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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think that the people who design packaging for toys

29 replies

Portofino · 20/03/2011 20:10

are either sadistic bastards, or they really believe that Toy Story is true and that the toys have to be so securely tied to the boxes to prevent them from escaping. I speak as someone, who after dd's birthday party, spent 30 minutes trying to liberate some littlest pets from their prison packaging.

That is half an hour I will never get back! Half an hour I could have spent drinking wine and MNetting doing something useful!

OP posts:
strandedpolarbear · 20/03/2011 20:12

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

nancy75 · 20/03/2011 20:12

YANBU! those bloody twiddly bits of wire that you can't cut through and have to untwiddle drive me mad

SocialButterfly · 20/03/2011 20:14

Oh yes, have you even tried to liberate a peppa pig toy - they are screwed in - you actually have to get a screwdriver out to get the toy out Angry

supersewer · 20/03/2011 20:14

christmas day is the worst day of the year!! it's worth staying wiht the in laws just to have someone else to wrestle with packaging!

Tillyscoutsmum · 20/03/2011 20:15

YANBU. I'm going for sadistic. They're all sitting there in the packaging factory sniggering ...

Original poster
Portofino · 20/03/2011 20:19

A screwdriver! What fresh hell is this?

OP posts:
blackeyedsusan · 20/03/2011 20:21

Christmas day is a doddle, it's Christmas eve when i do the liberating because i can't stand 2 and 4 year old overexcited paddies and 40 year old frustrated at packaging paddies because they can see the toy but not play with it.

NinthWave · 20/03/2011 20:21

Yup. MIL bougt a toy Mini for DS1 in John Lewis once - tried to getit out for him to play with in the cafe, and it needed a bloody screwdriver! It was only a little plastic thing.

Gingefringe · 20/03/2011 20:22

Cut my hand on a nasty piece of hard plastic that I'd stabbed through in a frenzy once. Wanted to sue the bastards!

Original poster
Portofino · 20/03/2011 20:24

Maybe we should organise a MN Class Lawsuit!

OP posts:
Original poster
Portofino · 20/03/2011 20:26

And untwiddle is an excellent word! It describes the act totally!

OP posts:
StayingDavidTennantsGirl · 20/03/2011 20:26

They are the same people who write and draw the instructions for Lego models. There is a pit in hell specially reserved for these people!

nancy75 · 20/03/2011 20:30

we only really discovered lego this christmas - is every single box meant to have extra bits or am I just a really crap builder?

oricella · 20/03/2011 20:34

I always imagine some poor factory workers in China giving the wee wires an extra twist... must be frustrating getting paid peanuts packaging stuff you'd never be able to afford to give your kids yourself

We call it the revenge of the exploited masses...

glassortwo · 20/03/2011 20:35

I work for large childrens store in the toy dept and these toys are generally double boxed too,my worst nightmare unpacking the delivery. Or having to unpack a toy to demonstrate to a customer you end up with no finger ends.

smokinaces · 20/03/2011 20:45

Buzz Lightyear from the Disney Store goes down in our house as THE WORST ever. I have never seen so much tape/ties/cardboard. Was a nightmare to try and get him out.

The was one once which had those wires on a softish toy. We thought we had got them all out, pulled the toy but had forgotten one round a wrist - and sliced the toys hand clean off.

SilverScarf · 20/03/2011 20:47

Bloody Lalaloopsy dolls are the worst I have ever experienced. I have another in the cupboard but can't bear to wrestle with the packaging again.

Bumperlicioso · 20/03/2011 20:51

Yy to bloody peppa pig toys!

GollyHolightly · 20/03/2011 20:53

They do it because people pinch the toys leaving the packaging to avoid any security tags that might be attached.

I doubt that happens much any more Wink

greensnail · 20/03/2011 20:54

DD1 has a toy snail that still has part of the packaging attached as it needed a screwdriver to remove it. She's been playing with it like this for 9 months.

moonbells · 20/03/2011 20:59

best advice we were given on b'day/Christmas toys was to secretly unwrap EVERYTHING sent to DS, untwiddle it all, then rewrap. Stops a lot of GRRR and if you sit down with tools, doesn't take too long.

southeastastra · 20/03/2011 21:00

remember these toys have to probably spend months at sea from china so need securing within an inch of their lives

Zingylemontart · 20/03/2011 22:12

I'm with smokinaces voting for Buzz Lightyear as the worst ever. I ended up taking my Gerber tool to it and just snipping the wires. They are the work of the Devil I tell you!

HalfTermHero · 20/03/2011 22:14

YANBU. The packaging designers all deserve a good twatting right up their shit boxes.

Huffymuffy · 20/03/2011 22:17

Yanbu! I am sure the MD of Amazon said parents shouldn't be spending Christmas morning with a set of pliers and a screwdriver...the packaging has not improved. In fact they are the worst for putting small, breakable items into massive boxes, padded with perhaps one piece of brown paper. Grrrr