Re: Hot Toys: MMS The Terminator 1/6th T-800. Specs & Pictures Coming Soon (teaser)
Sadly, I watched T1 for the first time when I was far too young to be watching it (6 years old or so), and the scene with his eye freaked me out as a kid, and no doubt contributed to the psychological trauma that made me the dysfunctional weirdo that I am currently (watching Monty Python's Meaning of Life was far more traumatic, but that's a story for another day).
Wow, this sounds familiar. That really hits home and resonates with me. Especially the psychological trauma part.
I was REALLY young when I first saw Terminator. I knew about it because of it's influence on pop culture but I was vaguely familiar with all of it. It was around a year or two after T2 came out so my knowledge of it didn't go past the Kenner figures, Sega Genesis game or the Arcade game.
Still, I remember asking if my dad had the film about "cops and robots". I thought the basic plot of the film was about two cyborgs fighting to become cops or something. I thought the future battlefield that I saw in the game and pinball machine art was of a junk yard, especially with the frames of the cars. Keep in mind I couldn't have been more than 3 or 4 years old. I was obviously more fascinated with the "half man, half machine" concept than I was with the future/past.
So naturally I begged my dad to see a rated R movie. He kept telling me he didn't have it despite the fact that he literally had EVERY film in his entertainment room (all VHS back then). Well my mom had left to go somewhere one day and my dad called me. He had something behind his back and said, "look what I found". He turned it over and it was The Terminator VHS cover. It wasn't those cardboard/paper box slip covers this thing was like a plastic case that you'd find at the library with the little hole in the back.
My dad thought he had done well but initially I knew there was something not quite right about this one. For starters it didn't have the "cop" and if just seemed different. Me being the brat I was, I knew this was the "wrong" version but I watched it anyway.
Of course, I ____ING LOVED IT. The surgery scene, ____ YOU ASS HOLE, closing my eyes when Kyle and Sarah poke, all this stuff on an impressionable child. Lets just say it was a very quotable film for me and it started my journey with rated R films. It freaked the hell out of me but I loved every minute of it.
My mom found out, like most moms do and she wasn't very pleased with my dad. After that she was always getting pissed at him because I'd either be quoting it, pretending to be a terminator or what have you. She soon gave up on trying to tell my dad it was "time for him to go to bed".
But man, even as a kid I understood how gritty it was. I didn't understand the basic concept of it all like John Connor or the technoir aesthetic but I got the dark vibes of the 80s.
That kicked off Terminator 2 when my dad got the VHS special edition for me and we watched it. Finally he got the "right" one, the one I experienced through other media like, again the Kenner toys and micromachines.
They're both equally special to me for different reasons. Terminator being the one where I was peeking through my covered eyes at some robot taking his eye out and Terminator 2 with me being in awe and starting to "get it".
And now here I am. Batman (in the form of the Burton films and MAINLY the Animated Series) and the Terminator were the first things I was into. Batman being first I think (damn I had to have been a year or two old, parents told me I called him "debo") and Terminator being second.
Great stuff.