relegated to somewhere in a box or a drawer

"Did I really play with that all the time?" I suppose that we all ask that sort of question about some long-forgotten, and to more grown-up eyes unattractive, plaything. And the embarrassing answer is usually a rather simple "yes". Of course it's not only a question of growing out of something, but also of things breaking, of parts getting lost. Often it's a case of great disappointment that lasts for ... I don't know, perhaps a couple of hours, until something else occupies our thoughts.

A superhero that folds into a ... maybe it was a giant spider or beetle, maybe a tank. What's clear is that it doesn't do so anymore - either we've forgotten how to fold it, or something simply doesn't work right. Occasionally the boys find it and spend a few moments folding and unfolding it, but there's no denying that its lost whatever attraction it had.