While I may be frustrated by the obvious product tie-in of Bakugan, I think I found a silver lining: Bakugan may be my gateway toward getting my son into Dungeons & Dragons.
For his birthday, my son received from his best friend a special edition copy of Bakugan: Defenders of the Core for the Nintendo DS. The game came with a miniature for Cycloid, a cyclops-like character with a large hammer. And by “large hammer,” I mean “cinder block on a stick.”
His interest in this miniature made him much more interested in my old miniatures. I saw his eyes light up as I showed him my old painted pewter pieces, and I enjoyed answering his questions about the characters. For now, the miniatures are just toys, but I hope to one day get him to see them as characters.