The little train that likes kids

[vilakins]

I've been meaning to take a picture of one of the kids' rides in the local mall. It's been disturbing me for about three years. What were the designers thinking of?



I mean, look at the thing! Its bad enough that its nose and mouth (and for that matter its eyes in another sense) are on its stomach along with its arms, but I think what's really worrying about it is that unlike harmless anthropomorphised trains like Thomas the Tank Engine, it has arms. Greg thinks it's the result of a teleport accident in which the driver and engine were merged, but I think its worse than that, Jim. Look at its teeth: they're blood-stained. The arms are for grabbing food with; no wonder the kids give it a wide berth.

The train seems to be a permanent fixture, but other rides come and go. At the moment there's a rotating Bat Cave with Robin lurking behind it, presumably turning it.

Comments

[astrogirl2.livejournal.com]

Great, now I feel like Bart Simpson. Can't sleep... Train will eat me... :)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Hide in the cave; Robin will protect you!

[ultrapsychobrat.livejournal.com]

I have a bad feeling about this....

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

And rightly!

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

I wouldn´go inside!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

You are very wise.

[snowgrouse.livejournal.com]

It's a Victorian kiddy-fiddler who's been punished by someone merging him with a train? I don't know. Fear.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

The yellow hat looks like something worn by an American cartoon character though. Yosemite Sam? (http://yosemite-sam.net/Sam/Sam-Side.jpg)

[zoefruitcake.livejournal.com]

that is scary :0( There is one outside our local supermarket that has a recording of children giggling that it plays randomly. I find this really odd and disturbing

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Disembodied laughter! I would too!

[reapermum.livejournal.com]

You didn't mention the moustache.

The cow catcher on the front and the chimney shape are an American style as well. That bulge on the chimney usually means that it is a wood fired loco.

And that is sad, discussing the engineering influences on a children's ride.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I did think the moustache was cow-catcher-shaped. It just adds to the weirdness though.

[imhilien.livejournal.com]

I would have avoided it as a kid just because of the teeth... :(

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Teeth are worrying anyway, but when they have red stains? OK, it could be chewed betel nuts or smudged lippy, but either way, that's almost as disturbing as blood for a kids' ride.

[san-valentine.livejournal.com]

I guess they were aiming for the avuncular elderly engineer thing, but the big round nose, moustache and leery mouth are just creepy, and not jolly.
And the arms are freaky. I don't think I've *ever* seen a cartoon engine with arms.

And it's a 2-2-12, which is downright peculiar.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

It looks very western.

Yeah, the arms and the horrible smile--it is leery--are the worst. I can't imagine who thought it would be something children would like. It puts me off my coffee.

[kalinda001.livejournal.com]

Eeek! For some reason that moustache seems to give it a sinister feeling as well for me.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

It is strangely smooth.

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

I always liked the horses. :^) Sitting inside a thing is too much like riding in a car, what's the point? I'm sure the kids pay it no mind.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

That's the thing: I don't see many riding in it. I agree though: rides that just go back and forward are boring. The best ride they ever had there was a wheel with a seat attached so that the kid went up and down and round and round. Lots rode that, shrieking with joy.

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

I remember one thing that was popular at an old shopping center when I was a kid (before all the paranoid safety rules) was a dinosaur statue, with a long, sloping neck and tail. There was always at least one kid climbing on it or sliding on it, or hanging from it. And it was free. :^)

[jaxomsride.livejournal.com]

It is like a Paedo version of "the Little Engine that could" character.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Paedo?

[jaxomsride.livejournal.com]

Paedophile - it's the bright pink nose that makes it seem somehow more wrong!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Oh. [shudder] It was the capital that threw me.