I've heard lots of people say that cheap toys are as good as the expensive ones, and to spend your money on the high-end stuff is completely unnecessary.
My SIL, for example, says she can afford to buy her children toys every week - because she buys them from poundland. She says they don't last very long, a couple of days at most sometimes before she chucks them, but they get variety and the excitement of something new more often than they would if she had to save up to buy them more expensive ones.
My parents bought the kids some toys for easter from the pound shop. It was a few cars for DS and a plastic doll for DD. They're crumbling to pieces after a few days, the doll was made with plastic so thin it was hard to believe it had stayed together this long - it's all gone in the bin this morning - It was a choking hazard.
I didn't expect them to last long obviously, but it occured to me as I was throwing them away what a huge waste it was. You can't recycle these materials and the cars and the doll were one of hundreds of thousands that were being (and are still being) produced to such a poor quality. All of these toys will end up in the bin very soon after purchase.
AIBU to think that maybe the snobbery surrounding these poor quality, cheap toys is justified? I don't mean the good quality toys that happen to be cheap to make, so end up in pound shops, bouncy balls, marbles etc. I mean the toys that are made to look like their expensive counterparts (barbies etc) but are made for pennies.