Tell us your must-have Christmas toy horror stories - for a chance to win Toy Story toys and the new Toy Story 3 Blu-ray Triple Play (contains Blu-Ray, DVD & Digital Copy)

[rebeccamumsnet]

Hello. Toy Story 3 is out on Blu-ray & DVD on November 22nd and the people behind the hit movie would like to know if you've ever had trouble getting hold of the must-have Christmas toy of the moment.

Did you spend all day tramping from high-street store to high-street store, only to find it sold out everywhere? Or did you have to bare your elbows and fight your way to the top of a very long queue? Or maybe you trawled the net and ended up buying it at ten times the price? Or perhaps (sympathy emoticon), you pulled out all the stops to get it and then found your mother/auntie/long-lost cousin had already bought it (cheaper, natch) to give to your DC herself? So tell!

Everyone who posts their "must-have toy horror story" on this thread will be entered into a prize draw to win a fab Toy Story 3 goodie bag, including a signed Woody and a signed Buzz and a Blu-ray Triple Play (contains Toy Story 3 on Blu-Ray, DVD and Digital Copy)

Thanks and good luck, MNHQ


Please note: ideas suggested on this thread may well be published elsewhere on Mumsnet

[LunarSea]

3 years ago I had a six month old who was still waking in the night for feeds - I spent a lot of time with him on one arm while refreshing the Amazon page selling Wii's with the other, waiting for batches of stock to be released. I did eventually get one - with a couple of weeks to spare before Christmas - at about 3 am, and at list price too rather than the double+ they were selling for on Ebay.

[TitsalinaBumSquash]

I got elbowed in the face one year trying to get to the new stock of Peppa Pig playsets in our Wollworths, we had a mass shortage and ds was desperate so i when i saw a member of staff opening a box to re stock the shelf i ran for it but Alpha mum was quicker and elbowed me in the face in all the comotion and then went on to buy all of the stock so i didnt get one anyway all i did get was a sore mouth.
Luckily DP valiently went out last thing on Xmas Eve and managed to get a PP play set from Argos becuase someone had returned it beause her grandson already had it.

[asdx2]

In 1997 dd was Teletubby crazy and desperate for a Lala. We traipsed the shops and were about to consider paying way over the odds for one from the classified odds.
One lunchtime at work nipped into the Department store to pay my store card, there seemed to be a massive queue compared to normal but assumed it was because of Christmas. It wasn't until the counter was in view that I realised they were selling Teletubbies one per customer from behind the customer services counter.
Lala was duly purchased but I was so excited I forgot to pay my card

[magnolia74]

Last year was the Go Go pets craze!!!!! Of course I insisted that dd4 would want it all so set about getting it.

I spent 6 weeks online everyday on every toy shop and argos store trying to get the bloody things! Managed to get a funhouse 4 weeks before Xmas to dh's horror as it was impossible to get the actual hamsters to go in it

Finally found 2 hamsters in argos but 25 miles away and made dh drive me there to get them

Couldn't get anything else so ordered several bits from Ebay in America!!!!!

Was a nightmare and so stressful.
To top it off she doesn't bloody like it

This year the kids will get whatever is on the shelves

[twirlymum]

My mum and I queued for hours to get my sister a cabbage patch kid when they were just out over here. It was pandemonium, as they were all different, everyone wanted one that had the same colour hair as their child, or with a similar name or date of birth etc!
Two weeks after Christmas, my sister left it in a fast food restaurant. We went back five minutes later, and it had gone. There was no way my parents could afford to replace it, and you just couldn't get hold of them anyway.

Cue one heartbroken six year old. For her 21st birthday, I bought her a new one, she still has it 14 years later!

[ForMashGetSmash]

My DSD was a huge fan of the Tellytubbies and I was prepared to buy any one of them for her...except there were none to be found at all!

I cannot drive and my husband was working abroad, I had all my relatives trying for me but had naievely left it very late thinking that there would be at least one Dipsy or LaLa left over somewhere...but there wasn't; not even a shop soiled one. So what did I do? I made a Po.

Hand sewn from fleecy red fabric she was a right state...her face was embroidered by my Mil and DSD was luckily too little to say "Hang on a minute..that's not Po! It's some dodgy rag doll vaguely modelled on her!"

She loved her "Faux-Po" as we called it...and it lasted for ages despite being a bit dodgily sewn and well hugged nightly.

We did manage to get some other "real" Tellytubby stuff though!

[ilovesprouts]

i remember my dd been in to them tamigotchits [sorry cant spell it] i went to argos to que up for 5 hours so i could get her one never again

[TheProvincialLady]

Last year I told my mum that we would only be buying DS2 (who was 1, and had had his first birthday and christening the week before) only one present, for reasons of economy and lack of space. I told her what it was going to be.

Both sets of GPs bought loads of presents for both boys. Mum had also bought the exact same present for DS2 as we had It wasn't deliberate, just that my mum is a scatter brain.

[SuePurblybilt]

Another tellytubby one here. DD's favourite was Po and we couldn't find the one we wanted. A family friend turned up with one in the end - a market stall knock-off but at that stage we didn't care. We did very much care on Christmas morning when the Po turned out to have lice. Wee crawly beasties appearing out of a hole in the seam. Po was flung outside, together with another soft toy gift and all the wrapping and we had a festive bonfire on the driveway . What the neighbours thought of us flinging DD's presents out the window and burning them in the street on Christmas morning I've never asked . ExH stood over the pyre cursing and listening to the pop of wee crawly beastie's bodies and waving to happy Christmassy families on their walks.

DD wasn't too traumatised luckily as I distracted her with the tree chocolates. It still makes me shudder.....

[onadietcokebreak]

I'm finding it hard to get the fireman sam shop playset. It's annoying cos most retailers lump the 3 different sets as one item number and say you will get one selected for you.

I will get the one I want but only cos I started looking early!

[Guidoinsteadnow]

I waas going to say you're all mad. But then I realised this is exactly what i'm like when the Boots sale starts, the 50% and even more so in the 75% My kids know they'll get an 'extra' present from the sales, and they know its daft to pay full price for the sake of a few days!

[IWillCountToThree]

Christmas 2008 DD1 insisted she wanted Lego, and it had to be pink. Nothing else would do. At that time you could only get it from the US, so we had it imported at great expense only for it to start being sold in the UK in January!

Thankfully last year she wanted a Nintendo ds, and this year it's a bike and those Zhu Zhu hamsters. All much easier to get hold of!

[fruitstick]

DH is a cynical sort but I was astonished at the lengths he went to to secure an iggle piggle for DS1. Trawler shops, spent hours online.

I swear it was his first real experience if his hunter gatherer instinct.

In the end EVERYONE bought Ds1 something itng related. We have an iggle piggle in every available size

[Tolalola]

When my sister was little, her godmother lived in New York. Godmother has no children of her own, but she watched the news and heard that cabbage patch dolls were the absolute must-have Christmas present. She was so determined to get one for my sister that she literally stalked the streets of Manhattan for weeks and eventually fought her way to the front of a massive seething scrum and secured one of the wretched things.

My sister loathed it on sight, was quite freaked out by it and never ever played with it. She's 35 and still has it in her old toy chest to this day because she feels too guilty to throw it away .

[5inthebed]

Last year DS2 wanted a Coraline doll. managed to get one off Ebay as well. On Christmas day he was over the moon with it. We went to my mams for dinner, walked there in the snow which is usually a 20 minute walk, 40 minutes in the thick snow fall we had. Got back home after a long day to realise that the bloody doll had fallen out of the pram on the way home!!! I had to retrace our steps to go get it, it was near my mams house .

[Evenstar]

The worst ever was the first Christmas the Nintendo Wii was available, I tried everywhere to get one, I started at the beginning of November and it seemed hopeless. Finally, 3 weeks before Christmas, I heard that our local ASDA were getting a shipment of them, I went in at just gone at 8.00 in the morning having got my friend to take my youngest son to school. It turned out that they were only getting 5, I was the 4th person there and they were not arriving until around 1pm. They wouldn't give us tickets, if we went away we lost our place in the queue. I stood in the Music and Video department of ASDA for over four hours, they didn't even get us a chair to sit down, there are no words to describe how thirsty, bored and tired I was! Finally they arrived and I got one, I clutched it to my chest in a death grip all the way back to the car, looking over my shoulder as I was so afraid somebody might snatch it off me! It was a nightmare for me, but when the children opened it on Christmas morning it was like a dream come true for them, as they knew that they were almost impossible to obtain. Seeing their faces when they open that must have present is what makes us do it I suppose, it is not always about the cost of the present, but the fact that you went the extra mile and got something for them that cost you so much time and effort.

[Dylthan]

When my brother was little he wanted the full set of power ranger action figures. Mum was able to get a couple but the rest were sold out, so mum told db that Santa might not be able to get them all.

Cue db getting upset and saying thar Santa makes the toys and if you've been good he can always get what you ask for on your list.

This was the days before Internet so mum spent every weekend visiting every shop in the north of scotland she even had our uncle queing outside the toys r us in Manchester for 6 hours!!! Only for them to be sold out by the time he reached the front of the que.

She did eventualy get them from an obscure little shop on the outskirts of Aberdeen.

[Dracschick]

ds2 was 3 all he wanted was po from tellietubbies.......woolworths had none and it was getting closer and closer to Xmas.

I was working in a lightbulb factory and word came that woolworths had some!!!!

I left my post sneakily and dashed down to get one.

When I came back my colleagues hastily pushed me in a cupboard storeroom - the shop floor manager was looking for me - thinking quick theyd said I felt sick and was in the toilet,manager then went in the ladies loos to check on me -fellow colleague realised this and dashed in the loo making vomity noises..........only problem was the manager was intent on checking I was ok and all my colleagues were men!!! so yes Steve stood in the loo pretending to be me for a good 10 minutes until some sharp thinker shouted to manager your car alarms going off,when we hastily switched places.

Ds2 seemed pleased to have Po but didnt really bother with him so much he wanted tinky winky after all

[Dracschick]

I also queued at 4am outside sainsburys last year for a half price modern warfare 2 x box game .

[OmicronPersei8]

SuePurblybilt that is a fantastic story! Burning a lice-ridden toy on Christmas day, great (well, obviously not for you at the time...)

[AmpleBosom]

The first year the wii came out my DH's colleague texted me saying have you bought him a wii for christmas, he really wants one.

I decided i'd try and get one and spent 8 hours one day shopping trying to find one and everywhere was sold out.

I then called into a shop just passing and asked if they had any and they did! No massive queues, no scrum of mad shoppers, just yes we have one hear you are

I was so relieved and on the day i handed my DH a present to open saying it was for our 6mth old DS and he nearly cried when he saw it. It was a very nice ending to a nightmare search!

[sharonanne]

A few years back we started looking in november for a pink nintendo Ds for our then four year old . They were sold out everywhere and were not available to order.

We rang up the shops daily to see if a delivery was in to no avail......meanwhile our little girl Kept saying how well behaved she had been all year and how Father Christmas would be so pleased he would bring her the one present she had asked for a pink Ds

We were so worried how we would explain on Christmas Day that although she had been so good Father Christmas did not have time to make what she wanted.

A week before Christmas we were told a shop an hour away was having a delievery the next morning. We arrived an hour before it opened and waited all morning till the delievery of Three black nintendos arrived...luckily we got one and they got a pink cover to make it look pink!!

What a lot of hassle but to see our little girls face on christmas day light up made it all worthwhile.Three Years later she still plays with this toy so our trouble was deffinetley worthwhile.

[FairyFay]

DS was a fanatical fan of Teletubbies and LOVED Po. I looked everywhere for a light-up Po, with no luck. I discovered that they had them in a few of the closing down Woolworths and trawled around3 towns before I found one.

I gace it to my son on Christmas day, he cried, threw it to one side and never played with it because it terrified him.

[onefunkymama]

Bought DD the Fur Real chimp that she had longed for for ages, she was so excited.... we were not too impressed when it got really hot and started smoking when it had been switched on for a few minutes. Needless to say, it was put outside in the garden too cool down where it couldn't burn the house down and DD was very upset. The worst part was having to go back to Toys R' Us, I hate that place lol

[BigTeuchLittleTeuch]

My mum's lovely christmas story...she wheels it out every year

It's Christmas Eve and the last day of school. Mum collects me and my 3 siblings at midday, complete with all of our term's produce. In amongst my stuff is my Christmas Wish Star... The teacher, in her wisdom, had asked us all to write our christmas wish on the back of a star that then (helpfully!) hung on the class tree. On mine's was a Twin Pram with Twin Babies

All of the Christmas shopping was done, and the limited pennies spent. Left in Mum's (single mum of 4) purse was just enough for food to get us through to the shops re-opening (I know!! They used to shut for days!!) We were having Christmas dinner with family.

Mum did the shopping with Gran (who was equally skint) and on a display was a twin buggy. As the display model it was damaged, so Mum asked for the Manager to see if they could discount it. They did, but she counted her money...put back some shopping essentials and it still wasn't enough . She was sobbing as she put through the shopping that she couldn't do without but knew that it was impossible...

[queue uplifting music]

Other people in Tesco started offering her money...just a pound or fifty pence each each, until there were so many people offering that they were cheering her on and making her buy the (slightly damaged) pram [sniff]

I absolutely loved that buggy and it was the reason I believed in the magic of Christmas for so long because I "knew" it couldn't have been Mum.