(remembered from February 2009)

If you have boys, you might be aware of the lure of action figures. All four of the older boys have, at one time or another, fallen prey to Power Rangers. About four months ago, maybe a bit longer, even our little Dean developed his first “obsession” - Iron Man. We have also seen Transformers, GI Joe, Star Wars, Pokemon, Bakugan, Ben 10, and many others. So, why would it surprise me that there is some toy called “Battletoads?”

Every few weeks, Hayden’s preschool had a fundraiser at Chick-fil-A. The restaurant would donate 10% of your total right to the school. One Wednesday, Hayden came home with a little sticker on his shirt.

“Mommy, I have to go to Chickalay tonight!” Yep! That’s how he said it, and I admit, it was so cute, I have taken to saying it that way as well.

“Really? And why is that?” I asked him.

“Cause my teacher says so.”

“We’ll see.” I responded. It was a rainy day, and before I knew it, it was 6pm. I had nothing pulled out for dinner, and the kids were getting hungry.

“Want to just go to Chickalay?” I asked my husband, who was lying on the couch looking bored.

“If you want to.” He replied. (Why did I KNOW he would say that?)

“Fine!” I turned around and yelled up the stairs, “Kids, let’s go. We’re going to chickalay.”

“Nice!” One said.

“Cool!” Said another.

“Finally, I’m hungry!” This from our oldest, who, if he does not consume at least 15,000 calories a day, is convinced that he is at risk of starvation.

I got the two younger boys dressed, and we all piled into Godzilla (our big, green, 12 passenger van). So, we get to Chickalay and placed our order. While Roy was waiting for our food, I heard my cell phone jingle. I took it out, and saw I had a text message.

“Where are my BBAATTLLEETTOOADSSSSSSS!!!!?????” Because of the poor spelling, it took me a moment to figure out what the hell that final word was.

“What’s a Battletoad?” I was sure it was some new action figure. Little toads that came with outfits - chainmail maybe? Small toads dressed up like ninjas? No wait, that’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Maybe they’re little toads dressed like knights with swords, horses, and a catapult?

Roy and the older boys started to laugh. This only further convinced me I was right. I mean come on! What kind of toy is a toad with a sword and a crown!?

After a moment, Roy stopped laughing and explained to me that “Battletoads” is an old game that came out in the early 90s for the NES. It was supposed to rival the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.” According to Wikipedia, it was one of the most graphically advanced games for the NES. Ok, so why was Joey asking me where it is? Did we have this game? I KNOW we didn’t still have the NES. Was I supposed to find an NES and a Battletoads game? Apparently I was taking this all WAY too literally.

I am still not quite sure what the deal is… apparently some kids called up a GameStop asking for this game, and they thought it was so funny that they kept doing it until GameStop got angry and threatened to call the cops on them. Or maybe it’s a YouTube video. I still don’t know. All I am sure of is Battletoads is NOT a new action figure series, and that it is for the NES.

So anyways, as we were driving home from Chickalay, Joey mentioned he wanted the new “Chronicles of Riddick” for the 360. Roy told him that he would buy it for him, if he would run into GameStop and ask if they had Battletoads.

I, of course, thought this was hilarious. As Roy went to turn into the parking lot of the shopping center where GameStop is located, I was laughing so hard that I couldn’t catch my breath. All the kids were laughing, and I think for a moment that if we were better parents, we would not be encouraging our kids to bother hard working sales associates. Joey stopped laughing long enough to tell Roy that he couldn’t do it. He was too embarrassed and giggly.

“I’ll do it!” And Corey jumped out of the van.

“Doesn’t count if you have no proof!” Roy yelled after him, and, of course, I had to jump out of the van to see if Corey really does it.

We ran into the store. Unfortunately, we were laughing too hard to get it out. And since we were (and are) such good customers there, most of the people that work there knew and/or recognized us, so I think our crazy behavior got a pass.

Corey finally got it out, and the young man behind the counter laughed. He told us no, they didn’t have Battletoads, but he was pretty sure that you could download it for the Wii.

“Really? Cool!” Corey got this out and then asked if they had the game that Joey wanted.

It was at this point that I realized I did not have my purse, and since I didn’t think they were going to give us the game, I told Corey we were going to have to come back when I actually had some way of paying for it.

We stumbled out of the store, still laughing like a couple of drunken frat boys, got into the van, and told Roy what happened. He laughed at us and drove home.

Again, I am sure that encouraging my kids to behave in this manner is the mark of an irresponsible mother. Okay, maybe not irresponsible, but certainly childish. On the other hand, those few minutes of silliness gave us all something to laugh about. Something we still laugh about today, and it created a little inside family joke that we can joke about for years to come! I do want to add that I would not advocate them making prank phone calls and actually bothering the young men that work at the store, nor would I have done this if we didn’t know the people working there. As I mentioned before, we are in there often - trading games, buying games, or just asking questions - so they know us and know that we were just joking and meant no harm or offense.