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Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Most cost effective toys in your home

107 replies

kavalkada · 19/04/2021 07:09

Posting here for traffic.

Last week I got a big delivery box and my kids (six year old and two year old) spent all week playing with empty box and with the help of pillows and blankets made a castle. Their room is full of toys they almost never play with, some of them very expensive and I had to save a lot to give them (hot wheels garage, I'm looking at you). So, what are the toys you do not regret having and what are those you could throw away in a minute and nobody would notice.

Most effective in our home:

  1. board games (yesterday we played three games of ticket to ride, happy, happy mum)
  2. bicycle
  3. ball
  4. paper, coloring books and crayons (my two year old loves them)
  5. soft toys (for sleeping at night)
  6. hidden pictures magazine
  7. books
  8. tablet (although I should have probably put that damn thing on the first place)

Least effective:

  1. Hot wheels everything
  2. LEGO - my son hates it, and we'll see if my daughter will be interested
  3. puzzles - my son will do one only one if I ask him, but I like them, so...
  4. dolls
  5. hundreds pf plastic toys that are forgotten the moment we open them
  6. NERF everything
  7. arts and crafts
and everything else in our room.
OP posts:
stormelf · 19/04/2021 10:37

Most effective:
Paw patrol weebles
Animal weebles
Easter animal decorations for bonnet
Books
Trike
Soft toys
Toy prams
Activity cube

Least effective:
Mega blocks -they just chew them
Dolls house

Mine are 3 and 1. I imagine the dolls house will get a lot more use in a few years time

Thatisnotwhatisaid · 19/04/2021 10:39

Books are always effective. I don’t mind a couple of soft toys for bed but more than that is totally pointless. I prefer wooden toys so have lots of Lanka kade figures, wooden cars, DS loves his click clack track, love the mushie stacking cups, wooden blocks, peg dolls etc. Jumperoos are great for babies, I bought the skip hop one when DS was a baby and I’m using it for baby DS now so it was well worthwhile. Duplo is great too or megablox. DS loves football so his football and goals for the garden are his favourites.
I know they aren’t toys but crayons are always well received.

My older DD’s never played with dolls really or their dolls houses. Tbh Lego and knex was never a hit either, the bits just always went missing and I usually ended up standing on them or vacuuming them up.

ElfDragon · 19/04/2021 10:42

This is quite tricky, as so much to balance.

My dc also have loads of stuff that doesn’t get played with, but some of it comes back into play, and has been used for years already.

Eg train set - we have lots, and most of it expensive Brio, BUT, we’ve had it 12+ years, and it still gets some use, so worth the money.

Same for marble run stuff - have stupidly expensive wooden one, with lots of different sets, but dd2 and ds still playing with it, and again have had it for 10+ years, so has worked out cost effective in the end.

Lego seems to be coming to the end of its massive popularity in this household, but does still get regular use, but only really by ds now (and me!)

And yes, things come in and out of ‘fashion’. Ds is not totally averse to still pulling out some of his dress up stuff, and dd2 occasionally will join him too if they are eg making an iMovie or similar (ds is 9, dd2 is 14!) - it depends how the mood takes them.

I would agree with not getting rid of things too early (wherever possible). I’ve had to keep loads of stuff lo Ner than I would have done anyway, as dd1 has a learning disability, and so still interested in the younger toys, but have noticed that dd2 and ds also benefit from being able to revisit and play with the stuff which would otherwise have already gone.

TenThousandSpoons · 19/04/2021 10:42

Top one is trampoline. £90ish for three years of daily use. We’re on our third one so actually 9 years of daily use altogether but we have had to replace two when they got knackered.

Talcott2007 · 19/04/2021 11:06

My DD is almost 5
Most popular items for playing/interacting with are:
Playmobil (horse/farm type sets)
Twisty coloured pencils and Paper for drawing
Stickers (especially if they are "pretty")
Play kitchen - likes making tea parties and picnics
Card games - UNO, Dobble, Jumble-Up (she is bloody brilliant at UNO!)
Dressing up box with a wide range of accessories for various roll play type games. We spent yesterday running around the garden as knights.
Barbie type dolls (becoming more popular)
3 wheeled scooter

Worst (for me at least)
This bloody keyboard that makes cat noises/songs with 0 volume control and no off button - thanks for that one grandma!

IthinkIsawahairbrushbackthere · 19/04/2021 11:14

The things that were played with by all 5 kids - boys and girls:

Trains - Duplo train set bought for DS1 on his first birthday, not really played with until he was 4 or so but then became his all time favourite and was added to over the next 10 years for the younger siblings. Brio train set, Playmobile train. My oldest would have been 16 and was always willing to help the younger ones set up the tracks. The sets were kept separately but would be put out together.

Plain wooden blocks and Mega Blocks that would make buildings/stations/embankments for the trains.

Farm animals/zoo animals/dinosaurs

Marble run

Animal glove puppets

Baby dolls and accessories

We also had a large bin filled with broken electrical bits - parts of cars, old kettle/toaster/etc - that was known collectively as "the wires" and were used for hours of imaginative play.

Things that didn't last/get played with:

Character toys
Dolls that did too much,
Jigsaw puzzles,
Craft sets

maddening · 19/04/2021 11:36

Biggest waste:
Hatchimal
Electric wires science kit
Remote control cars
Mashums

bananamonkey · 19/04/2021 11:40

DC1 got some plastic Teletubbies stacking toy with an Easter Egg when she was about 18 months old that she has played with ever since (now 4.5) and DC2 loves it too.

The tiny plastic toys you get free with Peppa/CBeebies magazines are also on heavy rotation.

NVision · 19/04/2021 11:52

Most effective
Cardboard box from moving or similar
Balloons (even just a single one) from parties

skirk64 · 19/04/2021 11:53

Most effective:
LEGO (I don't get the people saying it's not cost-effective. It's expensive yes, but you get years out of it. And it's one of the few toys that kids can't break, if you keep the boxes in the loft the sets are worth a fortune in a few years. And people actually buy loose bricks by the kilo (like heroin, but cheaper).)
Nice stuffed toys - loved ones you get your money's worth, unloved ones survive pristine.
Toy cars - last for ages, can be enjoyed by all ages (young children smashing them together, older children recreating car crashes and dismantling them)

Least effective:
Mecano - like LEGO but for boring people.
"Creative" sets like jewellery making or crystals or things like that
Etch-a-fucking-sketch - who actually plays with that for more than five minutes?
Spirograph - not exactly a toy, not exactly anything.
Puzzles - do them once, bin 'em
Scalextric - it pains me to add this one, but the sets are so expensive and cars so fragile they can barely survive one impact against the wall, let alone the constant crashes (the plastic guardrails serving as nothing more than a ramp to launch the cars into the air).

To be honest - no toys for young children are worth the money. They will grow out of them too quickly to get the value from them.

AnnaSW1 · 19/04/2021 12:00

Big Amazon delivery boxes are the most cost effective toys in our household

Lockdownlumpy · 19/04/2021 12:10

Most
Lego
Playmobil
Second hand wooden castle
Puzzles for daughter (loves them)
Poster paints and brushes
Home made playdoh and cutters
Books
Second hand TP metal climbing frame
A set of mini bilibo and little plastic counters (have been used for soooo many open ended play ideas over the years)

Least
Glow tracks circuit
Remote control car
Puzzles for son (couldn't care less)
Science lab kits - list interest quickly
Cheap imitations of games that break
Ukulele
Swingball - it doesn't work like it used to and tangles around the stick all the time

Lockdownlumpy · 19/04/2021 12:13

Oh happyland also v good value. All bought second hand.

Marble run not a winner in our house. Both too lazy to make a working run and they just scatter marbles everywhere

00100001 · 19/04/2021 12:16

@SarahBellam

Do you remember when LEGO was creative and fun instead of being a glorified jigsaw?
It still is, if you don't get precious about keeping everything in sets.

We kept the instructions in a box and bunged it all in together after the first build.

DS would free pay most of the time. Very occasionally he'd riffle through the instructions to build something specific.

Temp023 · 19/04/2021 12:19

My DD are older now but definitely best thing we ever bought was the trampoline. Also Hama beads.

My niece insisted on sleepingin a cardboard box for weeks until her Mum got too creeped out and threw it away.
The box did look absolutely like a coffin

00100001 · 19/04/2021 12:22

@skirk64

Most effective: LEGO (I don't get the people saying it's not cost-effective. It's expensive yes, but you get years out of it. And it's one of the few toys that kids can't break, if you keep the boxes in the loft the sets are worth a fortune in a few years. And people actually buy loose bricks by the kilo (like heroin, but cheaper).) Nice stuffed toys - loved ones you get your money's worth, unloved ones survive pristine. Toy cars - last for ages, can be enjoyed by all ages (young children smashing them together, older children recreating car crashes and dismantling them)

Least effective:
Mecano - like LEGO but for boring people.
"Creative" sets like jewellery making or crystals or things like that
Etch-a-fucking-sketch - who actually plays with that for more than five minutes?
Spirograph - not exactly a toy, not exactly anything.
Puzzles - do them once, bin 'em
Scalextric - it pains me to add this one, but the sets are so expensive and cars so fragile they can barely survive one impact against the wall, let alone the constant crashes (the plastic guardrails serving as nothing more than a ramp to launch the cars into the air).

To be honest - no toys for young children are worth the money. They will grow out of them too quickly to get the value from them.

"To be honest - no toys for young children are worth the money. They will grow out of them too quickly to get the value from them."

but generic/passive toys, such a wooden building blocks, cars, farm animals, baby dolls, wooden train set etc do get the value from them. They're played with over and over in various ways and often passed from kid to kid and through generations (for example, my DS played with his Dad's lego sets and played on his little rocking horse and Nanny's)

It's the specific/specialist toys that don't get the value. Eg. LOLdolls, beyblades, shopkins or a crappy plastic bracelet making set. They're used a handful of times and discarded.

Can absolutely guarantee nobody is saving their skid's BRATZ figures in the loft so their grandkids can play with them - but I'll bet (and know!) there's lofts with lego, wooden blocks, trains and cars in them, just waiting for the next generation.

MattyGroves · 19/04/2021 12:26

Best:

Brio train set - I got a second hand set and we have added to it, both kids love it and play with it daily

Play kitchen - consistent hit

Sand pit

Tuff tray and stand

Cars

Dinosaurs

Worst:

Duplo - inherited a lovely collection, neither child cares for it at all

Micro scooter - neither child can figure out the steering and get frustrated, they prefer a much chunkier different steering one

Jellybabiesforbreakfast · 19/04/2021 12:53

Best-value toys are wooden train set, tuff tray and a big basin of soapy water in the garden with lots of bubbles and plastic cups and beakers. Also a mini-monster truck and some old pieces of chipboard the previous owner of our house left behind the shed which my 3yo uses to make car ramps. He's pretty good at letting me remove splinters from his hands now.

Peachypips78 · 19/04/2021 13:02

Trampoline
Lego
Decent art equipment

Poppytroll · 19/04/2021 13:04

Best- wooden blocks, Lego, duplo, wooden train set, games that require no set up like dobble, uno, kinetic sand/ homemade play doh.

Worst- anything remote control. Coding robot, all the plastic bits that come in play doh sets.

Ilovemaisie · 19/04/2021 13:18

skirk I hope you don't actually "bin 'em" for jigsaws when they are done and actually pass them on.

RoseZinfandel · 19/04/2021 13:18

We have a fair few toys, board games and books that are on their second or third generation, so I suppose they are the best value.

Not sure what gets used least - maybe outdoor toys.

Woeismethischristmas · 19/04/2021 13:23

Lego but I gave up on the kits and buy the odd kilo from eBay. There’s a book where you you use standard Lego bits with a power pack to create moving models.

Trampoline

Hot teddies that you microwave every night for years

Rubbish toys

Loud and plastic is short lived

Anything advertised on tv generally

DdraigGoch · 19/04/2021 13:40

Nothing wrong with Lego, I get hours of joy out of it. Oh, you meant for the kids?

StayingHere · 19/04/2021 13:45

Oh and several years ago I bought a set of Charlie and Lola dominos for 99p in a charity shop. My kids absolutely adored it and have been playing it for years, great value! Also jigsaw puzzles were great value especially for DD who loved them.