Good toy, bad toy

[Hurricaneinateacup]

I know all children are different but I thought we could share our good toys and not so successful toys!

Best thing ds has ever had is the Imaginext castle. He's 5 and a half now and had it when he was 4 and I think it's been used nearly every day since then.
Also used loads are the playmobil dinosaurs. They are lovely.

Bad toy: family member bought him one of those electric ride on toys. The first one didnt work properly. Changed it and the second one worked for about a fortnight. Changed it again and the one we have now works but has hardly been used. Ds just isn't particularly interested. Plus it's bloody quick and I worry about other people's actual real cars being scratched.
Other misses have been anything with basically only one use such as animatronic toys and remote controlled anything.

[Sootgremlin]

Ha, I've just deflected a grandparents' suggestion for one of those electric ride-ons, just knew it would be a PITA.

Have 3.5 year old. Best things are Happyland Rocket, still gets played with regularly and he's had it since a baby, Playmobil bin lorry, CAT digger and dumper truck and anything Duplo or Lego.

Agree, anything animatronic etc loses novelty value very quickly and there just isn't anything to do with it.

[NotEvenAnEnormouseStirred]

Bad toy - those bloody v tech toot toot cars. DS1 was only interested in them for about half an hour.

Good toys - lego duplo
Racing car ride on - still being used 2 years later
Die cast corgi cars - bought on ebay cheaply in a job lot and go everywhere with him.

[NotEvenAnEnormouseStirred]

Oh we have a CAT dumper truck too and its very well loved.

And DSs ride on is just a simple car with wheels, no sound effects or flashing thingies.

[Squtternutbaush]

Good: Tomy hide n squeak eggs and Wooden train set.

DS got both for his 1st birthday and although he stopped playing with the eggs about 3 years ago (he's 8.5 years old now) DD plays with them lots now and the wooden train set still gets used daily by both children.

Bad: Aquadraw.

By the time the bloody picture fades they're bored waiting and if it gets "too wet" it leaves stains on the mat.

[Hurricaneinateacup]

Ds, um, weed on our aqua draw mat when he was about 2.

We had the squeaky eggs, ds used them a fair bit and we still use wooden track now.

The other thing that's paid for itself a thousand times over (given that it cost 99p) is a bag of those small plastic soldiers! Got them in the hospital gift shop whilst waiting for ds's appointment and he's used them a lot, he makes landscapes for them using junk modelling and lines them up in their 'teams.' Gallingly they've been used much more than some toys which cost me a hundred times as much.

[BettyFocker]

Good:

Diecast cars. DS has at least 40 but he loves and plays with them everyday.

Little plastic soldiers, again played with all the time.

Toy kitchen. Bought a year ago and still played with. As well as the plastic food.

Bad:

I second the Aquadoodle. It was played with a few times but it gets so wet and takes forever to dry.

VTech robot that you put dics in. I can't remember the proper name, but sometimes it doesn't register that you've put a disc in, it doesn't hear DS clap so I have to do it and it reminds you to put a disc in if you take more than 5 seconds to do it! It never gets played with!

The electric Brio trains. One didn't work and the other regularly comes off the track or gets stuck and DS gets frustrated with it. He much prefers the wooden trains you push around the track yourself!

[curiousgeorgie]

The Barbie dream house, DD got it last Christmas and it gets played with everyday, and by every child that comes here.

The worst was a ride on zebra, never used. Ever.

[Squtternutbaush]

Yup the cheap toys are normally more fun!

DS has asked for the full collection of Minecraft figures this year and apparently I've been lucky to find them at £6.99 each... They are 3 inches bloody tall bits of square plastic and there are 10 of the buggers £70 for some bits of tat, they better get played with :o

[Hurricaneinateacup]

I don't understand Minecraft or what it is

[Squtternutbaush]

Minecraft is... Err... A game on the Xbox that involves building things... I think haha

[o0]

Good: Playmobil Dinosaurs and any figures

Bad: Everything else Playmobil. Either it's too big and there's no way to store it or it's minute fiddly pieces that get lost 3.5 seconds after use.

[Hurricaneinateacup]

We have had a similar playmobil experience.
In fact I got rid of some of it (eg camper can). However I know some people's children love it and I would probably have loved it at ds's age. But ds just had zero interest in it - probably because it wasn't to do with fighting. Sigh.

[Nerf]

Good; happy land, kindle
Bad: scalectrix, kurio

[schmeegle]

Good ie things played almost everyday:

Brio or Bigjigs train set
Marble Run
Zingo Bingo - great fun
Lego
Matchbox cars
Toy soldiers
Pretty much any Orchard game

Not so good:
Playmobil - my 2 DS just aren't interested
As mentioned above, any one-trick robots

[Sootgremlin]

Yes, die cast cars are so omnipresent here I forgot to mention them!

Aquadoodle never touched.

To my eggs, yes, kids and adults love these, have just bought them as a gift for a friend's baby.

Not a toy, but playdough, played with every day, cakes, roadworks, you name it.

Another thing my ds loves is his Trunki. Not massively useful as luggage but he packs it, unpacks it, rides on it all the time, makes a little house for teddies and figures out of it.

[Sootgremlin]

Yes, it is a lot to do with personality of kids I think. In general my ds likes the Happyland and it's well played with, but has barely touched the pirate ship.

Likewise, I thought the wooden track would be a winner, he plays with it fine but doesn't love it I wouldn't say. He only plays with it for a few minutes before dinosaurs are breaking up the track and there's an emergency.

Schleich dinosaurs are good though, particularly in rail disasters

[chocolatereindeer]

Minecraft is basically if Lego was a computer game. You collect things and make things out of them. Eg coal+wood = torch, wheat=bread sand+coal/wood(fire)=glass. It's really simple but also quite clever. Probably the most played computer game in this house, and I sort of approve. Although you can kill each other/animals, there's no gore.

Best: Generic/all Lego, matchbox cars, bouncy balls, footballs - any ball actually! Nerf guns. Plastic or foam swords. All the crafty stuff, paint, glue, glitter etc (if that counts?).

Worst: Garage for matchbox cars, carry case for matchbox cars. Lego train set, scaletrix, (both need too much setting up/space) remote control helicopters (especially the air hogs eject thing -£40 too!). Minecraft paper craft.

[Needingsomeadvice]

Babies - Tomy eggs
Collapsible ball pool from Argos
Stacking cups
Building blocks
Jumperoo (if you have the space)
LIttle tykes moulded plastic rocking horse

Preschool - Happyland/Fisher price little people
- Duplo and the big megablocks that are that size
- Insert wooden jigsaws

School age - playmobil
- lego

[nocutsnobuttsnococonuts]

good buys

happyland - dd has played with since she was 1 and still does at nearly 6. most of the occupants now are moshi monsters and Disney figures though!

moshi monsters or any little figures/ animals - both dd's love them!

cheap magnadoodle - cost about 2 pound but they fight over it!

busy books - we have about 6 different ones

doll and basic stroller

doctors kit

Fisher price Disney princess castle - dd2 loves hers!

bad buys

most character themed toys - peppa pig in particular! pretty bad quality.

aquadraw

Sylvanian families

innotab - 5 min wonder and back to toys and books.

electronic animals - dd2 was terrified of the massive dog my dad bought and dd1 was only interested for 5 mins or when friends came over!

[Hurricaneinateacup]

We had a make your own bouncy ball kit which ds loved.
After about a week the bouncy balls are rock hard - it's like trying to bouncy pieces of granite! We used them as marbles instead.

[dollybean]

Oh no! My dsis is getting ds2 an aqua doodle for christmas . It was her who suggested it (she thinks she's a bit of an expert on what children need ) and I just went along with it. Is it the quality of the product or just that your dc don't have any interest in it?

[marne2]

Dd's are now 8 and 10 so we have had a lot of good and bad toys over the years.

Good- lego, duplo, playdough, Melissa and Doug toys, Knex, domino run, guess who, playmobil, happy land and scooters.

Bad - elefun ( total rubbish and never blew strong enough ), moon sand/ moon dough ( messy nightmare ), Moshi monster play sets ( flimsy and over priced ), furby ( fun for 5 minutes the. Get really annoying ).

[marne2]

We loved the Aqua doodle, got played with a lot until we got a puppy and it decided to pee on it , we did replace it and then dd used a biro on it so it was ruined, would still recommend it though.

[crazykat]

One of the best toys any of my four have had are scuttle bug ride ons and a motorbike ride on. They've been played with for years, dd1 and ds1 have only just stopped playing with the motorbike ride ons this year as they're too big now and scrape their knees.

Worst have been vtec toys with alphabet pieces, they've hardly ever been played with.

[crazykat]

We've had aqua doodles and they're brilliant. The ones with toys that move along a drawn line are rubbish though as the toy doesn't really go along it that well. The original ones with the pens and stamps are brilliant though as there's no mess.