Worst Toys Ever - Page 3

[IntuitiveJamie]

[QUOTE=dantesmama;14856076]Rocky the Robot Truck

I'm really hoping this thing breaks soon! It's loud and incredibly irritating. My 4yo has already lost interest in it, and my 2yo is beginning to lose interest. No redeeming value to this thing whatsoever.

Ah yes, Rocky, sweet Rocky...
My son received one of those from fil. He played with it for an hour straight..just kept pushing the button over and over and over. I finally took it away for a little bit b/c it was driving me batty. I seriously felt like I was going over the edge very quickly! When we brought it home from fils house
I was panicking that that is all I would be hearing for hours at a time. My four year old has barely touched it again. Although suprised, I'm quite glad. That is def. a toy that will be making its way out of the house sooner, rather than later!

[newbymom05]

A Fisher Price plastic airport for my animal-obsessed 19 mo old that I TOLD my bro not to get--get him animals, please!--but no. His kids liked it, so of course mine will too! So that giant piece of plastic is sitting unloved in my LR until I get the nerve up to donate it. Overall, our toy gifts I can handle, because I bought them all. It's clothes that are totally the wrong size that have put the Yule log up my butt this year. Not to mention my toddler/preschooler don't get a lot of joy out of opening dressy matching outfits from Gymboree even if they weren't last year's sizes.

[KirstenMary]

Originally Posted by ~Boudicca~

I wish my daughter had a longer memory. Did they find it yet?

I must say though the Zhu zhu pet beats the hell out of the real hamster we used to have, which died in the fall. I'm not sorry to see her gone

The girls each got the white ZZ from our neighbor and I have one word of warning (actually, several words). Those wheels eat hair to the point where said hair needs to be, um, cut.

Don't let an active ZZ "crawl" up your child's face and near any hair whatsoever. Boo.

[AnnieA]

All the toys at our house so far this Christmas have been great! The only slightly annoying toys were the Nerf guns but I knew that going in. The kids think it's funny to shoot me and hear me yelp. Also, we have multiple bullets missing and one of the magazines was stuck in DH's gun (yes he *needed* one for Christmas too ) for most of Christmas day. But things are o.k. with them.

The only presents that might be questionable will be opened on New Year's Day at my sister's house. She is getting DSD 12 a decorate-your-own-messenger-bag kit from Target and DSD 10 Barbie and Taffy. I actually picked them out for the girls because I know they will love them but the paint will certainly end up on something it shouldn't and as best I can tell, one of Taffy's puppies will piddle after you give it water to drink.

Other than that, "Santa" did a great job this year picking out toys that are being played with consistently and nothing's broken! I Playmobil!

[mommariffic]

My MIL got DD a Mcdonalds drive thru toy, which is getting freecycled this weekend. She wants to play with it, but I have to draw the line! We already have a wooden play kitchen + a slew of wooden & felt foods, and I really don't want her flipping plastic burgers around wearing a Mcdonalds apron...just..no

[muldey]

I have to agree with others about the Transformers.Ds is OBSESSED with them,and I just can't figure them out.I have him wait until his dad comes over,or his grandfather.I have one on my desk that he broke apart out of frustration.My mom bought him a HUGE one called Devestator,it breaks up into 6 trucks. Sure give that to an easily frustrated child on the autism spectrum.He loves it,but can't put it back together.

We moonsand here.Even my 11yo will play with it.We have it in a sandbox that stands a little off the floor,and 8yo ds,11yo dd,and 5yo dniece will play for at least an hour when I bring it out.

We also love the zhu zhus.Don't bother with the accesories though,they really don't work very well.It's better just to let them run around.

All in all the toys they received have been great.I can't really complain.My dad bought them a Wii with games,my mom bought Wii fit and we couldn't be happier.It is so much fun!

[LionTigerBear]

Originally Posted by Caneel

And this is what is so frustrating about the "Train Thing" with DH. DS has been into his wooden trains since at least 2 yo. Loves them, can set up all sorts of scenarios, plays creatively and so on.

I kept saying to DH over and over, "lets get him more track, set up the track around the tree and get him a battery Thomas or whatever so he can use his track, his trains and he can play with it" I have no problem with DS crawling around under the tree.

But no, DH had to bring home that Nightmare in a Box. He kept blaming the frustration in the brand, that if he only would have gotten the Lionel train he (read: DH) wanted, there wouldn't have been any problems.

This is all total b.s. because the size of the train was the problem, it was simply too small with too many tiny wheels on tiny axles. If I breathed wrong, it slipped off the track.

At one point, I just put my head down on the floor to gather my patience and DS said "mommy, don't be sad, I will be good with my trains" It was heartbreaking because he wasn't doing anything wrong, he wanted to play with the trains like his wooden ones.

Wow, that is soooo frustrating.

[TiredX2]

Originally Posted by SparklingGemini

DD received a black scratch pad where you scrape of the black part and the color comes through.

Cool idea but TOTALLY messy. I'm not into it. I'd much rather give her a pad of paper and a handful of crayons and let her have at it.

My kids & all their friends LOVE those, but I can't imagine giving them to an under 3!!! My DD is 10 & DS is 8, so maybe put them away for later?

[HappilyEvrAfter]

I had fun with the Pixos, damn shame the kids couldn't do them!

ITA! Lol. Mine doesn't have enough patience to sit with me and do them yet.
He had real toy disillusionment with this one.

Chutes and Ladders - wtf? Why is this a classic kids' game? The board is so poorly designed. Even I forget which way to go sometimes (left or right) if I'm not paying attention to the numbers, the chutes and ladders aren't really clearly defined, and I need to direct DS way too much when we play. I heart Candyland, though.

Oh, good. I thought I was just a failure at trying to teach him this one. You're right, I even found myself going, "Oops, wrong way. The numbers go up this way."
And I think I got all the way to the top about 10 times just to slide down the same silly ladder. Ugh! No wonder this is so frustrating for kids.

We enjoy Candyland much more.

The biggest hit was the monster Hot Wheels track with the big loop. Even I had some fun watching the cars go loop-de-loo, shoot off down the hall and crash into the wall!!!!
We already have over 200 cars...just shoot them off one after the other!!!! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Lol.

[cschick]

Originally Posted by Caneel

But no, DH had to bring home that Nightmare in a Box. He kept blaming the frustration in the brand, that if he only would have gotten the Lionel train he (readH) wanted, there wouldn't have been any problems.

This is all total b.s. because the size of the train was the problem, it was simply too small with too many tiny wheels on tiny axles. If I breathed wrong, it slipped off the track.

Well, if he was talking about a Lionel O gauge versus a cheapie HO gauge, that probably wouldn't have been a problem.

The O gauge tracks and trains are a lot larger than the HO. We let the 3-year-old play with his O gauge Lionel set for the first time this Christmas, and that was fine. But I remember having problems with HO sets when I was much older, because they are so much pickier.

[Caneel]

Originally Posted by cschick

Well, if he was talking about a Lionel O gauge versus a cheapie HO gauge, that probably wouldn't have been a problem.

The O gauge tracks and trains are a lot larger than the HO. We let the 3-year-old play with his O gauge Lionel set for the first time this Christmas, and that was fine. But I remember having problems with HO sets when I was much older, because they are so much pickier.

Based on an eye-ball guess-ta-met I would say the track was an inch or less wide. Devil's work I tell you! To get the trains on the track, I kid you not, either DH or I would need to lay on the floor with a maglite, shining the beam on the wheels to set them just so on the track and then join the cars. And then DS would bump the cord, moving the track a hair and we would need to start all over again....

I swear I have a mild PTSD from that stupid train.

I did say to DH about going to a real train store and getting a big Lionel train. A friend of the family is married to someone that works at a train store and he recommended the same thing you did.

I think DH was trying to minimize my displeasure with the line of thought that if he didn't spend too much, I couldn't get mad at him. Boy did that not work out as he expected!

[eepster]

Originally Posted by That Is Nice

This back and forth conversation sounds so familar. DH wants to buy toys that HE wants himself, reliving his childhood, I guess. If it's electronic, loud, with bells and whistles and lights and movement all the better.

DH tries to convince me that DS wants toys that I'm pretty sure DH really wants. He went on and on about this really expensive electronic thing that you could put into playmobil trucks to make them remote controlled. I kept explaining that DS would be more interested in taking it apart to figure out how it worked than actually playing with it (cheap old alarm clocks work fine as things to take apart.)

[cschick]

Originally Posted by Caneel

I did say to DH about going to a real train store and getting a big Lionel train. A friend of the family is married to someone that works at a train store and he recommended the same thing you did.

I think DH was trying to minimize my displeasure with the line of thought that if he didn't spend too much, I couldn't get mad at him. Boy did that not work out as he expected!

Target has had a decent "starters" Lionel set available around this time of year for the past several years. That's what we have (for the kid to play with, we also have a "collector's" 1950s version that he's not playing with!)--last year's version of it. I think I saw this year's version on a "clearance" endcap at the Target by our house for $120-$130(?) just before Christmas. Yeah, that's still a bit much, but decent for Lionel.

[bobandjess99]

Trains for an under 5 are GEOTRAX. Yes, plastic, but they're awesome.
Here, my parents gave the kids FIRECRACKERS. MY 5 and 2 yo. Really?

[Cherry Alive]

Originally Posted by newbymom05

A Fisher Price plastic airport for my animal-obsessed 19 mo old that I TOLD my bro not to get--get him animals, please!--but no. His kids liked it, so of course mine will too! So that giant piece of plastic is sitting unloved in my LR until I get the nerve up to donate it. Overall, our toy gifts I can handle, because I bought them all. It's clothes that are totally the wrong size that have put the Yule log up my butt this year. Not to mention my toddler/preschooler don't get a lot of joy out of opening dressy matching outfits from Gymboree even if they weren't last year's sizes.

Bummer! Your brother could have gotten him the FP Animalville Airport, and everyone would be happy. It's the same as the regular FP Airport, but has a cute little pig as a pilot.

We got our 10 month old the Animalville Village. The thing that was a problem with it (something I didn't realize until we got it home) is the characters are totally sex stereotypes (ex - all the "big" jobs—like mayor, doctor, cop—are male). Sooooooo, the night before Christmas, I gave a few Animalville characters sex changes.

Ex - I took a permanent black marker and drew little eyelashes on Dr. Quack.

[Puhutes]

Originally Posted by MariesMama

A remote control car for my 22 month old. Loud, pink, plastic, and while it only has two buttons on the remote, it's still a little much.

Watching her stand there with the remote and tell the car "go in kitchen, car!" is pretty priceless, however.

Originally Posted by Caneel

I feel your pain, insert craptastic trains for transformers and you have my Christmas Day.



And this is what is so frustrating about the "Train Thing" with DH. DS has been into his wooden trains since at least 2 yo. Loves them, can set up all sorts of scenarios, plays creatively and so on.

I kept saying to DH over and over, "lets get him more track, set up the track around the tree and get him a battery Thomas or whatever so he can use his track, his trains and he can play with it" I have no problem with DS crawling around under the tree.

But no, DH had to bring home that Nightmare in a Box. He kept blaming the frustration in the brand, that if he only would have gotten the Lionel train he (readH) wanted, there wouldn't have been any problems.

This is all total b.s. because the size of the train was the problem, it was simply too small with too many tiny wheels on tiny axles. If I breathed wrong, it slipped off the track.

At one point, I just put my head down on the floor to gather my patience and DS said "mommy, don't be sad, I will be good with my trains" It was heartbreaking because he wasn't doing anything wrong, he wanted to play with the trains like his wooden ones.

Sounds like your DH was the one who wanted the train set... now you know what to get him for christmas next year

[SparklingGemini]

Originally Posted by TiredX2

My kids & all their friends LOVE those, but I can't imagine giving them to an under 3!!! My DD is 10 & DS is 8, so maybe put them away for later?

Oh, I can definitely see them being fun and fantastic and wonderful.

Just, like you said, not for my two year old. But maybe that's because right now I use crayons and markers and colored pencils as a distraction tool when I need to do something and keep her busy. The scratch pad needs supervision.

[Polliwog]

Originally Posted by ~Boudicca~

I wish my daughter had a longer memory. Did they find it yet?

I must say though the Zhu zhu pet beats the hell out of the real hamster we used to have, which died in the fall. I'm not sorry to see her gone

We found it this morning! My kids were VERY happy. And Num Nums was really missing his friend, Mr. Squggles.

[dogretro]

Originally Posted by bobandjess99

Here, my parents gave the kids FIRECRACKERS. MY 5 and 2 yo. Really?

You win.

I must preface this by saying that we are Waldorf when it comes to our children's toys. DD got this: http://www.amazon.com/Graco-Interact.../dp/B00110XYZG from her uncle and aunt who had asked what to get her and then said no b/c uncle thought it was stupid. It is still in the box. I told dh (b/c I dont want to hurt his feelings) that we would put it away until dd is older b/c I dont want her to break it. It is for ages 3+.

Whoever mentioned Elmo Live, guess what uncle and aunt told us they got dd for her birthday????

That was the only stupid thing. Everything else was great and dd loves it all.

I really like Moonsand! It is perfect for my one-year-old. She is not old enough to squeeze PlayDoh, but can do Moonsand. It is incredibly easy to sweep up or vacuum. The sand is coated in wax, so it doesnt permanently stick to anything. I also LOVED Mouse Trap as a kid. I thought the whole contraption was just so awesome.

This is a great thread! I cannot wait until my kids are older and we can get a remote-controlled car race track! I always wanted one as a kid but could never settle on which one I wanted, so no one bought me one, haha!

[madskye]

Anyone else get Baby Alive?

It pees, poops, eats, talks, and looks like Shelly Winters.

http://www.hasbrotoyshop.com/Product...&ID=25179&PG=1

It is really freaky! DD was really into it Christmas day, but now has moved on....as I suspect Baby Alive will move on and out of our home in the next few months.....