Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for August 08, 2011

Most manuals for electronics seem impossible to understand.

I agree!

Looks like it lost the dog fight…

Un-Friendly Fire?

“I call this piece ‘Japanese Zero at Midway’ …”

Curse you, Red Baron!

Nothing new for Hobbes to witness.

ha ha.

When I was a boy (12 in 1949-50’s), we built kit model airplanes out of balsa wood with tissue paper glued to the wood for the wings. We hung them from the ceiling in our bedrooms and all the kids compared each others. Go into Wal-mart today and see if you can find these kits. We also built sailing ships that mom displayed on the den table. What happened?

If he grows up Calvin will become a prime exponent of road rage.

really it Difficult to rebuilt…

“If I Had a Hammer” – Trini LopezThat’s just ‘plane’ silly!

i think he inhaled all of it.

@Kreole- I’m a decade or so behind you (b. 1945). but model building- from balsa planes and boats to Revell’s plastic car, ship, and plane models- was a favorite pastime before I discovered that girls were more fun. At around 15 it got a little testy, though- Warren’s Hobby Shop around the corner was only three stores up the street from La Ritz Bakery, where Dottie K. worked that summer. Teenage turmoil!I blame Atari and “progress”.

@Nab- All those beautiful pieces staring you in the face, and you stopped to read all the directions before picking up the Testor’s and poking a hole in the tube? Wish Congress had that kind of restraint. Good move, though- most of the cars were pretty simple; the New Jersey and the Graf Zeppelin took a bit more patience and skill. The wooden boats- well, I won’t get into that.

A simple solution! To think it over needs more effort!

Yesterday I broke one of my expensiv porcelain plates. I glued it together, but it is not as well as before!

See Calvin that’s why you need to pay attention in school so you learn how to follow directions.

poor calvin!

Calvin the destroyer. (He’ll never be a builder).

Patience isn’t a quality Calvin has in abundance.

We know what Calvin does with planes; what would he do with trains and automobiles? And that’s the “plain” truth!

If at first you don’t succeed, give up and blame another before failure becomes a habit.

Pilot error: he crash-landed a perfectly good aircraft!

Wonder what it would be like today if Joseph had been a carpenter like Calvin

In Calvin’s defence, a 6 year old shouldn’t be tackling a project like that alone anyway. At that age, it should be a father/son bonding experience. (Especially with the glue getting all over the place!)

@cleo: HA !

If at first you don’t succeed…

I wonder if most feel like doing what Calvin did to electronics.

Self destruct for security reasons .Instructions translated from Japan or China.My hands where too big.Oh there’s lots of reasons I did not like models

The hobby stores are still there, They just sell through the Internet now.You DO have to look for them though.

A kit is only as good as the person writing the instructions. In 1956 I built a Heathkit AR-3 shortwave receiver. Worked as soon as plugged in. Still works today, but it has become technological obsolete. (Though not kits, Tektronix used to put out manuals that could be understood by anyone troubleshooting the equipment.)

Awwwww, Poor Calvin

Why are things ALWAYS difficult? :(

xxx

kreole: Instant gratification. Few are willing to take the time to build a model, much less the time to develop the skills required. I have models in five museums and a couple of private collections. I miss it since effective tremor set in. [Sigh]

I built a gas engine propelled model from a kit when I was a kid. I put it together just right and painted a beautiful glossy yellow, with several coats of paint. The paint weighed it down so much that it barely lifted 2 feet off the ground.

When I was a kid, I also built the balsa wood/tissue paper planes. They were rubber band powered and I’d fly them out of the attic window. Then, when they’d get beat up, I’d give them one last glorious flight by setting them on fire and letting them go.

Mostly what i needed, when dealing with such models, was a few more years chalked up on my own fuselage.

Calvin the artist using the Universal Attitude Adjustment Device on his work. The wonderfully imaginative little boy with a low tolerance for frustration – is there a psychiatric name for that?

Hobbes won! Hobbes won! (giggles)

Hmmm…. mine usually mysteriously combust.

Now that was just “plane” bad!!!!!;-)

Wham! Wham! Wham! Now that’s showing it who’s boss!!!!! ;-)

Flight down! Flight down!

Star Wolf must have hit it.

It’s actually possible to do a lot more to a model than just glue it together. Removing seams… textured paint… enhancements such as hinges, motors, lamps… Or put it in a diorama; Calvin’s model there could go in a jungle scene with little men holding the pilot at gunpoint

@thebird55,Calvin smote the plane with a hammer.Smote is one of my favorite words from the Bible.“And David smote them from the twilight even unto the evening of the next day: and there escaped not a man of them, save four hundred young men, which rode upon camels, and fled.” I Samuel 30:17This is from the Bible lesson I taught at the Springfield Rescue Mission at the evening Chapel Service last Thursday.I don’t think I could preach a sermon on a comma, though.