(1) When I was last in Toys R Us, I saw that they still sell Crossbows & Catapults. This was a game where you each built a little fort out of plastic bricks and places dudes and flags on them. You then used little catapults and bastillas to fire glorified checkers pieces at each other's forts, attempting to take out his flags first. I had it as a youth and it warmed my heart to know it's still in production. Jophiel Jr. will definately be getting it this year.
However, they no longer produce HeroQuest which was a cool little boardgame where you explored a dungeon as a party of an elf, dwarf, barbarian and wizard and fought goblins, mummies, etc. It had lots of neat 3D furniture pieces and little monster figurines, etc. Copies of it now sell on eBay for $50 or so unless you want a set missing all my spell cards and a horse stepped on the weapon rack. This angers me because the kiddo would have loved him some HeroQuest, guaranteed,
My friend still has his HeroQuest game but it'd be immoral of me to try to weasel it out from him.
(2) When I was a youth of nine years or so, I was walking home one day in very cold, snowy weather. I was cutting through suburban yards and, in one backyard, a girl of 16-18 years of age called to me from the house. She asked me if I wanted to come in and warm up. I declined. She said she had hot chocolate inside. I declined again. She said that she had a kid inside my age who wanted to play but he was sick and wouldn't I like to play with him? I declined. She said he had a pool table in the basement. I declined and went on my way. Something in my mind said that she was trying way too hard to get a strange kid into her house.
To this day, I still sometimes find myself curious to know what would have happened if I took her on her offer. Would I have drank cocoa and played pool? Been kidnapped? Molested? Was she trying to get me in for her benefit or for someone else in the house? It seems morbid that I'd ever think "If I had to do that over, I'd go for it just to find out" but there ya go.