Autistic storytime.
I had a cheap shitty mini telescope on a tripod (kind of like pic related, but only about a foot high and tall when unfolded). It wasn't very good at telescoping, though, so I mostly treated it like a little boss mech for my miniature figurines to fight against.
The first 'phase' was the telescope itself, which could unscrew from the tripod. I would pretend it was a huge laser cannon or something, and when my figurines 'attacked' it enough, the telescope would spin around and eventually unscrew and fall off. The second phase was the wingnut underneath that, which fired construction paper electrical arcs. Once it took enough damage, it'd also spin and eventually fall off. The final phase was the ball and socket screw that the wingnut attached to; a long flat screw underneath the center of the tripod held that in place, and tightening or loosening it would secure or loosen the angle of the top screw (and, thus, the telescope). Anyway, the final phase was that ball and socket screw flopping around spewing a hail of bullets while the tripod tried to frantically stomp on the heroes, who shot the lower screw to loosen it until it fell out and the tripod toppled over and died.
I know it sounds stupid in hindsight, but the posability of that junky little telescope made it such an expressive and fun contraption to play with. I kind of wish I hadn't misplaced it now.
