At the intersection of Octonauts and Star Wars

Our oldest son just turned 7. Prior to much planning or research he opted for a Star Wars themed birthday party at home. For a kid turning 7 a Star Wars birthday party is a safe bet. We planned some cool Star Wars themed games for the party, sent out the invitations and let the Force be with us. Shortly after that we went to Toys R’ Us to see what toys were new and popular. It was then that he saw things that neither of us expected to see, Octonauts toys.

He was a couple isles ahead of us and I heard him yell, “daddy, daddy, Octonauts toys”. This had to be a mistake, I thought. I knew there weren’t any toys from that series. Last spring every big box store put their Octonauts toys on clearance and hasn’t had them since.

Sure enough, much to the joy of Captain Barnacle and Kwazi; who were back at home in his room, he was correct. For his 5^th and 6^th birthday party the Octonauts had been a big staple. His 6^th birthday, thanks to the closeout of Octonauts toys mainly consisted of vehicles and characters from the show.

Every episode on Netflix has been seen, he has every toy that was in that clearance sale and knows the distinguishing characteristics of every Gup. In true cartoon marketing fashion there is an almost alphabet long line up of Gups. There’s the Gup-A, Gup-C, transport vehicles and most of the characters in the show had multiple suits available.

He was the world’s biggest Octoanauts fan once again, but there was a problem, Star Wars.

All of his friends are into Star Wars. It’s elementary school peer pressure. A couple, more cerebral kids are Trekkies, but they’re the true children of geeks who are ahead of the curve. Star Wars is the thread that bonds, even though most first graders haven’t seen any of the films. It’s a franchise that grows with its audience and has entry points for many ages.

Octonauts, on the other hand, is a kid’s show that rarely makes the leap to middle school, much less upper elementary. A 7 year old saying that they watch Octanuts is the exception. Factor in a child that age that wants to play with Octonauts toys and the ratio goes even lower.

I was experiencing my own watered down, secondhand shades of Bronie. That experience when you are not the intended demographic for something that you legitimately enjoy.

One time a friend of our son’s was at our house playing.

“Do you have Gears of War”, he asked. No. “Nuclear Fallout”? No.

Sensing a need to inject some entertainment into the situation our son said, “Hey want to watch some television”?

“Sure”, his suddenly surly friend said.

“What about Phineas & Ferb? I love that show” said our son.

“Phineas & Ferb is for babies” the jerk first grader without any sense of taste, moral compass or soul said.

The kids watched Phineas & Ferb. I could hear my son laughing out loud while his friend was begrudgingly sitting on the sofa waiting for his mother to come pick him up.

I’m OK with our son still wanting to play with Octonauts toys. Sure the toys are a little young for his age, but that’s fine. He really enjoys playing with them and as long as he likes other things, like Star Wars, Chewbacca, Master Yoda (literally, our son calls him Master Yoda!), Rey, BB-8 and others then it’s all good.