06/08/04
Dragon Memories

In real life long ago I had this toy dragon, and a little toy "action figure" (really just a figure) who sat atop it. Now I no longer remember what this toy was called or what toy series it was in or what if anything inspired it; it looked like some kind of ice dragon, all in shades of blue and green-blue, and transparent, all with angular edges as if it had been carved out of ice. It had a curving neck and flaring eyes and its mouth was open, showing jagged teeth. It had a "crystal" set into its breast (just a little crystal-shaped spot painted over) and its spade-tipped tail curled up into the air, mimicking its neck. It had clawed paws, and it had big spreading batlike wings that could be removed. In fact, later on I lost these wings when they broke off, and never found them again. The little guy who sat atop it was also in shades of green and blue and looked as if he were made of ice, with his legs spread so he could straddle its back; I can't remember if his arms were up or down, but I think he had a kind of helmet over his head (part of the toy, not separate); he might have carried a staff or trident or something at one time. He looked like some sort of god or something. His limbs were not moveable. The only other specific detail I can remember of this toy was that it was designed to look like it was flying: You attached it to a piece of invisible fishing line or some such, and when you soaped this (rubbed it with a bar of soap to make it slick), the dragon, with its rider atop it, would zoom down this line, flying across the room. I had a bad habit of taking this toy to the bathtub with me though, so over time its transparent icy blue features became cloudy with soap scum. I eventually lost the little rider guy but I always liked the dragon more, and I remember I named him Zeus and declared him king of the gods in my little world of animal toys. Even though he looked more like he'd come from some Norse pantheon or something.

ANYWAY...I believe this dragon toy is somewhere upstairs, but I'm not sure where. I haven't played with my animal figurines in ages so I haven't really been thinking about him or the rest of them, so why he appeared suddenly in this dream is beyond me.

In the dream, I was at what was supposed to be the Book Stop, a used books store and bus stop in Petoskey, only it was bigger and more like a library. Ma was with me and I was browsing the books to see if they had anything good. In the dream I retained a memory of having been here recently in real life, when I had spent almost all of my money on CDs. I vowed to stop visiting eBay and such for a while so I can save up some money to pay for an account upgrade at a website I'm a member of, since it always seems I end up relying on someone else's generosity, and that makes me feel guilty. I'd like to pay my own way for once although I'm so bad with money I'm not sure how that will pan out. :/ In the dream I remembered this, and thought, "I shouldn't be looking at the books, or the CDs, or anything. I should just leave now before I spend my money." But I then thought, "I'll try to spend only a little bit. THEN I'll stop buying things! While I'm here I just want to see if they have anything interesting. I won't go crazy like I did last time."

Well, I was having better luck with the books this time around than in real life, since in real life I hadn't seen any that had much interested me (which was strange), which was why I'd spent all my money on CDs (I've only recently made the switch from cassette to CD and am replacing some albums). I went over to a shelf that, if this were the Cheboygan Public Library, would have been near where the paranormal section used to be, not far to the right of the entrance when you're facing the doors. I started coming across some interesting books on a lower shelf and had to kneel down to look at them. There were some to the left that I paid some attention to; this might have been in a different part of the dream as it seemed like I was in my bedroom trying to find a book to bring along with me to read somewhere, but I'll describe it here. One of these books was for a young adult audience but the cover made it look intriguing. It was a kind of geeky-looking girl in big glasses, smiling, and she might have had a fountain behind her and some sort of fantasy-looking things. That drew my attention but I tried reading the blurb and it looked as if the book wasn't much about fantasy at all. I remember one word used to describe the genre was "Impressionist," like the painting movement. "Ugh," I thought, "some kind of deep literary style." Truthfully, I hate really literary modern works because in my opinion they're mostly pretentious air and don't make much sense. Give me good old genre novels any day.

However, I continued looking it over and wondered if maybe it was some kind of modern fantasy, like Madeleine L'Engle's books. I NEVER understood her A Wrinkle In Time stories and so didn't care for them :/ but maybe I could like this one? Maybe? I'm not sure what I decided. I took that one off the shelf but I don't know what I did with it. I seemed to browse a few more around it too--remember, this seemed to be taking place under or near my bed in my bedroom at night, and these were like books I already owned. Some of the other books might have been about writing. These were on the left. Anyway the dream shifted back into the Book Stop and I seemed to forget about those books. Now on the right end of the shelf I noticed at least three little books that were obviously part of a set, and, curious, I pulled them out one by one.

Every one of these tiny books had a different character on the front. It was a closeup of their faces, staring at the reader; they were paintings. They were in vibrant color and looked like cat people of some kind; one was orange like a tabby, and one might have been black. These books were small hardcovers, not many pages (maybe about 4x5", 1/4" or so thick), and well worn; I turned them over and noticed that, according to the back, each one was named after a month, like "December" and "September" (I can't recall specific months by now). I'd hoped that these three were the only ones in the series, but this information made me believe there must in fact be twelve of them. Normally? I don't get series books unless there's a guarantee I can get ALL books in the series. Which is not often. However, here I was so intrigued by these little books that I decided I wanted them, whether the series was complete or not. Who knew? Maybe someday I could locate the rest on eBay or something.

I removed the three books and stood up, carrying them away in my hand. I thought, "I really shouldn't be getting these. I don't have enough money for them now." Then I thought, "Maybe Ma will pay for them for me. Just as long as I don't go way overboard. I really have to start saving." I felt guilty about asking Ma to pay for them, but I really wanted these little books. I hoped they wouldn't cost TOO much, although their age might make them antiques, so who knew.

As I wandered I started to browse the books a bit more, and they changed. They no longer seemed to be about cat people, but about dragon people, or else dragons. Each book was about a different character in this series which was set in the Eighties or something. (When I say "set in" I don't mean that was when it was supposed to take place--I mean that was when the series was popular--like Pound Puppies, or My Little Pony, or Masters Of The Universe--in fact it's that last series I think of the most when I think of these dragons. It was similar to that. Think of popular Eighties toys and their cartoon tie-ins, and vice-versa, and you'll get what I mean.) Now there seemed to be a little line drawing of the characters on the backs of the books, which were now white; the drawings seemed to be down in the right corner. And on one of the books I saw a familiar face. It was my old blue dragon!

Granted, he was different. The dragons seemed to possess anthropomorphic forms here, like people who could change into dragons, or half humans, half dragons. But I recognized him nonetheless. I was so surprised! I had always wondered what toy series that dragon was from, and here I had inadvertently found it! The book even had his name! Until now he had been merely "Zeus" to me--I was so thrilled to know his actual name. In the dream my interest in finding out the history of this dragon toy was much greater than it was in real life--it was almost like finding out about one's ancestors. I'm only sad that I can't remember the name he had. :( It was a weird fantasy name that might have been kind of evocative of his dragon nature, like Dragynn or something--I seem to recall a Y and an N or double N ending the name, maybe a V or an L, though I'm afraid I can't be positive on anything. Just a stereotypical fantasy-sounding name.

And these other two books were about two more dragon characters in this same series. From what little I got of the story they seemed to be fighting against some bad guys to protect some kind of land or kingdom or something, and there was lots of conflict, a never-ending battle. Like I said, very much like Masters Of The Universe. The series seemed to be rather humorless, as the characters had grim looks on their faces and never seemed to smile; they were quite serious and gloomy. Perhaps from all the fighting, I guess.

I went to Ma to show her these books, feeling absolutely elated. "Take a look at these!" I exclaimed with glee. "My dragon toy! This is about him! This is his name! He has a real name!"

Ma glanced at the books and snorted. "Look at how old those things are!" she exclaimed, and stepped away. Curious, I glanced at the backs of the books which now had the year of publication printed on them. I had expected the books to be from the Eighties, maybe around twenty years old at the most. However, one of the books--they now seemed to have black or dark back covers--said, in white print, that it was from either 1940 or 1950! YIKES! I couldn't believe how old it was, either! I really had had no clue the series was created so long ago! I could only guess that my dragon toy had been part of a revival or "second printing" of sorts, and was not an original. (I seemed to be equating the toy with the books now, for some reason. This is hard to explain. Perhaps I had assumed that the toy came out at the same time as the books, but now I guessed that the books had come out first, then maybe there had been another printing of them later, and the toy came out then? Or perhaps the toy really was a "second edition"--or perhaps these books were not really this old, but were second editions with the original date of publication listed on them? I never seemed to think of OTHER editions in the meantime, only a second one, concerning the toy itself. Sorry I can't be more clear, I can't recall exactly what I was thinking. *shrug*) A later glance at one of the other books revealed a date like 1911. Yipe. All I'm sure of is that my toy must be newer than the books themselves. Oh well. I was still thrilled to find out a history for my old toy. I just HAD to get these books.

At one point I located a line drawing of my toy dragon. I showed it to Ma, still excited, and started describing my own toy. I did this because I now noticed subtle differences between the drawing and my own toy, and now I knew for a fact that there had been an older edition of the toy, and mine was newer and had gone through some changes since the first. At first like I said these differences were minimal, but as I continued comparing and contrasting the two, the differences grew greater until the dragon in the book barely resembled my toy dragon at all. I felt brief hesitation at believing they were in fact the same toy, but brushed it off--of course they were! They'd just decided to change the toy for a more sophisticated audience. (Witness what the old "He-Man" toy looks like compared to the newer one! I rest my case.)

The primary difference was with the wings. I pointed out the drawing's wings to Ma. They were segmented into two sections, the one attached to the body, and the end of the wing, attached to that. They looked like squared-off plates of plastic, kind of wider at the end than at the base, more like they should be used for paddling than flying. They were more mobile in that they were segmented, but they didn't really look like dragon wings. "Now MY dragon," I told her, "has these solid wings that aren't segmented, but they look like real bat's wings, like he can really use them to fly." My dragon looked BETTER than the old one. The drawing also at first didn't seem to have forearms, but when it did they were very small and fat and hard to see, curled up against its breast like those of a tyrannosaurus rex. I pointed out how mine had longer arms and legs with big claws on them. (The drawing was facing the left, roaring much like my dragon toy, and seemed to be drawn in red and black. I think it had a rider but I didn't pay much attention to him since the rider characters seemed unimportant; I don't even remember reading about them in the books.) The dragon's head was different in some way too, but I don't recall how. I just know that it didn't really look like my toy anymore.

Ma was not much interested, but I was very interested in learning the toy's story! I wanted to read the books and maybe complete the series someday. The dream switched to me watching some sort of old movie on a TV or something. The film quality was fuzzy, the makeup and costumes and effects were shoddy, and the acting goofy and cheap; it was like an early barbarian film, like with Conan or something. You know, those goofy fantasy/action flicks from the Seventies and early Eighties. I realized that this was a movie version of the story of the dragons! Cool! I forgave the blatant cheesiness because it was, after all, probably from the Eighties. Just about everything from the Eighties cartoon and toy crazes is now very cheesy. Anyone remember Rude Dog & The Dweebs or Foofur or Kid Video? Or even Popples or The Fluppy Dogs or The Wuzzles? I rest my case. Damn, I'm cringing to admit *I* still remember those, plus I have a Fluppy Dog AND a Wuzzle of my own. o_o;;;

Anyway...*cough* I was very interested in this movie. It seemed to be set in a cave with orangish walls. (Fake, of course.) I know there was a mystical black woman character and a black male character who might have been a wizard or a bad guy, and they were of course wearing really out-there, pseudo-fantasy/sci-fi goofy costumes. I seem to remember diaphanous lavender-colored stuff, the color purple, maybe shiny glittery or metallic stuff like lamé. Typical Eighties clothing styles. I think the black female character, who was somewhat older (maybe in her fifties?), had big puffy hair which might have flared out at the bottom, maybe graying. She was a good guy, some sort of priestess or mystical type; I think she wore the flowing lavender, in conjunction with some other darker clothing. The black guy reminded me of a modern popular actor but I'm not sure who; maybe like Samuel L. Jackson or Laurence Fishburne. He might have resembled a black actor who was on Law & Order: Criminal Intent before, who was a college professor with a literary rap CD; he wasn't very attractive. He might have been wearing darker purple stuff, like capes and collars and such. Very silly and over the top. The movie was quite melodramatic, with lots of talking and overacting and senses of foreboding and doom, but unfortunately I can't recall any of it besides that. No dragons ever seemed to enter it (perhaps they were in their human form?), though I knew this was directly related to my toy and I was interested in seeing the outcome.

I said already that, although I've been mildly curious as to what my dragon toy is actually called, I haven't had that conscious interest lately, and it's never been very strong. After having this dream however, I really DO wonder what that toy is called and if there were any others like it, like in a series? Unfortunately I have no clue where to even start looking, since I got it so long ago, and it's not part of any mega-popular Eighties toy series I can remember. :/



2004 Dreams
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