Tell me your favourite childhood toys which were actually shit

[ClapForCats]

I loved the Magic Robot.

Also a newspaper board game called "SCOOP!"

And Tressy.

"Her hair grows"

Just weird. I had tiny hairgrips which came with her, and lost them before we'd finished breakfast on Christmas morning.

They were so tiny they must have been thrown out with the wrapping paper. I was devastated when I realised I would never see them again.

I can still remember the Baby All Gone cherries to this day!

I once won an absolutely terrifying electronic bear that you played a video on the TV and it interacted with it somehow. Scared the shit out of me, but I wouldn’t let mum throw it out.

The smell of the cherries that should say.

was never allowed a Mr Frosty because my mum said it would be rubbish

Snap!

I had a doll that cried when you took its dummy out of its mouth. Unfortunately I lost the dummy (my brother stole it and hid it!) in the back of the car during a 3 hour drive to my grandparents. My mother ended up doing major body surgery to get to the batteries. Padding flew and so did my tears. I stopped when I realised just how tired my mum was. Single parent taking us so she could carry on working.

Oh god I've also just remembered. I had this toy, I'm not sure how to describe it...it was like a pair of binoculars but it wasn't, your inserted this...film slide type thing in the slit in the top of the 'binoculars', and you'd be able to view all the scenes. There were a few different scenes and you used to press a button on the binoculars to change scene. The one I remember was postman pat and lots of different scenes of him in the valley, in his van etc. Anyway, one day I picked them up, put them to my eyes and looked through...and a spider must have crawled into the slit, because when I looked through the eye pieces, there was the HUGEST spider I've ever seen right in front of me!! I threw them across the room and that was the end of that, I never used them again. Still shudder to think of it.

@APurpleSquirrel
I remember the build a better burger game! I've even tried to get it for my kids 2nd hand but only found really expensive ones on ebay

@blackcatsleeping view master, that must be it! Oh the horror.

My mum still has our view finders. We had loads!
I can confirm that 'modern day children' love them. My own dc played with them. (Now teens) and my little nieces and nephews play with them now. (Well they did when we were still allowed to visit other people).

My neighbours had sky dancers and baby all gone. She was awesome (even though I was old enough to know how she 'ate' the cherries.

Plaster cast - mould and paint kits - think it was a tortoise,but it came out a lump that you then tried to paint with the shitty brush .
Ditto Mr Frosty - but did like it for putting your brothers hand inside it and turning the handle to cut his fingers - christ i was an evil little thing .
And the Space hopper was shite - riding a horse was less dangerous.
Etch-A-sketch used to drive everyone nuts .
the Speak and Spell ( Texas ) was okay but i can still hear the voice
" correct,now try ... "

The little spade to dig the ice out

I'd forgotten that useless piece of gadgetry.

Good old Mr. Frosty. He must've disappointed thousands of chidren over the years, as well as bankrupting their parents.

Hamma beads - absolutely crap . Moon boots, singstar, eyetoy and dance mats also come to mind . We were banned from using the latter as it was too noisy, spent years just collecting dust .

OTOH, I absolutely adored my polly pockets (and the later ‘fashion polly’ dolls ..) and something called Teenie Weenies - tiny little animals that lived in wee houses . I can’t remember what happened to all that stuff, think they got sold in the end .

Funnily enough I was nostalgically remembering Scoop! the other day. You dialled a cardboard phone to see if your copy was acceptable. I've even been wondering if I can track one down.

And a terrible terrible ‘kit’ from an aunt at Christmas that enabled you to make your own perfume from various bottles of essential oils and stuff . It reeked . Used it once and never again !

Skip it.

I have a scar on my ankle from one of those bloody things.

View master.

Mine had slides of a tennis match. Some weird mountains. Bit crap really.

This family tree house toy was my favourite lol.

When I was little, paper dolls to dress up were popular.

It was a packet with a paper doll silhouette and several printed outfits to cut out, with tiny tabs to fold over and hang on the doll.
I think my Mother used to glue the doll onto a washing peg so it was more sturdy.
I was often poorly and stuck in bed for weeks, and these paper dolls and their clothes were, to my Mother's mind, the ideal toy.

Skydancers I can remember my daughter smashing a good lampshade when the bloody thing flew off and went out of control. those were the days

Sea Monkeys.

Thrilling for about 24 hours.... then....

@AdaColeman

We had those and we loved them.
my mum was (and still is) very artistic, she can draw very well and made us extra ‘models’ and clothes out of card that we could colour in, my sisters and I loved playing with those.
I had totally forgotten about them.

Oh I loved paper dolls and their clothes.

@bananaskinsnomnom
@TeddyIsaHe
Baby All Gone! I used to think it was so magical, until someone pointed out the cherries disappearing into the spoon......I remember being so disappointed

My sister will be 30 this year and had Baby All Gone when she was around 6 or 7. Well the other day she randomly found the spoon and it STILL smells strongly of cherries

Play Doh. We always got some at Christmas and come Boxing Day it has mysteriously disappeared. Turned out that mum couldn’t stomach the smell and threw it out.

I never did ask her why she bought it for us in the first place.

Shaker Maker.....was like a pink gloop you put in a mould and shook it. Then when it dried you painted it.