I resemble that remark!

True but I have a BIG issue with JEJ as Vader being at 7. Top 5 at very least!

Worldbuilding can indeed be over done, but for me it is integral for immersion in a story. The setting should be treated like another character. IMO not enough genre authors understand this. Frankly, even non-genre authors should be able to bring a setting to life.

If they were contemporaries it might count as bad manners, but this kind of literary slam is common when you have a younger writer clearing some space in a genre dominated by a figure like Tolkien. And Moorcock's remarks are pretty mild as this kind of thing goes. The way that shit-talk each other in the fine arts…

From the horse's mouth:

Or you could say that LotR is a derivative mass of longueurs with a few interesting passages in between.

No wonder I became a game illustrator...

with the minifigs dispatched to the corner of the ancient suitcase I carried them in. Never liked minifigs, still don't.

Here are my top 3, in no particular order.

More a game than a toy, but hopefully it still counts. I loved Dark Tower as a kid, could play it for hours on end solo or with others.

I'm not sure if they were my favorites, but I do recall spending an unhealthy amount of time with colorforms. Especially the Trek kits, and also pretty much every cartoon character that was popular at the time....

I just remembered these: Capsela and Robotix.

It varied on my mood. Legos were (and continue to be) a favorite of mine that usually made me happy no matter what day, but other days I enjoyed playing with my barbies. Still other days i would play with the few star wars toys i had, or my thundercats. I think my favorite playtime sessions were when my cousin was…

Construx—Fisher-Price's "Action Building System":

Construx was probably my favorite. It was a building block system made out of plastic bars and little blue interconnects. I used to build giant rockets out of them and have them sitting around the house.

I had millions of these; mainly army ones, but also football players and medieval figures as well. Used to have lots of WWII reenactment going on on the bedroom floor. Used to build lots of Airfix model planes, tanks and ships as well.

My Thingmaker (and its associated Mold sets). I made Fighting Men, Creepy Crawlers (small and large), Creeple Peeple, Mini-Dragons, Batman, Superman, and the Green Hornet, and scary stuff with the Fright Factory. All I needed was an endless supply of Plastigoop. The Creepy Crawlers sets have gone through several…

I got this when I was 7 or 8 years old; I remember staying up late putting it together with my dad. When the gray castle sets started coming out, I made a point of getting every single one (though I missed the Knight's Castle) until about when I graduated high school - I would join them and rework them and build…

Maybe it just wasn't in your wheelhouse, but good on you for re-treading it until you came 'round.