When Tornado asked me today if I could make him a “drop attack” for his Super Mario figures, I was pretty clueless and had to research a while before I had figured out what he wanted. It was, of course, a “THWOMP“: 
If, like me, you are not a gamer and never have been one, this charming thing is one of the many enemies / obstacles Mario and his friends (or brothers?) encounter in the Mushroom Kingdom. And it does indeed, go after Mario via something that could be called a ‘drop attack’ . Fair enough.
I had not done any cardboard craft worth mentioning lately, and damn, if I did not make a really awesome cardboard model of those spikey rocks !? [ I used cardboard and markers, some "Wite'Out" for the eyes and the teeth. I have just drawn the face free-handed but we also came across a website where you can download more exact models of the goodies and baddies from Nintendo's universe for papercraft constructions. Well, if you are into that…]
I really think it’s weird how some of my son’s favourite characters come from what seems like the ice age of gaming or even TV (he loves Scooby-Doo – it came first out in 1969!) but are still going strong, popular with the little ones and with with merchandise in the shops and all..
Links:
http://www.mariowiki.com/Thwomp
http://www.nintendopapercraft.com/2008/04/mario-enemies.html
My Princess loves Scooby Doo too, and I am always so impressed when she likes movies of older tales. The Secret Garden was a big hit the other week, and last night she was really into Journey to the Centre of the Earth, so much so that we couldn’t have our planned early night (we are both sick). We’ve promised each other to read both books together when she is a little older (and more willing to concentrate on a chapter book).
Yeah, it’s not so easy if you want to open up their horizons to all kinds of different genres. I am also still struggling to make him sit through a chapter of actual books and then make him accept that we’ll only read further the next day! I’m very keen on reading Jules Verne with him soon, too. I had never heard of ‘the secret garden’, am writing it down now
I will try to hunt down some Astrid Lindgren (beyond Pipi Longstocking, that’s not even my favorites) in English. Watching Narnia reminded me of how much I loved them as a child…
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