHL is heavily interested in Harry Potter at the moment.  The downside to this is that he loves pretending to be the characters that he’s interested in.  When he plays superheroes, he puts on his Iron Man mask and “flies” around the house.  When he plays Jake and the Neverland Pirates, he uses “gold doubloons” from JSL’s birthday party.

When he casts spells as Harry Potter, though, he has no wand.  Sure, he can (and does) just use his finger as a pretend wand or hold an imaginary wand, but there’s something special about pretend play where you utilize a real object.

We could buy him a wand, but that’d just be a recipe for disaster.  A couple of years ago, the boys got a toy drum set and began using the drum sticks as magic wands.  They wound up “casting spells” by physically striking each other with them.  Needless to say, the wands/drum sticks were confiscated for the safety of all.  Though the boys are a few years older now, I somehow doubt that they could keep the spell-casting from turning physical for too long.

As I was tucking NHL into bed the other night, I hit upon the solution.  You see, NHL has a dinosaur, Trike, that he made from Build-A-Bear.

One year, using a birthday coupon, he purchased a Jedi outfit for Trike.

See this?

That’s Trike’s lightsaber.  See how it compares to a movie lightsaber? (Ok, a toy lightsaber from ThinkGeek.)

Well, now look how it compares to a Harry Potter wand.

It’s straight, has a handle and a pointed end.  It’d make a perfect wand.  As a bonus, it’s soft so you could hit someone with the wand/lightsaber without hurting them.  (Not that I’m encouraging this, mind you.)

No need to worry about NHL casting Stupefy on me, though.  I’ve already informed him that moms and dads are naturally immune to their kids’ spells.  NHL has attempted to cast a “reverse immunity spell” of his own making.  Of course, since I’m immune to any spell he casts, I’m immune to a spell which attempts to remove my immunity.  Still, I’ll play along with Expelliarmus from time to time.

What toys have your kids used for purposes other than what the manufacturers intended?

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