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?

Zhu fecking zhu pet fecking hamster.
Someone bought it for my DD a few xmas's ago and it's fecking awful. You turn the fecking thing off (how??) and it carries on making a noise anyway. Then when you finally think it's gone off by itself, you put it down and it starts with the fecking squawk again. I once spent half the night listening to the fecking thing before I shut it on the toilet (only place I couldn't hear the feck).
And don't get me started on the "accessories" .... fecking sunglasses and hat? On a hamster?

Have bought much of the crap mentioned.

In the 11 years we've had children, the best buys have been Brio trains, track etc etc. Youngest dc (9) will still get it out occasionally because it gives him happy memories .

The collection could fetch a tidy sum on eBay but at the moment we're holding on to it for any future grandchildren. Just beautifully crafted, sturdy toys that are a joy for children to play with. It's not cheap by any means but we mixed and matched new and second-hand purchases, plus relatives added to the collection.

Justbogoff, don't sell it, ever. You'll be heartbroken to buy it again.
I bought a massive bundle of ebay ( huge) and its loved everyday.
Quality lasts, duplo, lego, brio, sylvanians, they all keep a good resale value and lots of play value.

Mine are only small so the only crap we have have been gifts.anything with batteries, noisy cars etc. basically plastic rubbish.

DD's too old for £30+ track for toy cars, but the blu track looks amazing. nice and simple like my childhood matchbox track that worked.

I wish toy makers would learn you can't make complicated large floppy plastic things stay together.

DD2 is a huge playmobil fan and that's brilliant stuff except for the stupid aeroplane which flexes and falls to bits.

MouseCrap (see what I did there...)

Those big doll heads where you can play with their hair. One big matted mess after my DDs had it 5 minutes.

Small Hello Kitty houses/buildings with all the little furniture. Plastic crap.

RobinSparkles , Armani and anyone else with the Chou Chou Magic Pacifier Doll - contact Zapf and they will send you a new dummy out.

I know this because I complained to them about missing instructions for DD2's Baby Born doll and Zapf sent me one of the dummies by mistake. Took me AGES to work out what it was. I was asking everyone who came round if they recognised it. Still have it somewhere I think - if you PM me your address I'll post it to you.

Does anyone have anything to say about scooby doo plastic tat? My ds2 really wants the van after falling in love with an earlier version at my sisters, they have an offer on at toys r us, so I could get him the van and lighthouse and get a free playset.

I have bought and regretted a lot of the things on this thread.

Can I add those crappy remote controlled helicopters, in fact most remote controlled things last about 5 seconds in this house.

Easy bake oven. Fiddly little mixes, toy hot enough to sear skin off. What fun!

Dr Who "inside the Tardis" thing. I think it got assembled once and spent the rest of its life in bits.

Some car thing that was meant to drive up a wall. It didn't.

We love Buckaroo

We have a scooby doo van we have had for a number of years and its not broken yet and still gets played with.

I like the look of that blu track, may grt that and then i can get rid of the piles of hot wheels stuff.

Ds3 wants hama beads, the ones you iron? I dont do ironing and they look shite.

I have got dd some ben and holly stuff as she loves the show so i hope its not too crap. We have peppa pig toys i bought for ds3 and they are still fine, the only one that has broken a bit is the rocket but the car, house, campervan and helicopter are all fine.

May stand corrected on the innotab. After sitting sullen and unappreciated for the better part of a year my eldest dc (7) has spent most of the morning playing with it!

Those Hama bead things look very scary 5. No experience here though.

Wheelybug things. In our house in 6 years no-one has ever ridden one more than once. They just use them as steps and then fall off, bump and wail. Pointless.

Hama beads are great for playdates for girly girls (but boys can also enjoy them when in the mood) - they can sit at the kitchen table quietly for hours making intricate creations together with virtually no adult supervision required apart from a 30 second whizz with the iron at the end. Good for fine motor skills and the eventual creations are small and attractive. Buy huge cheap pots from IKEA or wherever and just accept the fact that some will get spilled and hoovered up each time you play with them.

See we have two wheely bugs and mine love them! My elder boys would still ride them if they could!

Re hama beads i am sure ds3 who is 7 would love them, but ds4 is 4 and dd is 23 mths and i wont be able to.stop them trying to play with them and in dd's case eating them.

Hama beads are great - I actually like the finished products and, as another poster said, they are subtle!

Hate hate moonsand although DCs love it...I've been 'losing' piles of it regularly and I don't intend to replace it

Has anyone got the playmobil pyramid? Is it kind of...pointless, or good play value?

5madthings you can get larger sized Hama beads for smaller children...still potentially edible, though!

justbogoffnow - our Brio has been played and played and played with. DS is 5 1/2 and is stil ading brio bits to my Amazon wishlist at every opportunity. He has a Tomica train set as wel but plays with the Brio ten times more.

New Buckaroo is crap. Doesn't buck. Hugely disappointing.

Our wheelybug is very well loved.

I had hamma beads as a kid and I loved them, mum still has some of my creations, but I was a --sad lonely-- only child so no one to eat them.

Nothing makes the heart sink more than the sound of 1000 Hama beads hitting a hardwood floor.
DD and DS weren't bothered, Hama beads are quite fiddly and time consuming and they just didn't have the patience to put them all in even I don't . The ironing bit takes seconds though, you just press them down under greaseproof paper until they melt together a bit.

I'm coming to this thread a bit late so don't know if anyone has already suggested it, but a tip for Elefun; we adapted ours so it plugs in to the wall, works much better now (still not great though, just might help if you already have one!).

Also, a tip for the Vtech Ziddizoom camera; use rechargeable batteries, any normal batteries will run out really quickly.

Doggy Do....why would someone want to play a game picking up dog poo...seriously!!
Quackshots - its quite silly really.

I am a bit late to this thread as well !!
RE remote controlled cars ...check the serial number underneath .... I bought 3 different colurs last year...2 had same number os ds2 and ds3 cars worked with either controller.....ie if ds2 car needed to go back but ds3 pressed forward ....it went !!

LEGO !!!! of any sort ...had enough now ...

Vtech camera's ...I thought good fun ...till ds3 tried doing a Katy Perry (I think) of me ...First thing in morning ...1/2 awake !!!(asleep) in bed !!!!!

ANYTHING that needs adult help/supervision to set up (1 hour to read instuctions/put bits together/re-read instructions/find bits we haven't added/re-read instructions)..and by then kids are interested in something else and don't to play the game !!!!!

YEEEEH roll on the new year when I can chuck it all out !!!!!

I think the BEST buy is/are DVD'S !!!!!! Peace and quiet /popcorn/crisps cinema night !!!!

The Magic Tooth Fairy Game - total shit. Also, any cheap kites (never actually seem to fly) and a remote control Dalek - much desired, never played with.