Netflix released a Korean series called The Squid Games on September 17, 2021. The premise of the series is that there is a secret island where players who are extremely down on their luck (i.e. owing creditors millions of dollars or needing to cover expensive health care for an ailing child) are offered the opportunity of a lifetime to win up to 456 million dollars. It's a million dollars for each player and in the end it only goes to the last man or woman standing.
The show itself wound up being one of the most watched and talked about series of 2021. I myself was immediately hooked once I started watching. I was vested in the stories of the various players and still remember the shock after that first game where folks were shot and killed if they did not successfully complete it.
I remember I was working at Amazon at the time which was in a way my rock bottom. So the series resonated with me. I remember the anguish I felt when favorite characters were killed and crazily enough the glee when unsavory players got their just dessert.
Netflix at the time didn't realize how big of a hit it would become. They scrambled to make merch based off the series, including Halloween costumes wearing the uniforms of either the players or the guards, the latter of which was explored in more detail in the next season. There really wasn't a second season planned either until the overwhelming response of the show. That's why it took almost three years before the final season was released.
One of the items that was created was a collectible Squid Game Building Set from Mattel. I knew nothing about this but found out about it from yours truly. Dom knew of the series because I couldn't stop talking about it and other folks that he knew watched it. However, I could never convince him to watch it for himself. He's not big on watching violence on TV and Squid Games definitely has it share.
So Dom knowing how much I enjoyed the series decided to buy the set for me about three months back. It comes with 1735 pieces (that are kind of like Lego blocks and other shapes) that you have to put together to rebuild the classic multi-colored hallways that the players and guards go up and down the stairs on. There are two huge manuals that come with it that shows pictures of all the steps that need to be taken to put it together. It even has some mechanical parts that you can wind to move the players and guards around. It's something that will take some time to put together.
It's a pretty cool set and it was so sweet of Dom to think of me. I wasn't thrilled though to find out that he spent $130 on it. But Dom was so excited about it and he took pictures of the box and the various manuals and pieces that are divided into individual bagged sections. The steps have all the pieces from a particular step that is needed and then the other pieces add on to the base.
So far I've completed 4 steps. There are several dozen more steps to go. But I'm taking pictures as I complete the sections and sharing them with Dom. He ultimately wants to publish all the pics into his personal site. So in a way it's like a project that we're working together on. So maybe it's worth it after all.
