I received many toys throughout my childhood, some I still remember but most of which I have already forget. But there is one toy that I will always remember for the rest of my life. It was a transformer toy “Optimus Prime” which is also the main character of one of the most famous cartoon in the history “Transformer”, a story about a bunch of intelligent alien robots fights against the evil robot force and protecting the earth. My dad gave me this toy when I was 5 after his business in the USA. I can still visualize the scene when I got this brilliant toy. My dad hold a big package with one hand and wore a smile on his face indicating something good would happen, then he came to hold me with the other hand and gave me the toy in a surprising way. When I found this mint-in-box “Optimus Prime” you can imagine how exciting and happy I was. Cuz you know, back in mid 90’s, this type of transformer robots toys were impossible to find in China, plus it was “Optimus Prime” my beloved cartoon character. All of these properties and features made this toy so unique and special for me, and it was definitely the most impressive and special toy from my boyhood. Because of that, I seldom played this toy and kept in mint-in-box for almost 5 years before I opened it for the first time.

• Compared with the toys that children play nowadays, is there any toy you didn’t have when you were young?

I think yes, the world of toy has changed over the years. Back in my boyhood, the type of toys were more funny and aggressive but nowadays the toys tend to be more fluffy and lovely, I think the reason is because of the type of cartoon that kids watch nowadays has shifted a lot so the cartoon-based toy models shifted accordingly.

•Do you think children should play with hi-tech toys?

I don’t think it really necessary to recommend the hi-tech toys to kids, firstly, most of the hi-tech toys are video games or radiation related, which I think is bad for both the psychological and physical development for them, secondly, the wide-spread of hi-tech toys will somehow lower the performing ability of kids, and that is definitely bad for them too