(Re-)constructing childhood memories: nostalgia, creativity, and the expanded worlds of the Lego fan community

The remediation of classic and long-lost children’s film, television, games, and toys highlights the increasing importance of nostalgia within contemporary popular culture. The proliferation of official and unofficial, corporate and fan produced websites and online databases allow access to media from a pre-Internet era. Tied to this digital rebirth of children’s media is a growing adult fan culture centered on the remembering and recollecting of childhood where memory forms the basis for active online communities that engage in the trading and (re)purchasing of new and old toys and games from their youth. These activities can be seen as part of what epitomizes the “rejuvenile,” a new breed of adult described by Christopher Noxon as someone “who cultivates tastes and mind-sets traditionally associated with those younger than themselves” (Noxon 2006, 4). Similarly, Gary Cross’s work Men to Boys (2008) argues that we are in an age personified by “boy-men” where traditional notions of maturity and masculinity are being transformed alongside an increasingly attractive return to the pleasures of youth. Both authors choose broad-ranging examples from popular culture to illustrate their points and media is central to their analyses of when and where these cultural changes have occurred. Hollywood and the entertainment industry have not only responded to this shift in adult identification but they have actively encouraged people to want to reconnect with their youth and not feel juvenile when enjoying the latest superhero blockbuster or buying a toy action figure (Noxon 2006, 12-13).