What not to waste your money on for the DC this Christmas-

[Sparklingbrook]

I will start, get the DCs wish lists ready to cross them off-

Elefun. Should be renamed Ele IMO.

Golden Coin Maker. Just don't.

Any more suggestions?

OH I have another.

Those huge gigantic teddies. The ones that are bigger than your child. It sits in the corner being ignored and collecting dust for 4 years until you burn the bastard in the back garden on bonfire night.

When Ds2 was v little I started a cute thing of Santa bringing him a small soft toy every year. He's 10. I am still buying soft toys.

I second the baby Chou Chou magic pacifier. Dd begged for it last year, I paid £40 for the bloody thing and the dummy was impossible to put in its mouth! Load of shite!

Lalaloopsy. Can't even sit because the head is so big and heavy. Dd played with hers for exactly 2 minutes since she got it.

Hot wheels, moon sand and remote control everything also utterly crap.

Mousetrap should be illegal!

I also hate cheap tat, aka stocking fillers. Sure marketing people just rename birthday part bag fillers for Christmas. We don't do stockings, not sure if dcs actually know what they are!

Twister Dance. Four rubber spots and a crappy music speaker with a few coloured lights. Plays Britney Spears too.

Taken back to shop. Reason given? It's rubbish. Manager used his discretion and gave us a refund because he agreed with us.

We have boxes of crappy hotwheels track that doesn't stay together.

I tried to get rid of our Moonsand on Freecycle, nobody wanted it. I was rather honest in my post though.

We got Elefun from the charity shop, so don't feel too hard done by, but it mostly just causes fights.

We also had the rubbish Ben 10 tiny alien maker thing. Oh and Transformers these days don't. I'm sure I remember the old ones actually used to transform, not just break.

Moonsand is awful.

both the new and old ben 10 watch. they are both as crap as each other.

not had a lot of joy from the perfume laboratory sets. very fiddly and took too long.

fisherprice camera - utter shite.

aqua beads. nasty little fuckers they are.

micro light helicopters. didn't even last one session.

god there's loads more.

We found the Dr Who lego sets a load of rubbish. It took ages for me to put together, and then fell apart if anyone so much as looked at it.

We love Elefun in this house! Have just had a sort out of most of the toys in this house today - I am amazed (and embarrassed!) how many Happy Meal toys we had

We have had most of the fucking pieces of shit toys mentioned.

I will just generally add that ALL JOHN ADAMS toys are to be avoided at all costs. Magic coin maker, super graffix, magic gift non wrapper, egg maker.

Read the reviews on amazon. And believe them.

bedmonster - does that include Gross Science? That's what DD has asked for for Xmas. I have my doubts....

EndoplasmicReticulum - you don't live in Harrogate do you? I saw Moonsand advertised on Freecycle and thought "ooh, what a good idea, I can advertise ours too", then I read the description and thought "too true - no-one will want it now". It truly should come with a health warning. Ditto Moondough.

Really hate anything that needs batteries.

Ah, now Sissy we haven't had that one, but I am going out on a limb here and saying that one will be shit too. But check the amazon reviews really, the ones we have had all had shit reviews so can hardly be surprised.
Am now ingnoring the fact that DD wants Waggletagz for impending birthday...

Yep, we've wasted time and money on: elefun, bendaroos, buckaroo, innotab, vtech camera, moonsand, ridiculously heavy balance bike, hex bugs - AND the rubbish track. Oh and the cheap imitation crap Lego.

Like the aqua doodle though!

We have gone through elefun, kerplunk, hungry hippos, buckeroo, fustration and I'm sure there has been more. I am still convinced if I was a better mum and had a "games" cupboard and played with them all those games would still have their pieces and not be chucked away now.

I can't believe all the Furby haters! Our 10plus year old Furby sits on the kitchen shelf and chats to us sometimes. He's part of the family!

So what's wrong with Elefun, then? DD really wants it for Christmas. Is it just that it needs extra strong batteries?

Golden coin maker, surprise egg maker and ice cream maker are all awful!

All played with once and are so hard to use that you end up doing it while the kids watch (and mine are not little) and 3 hours later (yes really stupid bloody chocolate egg) you still end up with something that looks nothing like it should and is inedible!

hotwheels tracks are always rubbish BUT this is brill - www.amazon.co.uk/BluTrack-18sklarge-Starter-Set/dp/B000YC3PE2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1352420046&sr=8-1 - can do loops and put it down the stairs and do allsorts. doesn't have a 'trigger' start obviously but it's durable and fits most cars not just hotwheels.

sigh - this

God, DS LOVES Hexbugs! He has for over a year now, carts them about in the case and enjoys joining up the sets/making them different. Deffo worth the extortionate amount of money in this house.

Elefun and the bee game where you put on the headband and collect little halls with a magnet are both hated though.

DD loves her Kiddizoom camera. And Ive got her an Innotab for Christmas......

I agree that Elefun is crap. Ben and Holly play sets are rubbish too.

Do not buy Barbies Dog garden thing, it's pink plastic crap! And falls apart and doesn't work like it does on the advert!

To be fair I got dd the vetch camera when they first came out and it lasted great ds had it after to.

Golden coin maker -shit
Big trak- big pile of beepy shit
Fur real- scary mechanical furry shit
Moon sand- shit sand
That foot spa with the beads- not relaxing but annoying shit
Any hot wheels- should be banned shit
Elefun- should have been done by trading standards by now for lying in their adverts SHIT
Doggy pee pee- ruins the carpet shit