I sent in my entry today. Doubt I'll win but I figured I'd give it a shot!

My Christmas story sends us way back to 1981. There I am (in the picture included), chili bowl haircut and all. Oh, look there’s mom in the background in her LVN uniform… ah those where the days. Oh, where was I? Oh yes, the star of the photo and my story: Kenner’s AT AT walker from 1980’s Empire Strikes Back! I can’t say this was a big surprise kind of Christmas present, oh no, I knew this was coming. I’d been nagging my mom for months and was all but shown the darn thing before the actual day of unveiling. This was the granddaddy of the ‘Empire’ toys and every kid’s fantasy and the center of many hour of play (before and) after that wonderful Christmas. Before, you ask? Oh yes. You see, the AT AT walker was always there in my many hours of Star Wars adventure but unfortunately it was invisible and Luke, Han, and the rest were on a mission to make the AT AT visible so they could use it against the evil empire. I would guess that for about three months before Christmas I often had the AT AT as the center of my play time with my Star Wars guys. This toy was that big and important. This wasn’t the type of toy you got for a birthday or any occasion, this was a Christmas only toy, the big gun, the colossus! For that three months I’d often look a the calendar and count the number of days before the AT AT would be ‘visible’ so that Luke could kick stormtrooper butt!

Christmas day arrives… my palms are sweaty in anticipation (more than likely just sweaty, dirty kid hands). I wanted to open it soooo bad. Now my older brother loved to torture me (don’t they all). He would try to slip doubt into my young, fragile mind. He would constantly say that the big box under the tree was infact full of under ware. He would go on and on about the under ware with the funny little designs on them, knowing full well that I would spaz out at this. He even went so far as to claim that my mother got an actual AT AT box and filled it with the unwanted under pants. This treatment lasted up until the moment I actually opened the box and verified that there was a hunk of plastic in there and not cotton briefs.

There it was!!! OMG! (of couse we didn’t say that back in those days, probably like: golly gee!). The Empire Strikes Back AT AT walker! EEEEEEEE! I opened it in such a rush that I made a fatal mistake (we will come to that later). I slapped the few pieces together and BAM, Imperial goodness! This was massive for a vehicle toy. You could cram a ton of figures inside it and still have room to put more in the cockpit. This was back in the day of one color plastic molding and no detail painting so the AT AT was very bland. Oh well, stickers would take care of that… the stickers right… here… uh… wait a second… I can’t find the stickers! Where are the stickers!? Arrrrrg! Right then and there I lost the sticker sheet. That very day. I have no idea where they went. I am not sure if they got thrown away with all the usual Christmas wrapping trash everyone accumulates on this day, all I do know is I never saw them. Sigh… I played with that thing would the benefit of some decent stickers and I have always been careful to keep an eye on them ever since. The AT AT was now ‘visible’ and was often stolen by Luke and Han and just as often reclaimed by the empire to wreak havoc on those low-life scumbag rebels. As a side note of fun, I would often yank the legs off of the AT AT and (poof!) you had a ‘rolling’ attack transport. Many moons later, when the newness of the AT AT wore off I used it to create dioramas on top of my dresser. Rebel soldiers would be running in terror from the fury of a government done wrong.

I will never forget that fantastic Christmas or that fantastic toy that gave me so many hours of pure enjoyment. It’s an experience that has kept me collecting and enjoying toys will into my 30’s.