When I was a kid, I loved playing with LEGOs. I didn't have many of my own, but my best friend, Matt, had tons of them - what seemed like dozens of huge plastic tubs brimming with building blocks. Together, we would build jets, tanks, spaceships and more than a few robots. Our elaborate army bases would take up entire rooms. Naturally, half the fun of playing with our creations was pitting them against one another.

The epic battles, complete with sound effects - including what I still believe to be an incredible vocal impression of a machine gun - would rage for hours, until we had to go to bed or I had to go home. Of course, the explosions, glorious victories and bitter defeats weren't actually real - all of it was in our heads.

Had we the ability to project our imagination into something real, I think the end result would have looked something like Toy Soldiers: Cold War - though our version probably would have had more pirates.