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?

Moon Sand, Play-Doh and Paint/craft sets- evil. The craft sets also have the triple threat of being not just mess making, but showing up how piss poor my crafting skills (knitting, sewing, cross stitch) are, thus making me feel inadequate to my dcs.

There is also a V-Tech bear someone bought my son when he was little. Here is the rotten, nervous breakdown inducing thing. Frankly, its that annoying we should send it to Afghanistan and play it on repeat until they surrender. It'd take about 2 minutes tops. I finally managed to purposely mistakenly leave it behind when he went to visit an Aunt.

Anything where I have to join in after cooking the Christmas dinner instead of gulping vast quantities of Gin is also a no no.

Lego Creationary. We already had the Shave a Sheep and Minotaurus lego games which we loved, so when we were given this last Christmas we were really thrilled.

OMG it's shite. No rules to speak of, despite having several degrees and accountancy qualifications between us we couldn't work out how the scoring system didn't end up just giving everyone the same amount of points, and the objects are all but impossible to make...

DD loves her Kiddizoom camera - she makes weird films involving her soft toys in peril...

I'd also like to vote for Bendaroos - expensive shite that if it gets into your carpet will NEVER come out.

lovecat - thanks for saving us from creationery I nearly bought that other day

The absolutely worst things we --got conned into-- bought last year were a set of spongebob walkie talkies, which were complete dross. They didn't work at all unless you were outdoors and less than about 5 metres apart (i.e. having a normal conversation).

Ditto the spongebob digital camera which was really fiddly, the 'waterproof' case fell apart immeditaely and there was no LED screen so ds couldn't see what he'd taken a picture of anyway. When we finally got the pictures onto the computer the quality was so bad it looked like he'd taken every photo through a sandstorm. Rubbish, rubbish, rubbish.

My ds's love most of the mentioned toys, ewe're on our second elefun as the first one broke through overuse....like hot wheels and pumpaloons too and hexbugs are great.
Do agree on the chocolate coin maker that got chucked as did.
Not a massive moon sand fan, okay outside though.

Moon dough, horrendous stuff, it got everywhere. The moon sand was fine in comparison!

Scratch and sniff books, yuk yuk yuk they all smell vile and it amalgamates into a sort of synthetic vomit aroma that lurks in the house until the book finds itself in the wheelie bin! Especially not ideal if you have a festive hangover!

We have the new Guess Who? and I really like the new design. It has pointers to choose your character which are built into the board rather than all those little cards. I like how the boards can be clipped together or used apart (eg sitting on sofa, in car).

This thread has really cheered me up! I'm a miserable cow - I hate toys!!!! Just say no to the magic 8 ball or the DCs will drive you crazy saying "But the magic ball said..."

Crystal Growing Kit - I had this as a teenager and I never had any success growing any crystals. Time consuming with no actual crystals at the end of it.
I had some sort of Jewel kit, where you have stones and add them to water and they turn into jewels, I remember that being quite good in the 90s.

Scooby Doo Spooky Mansion - Took ages to put together and fell apart when DS played with it. Ended up gathering dust and then binned.

Glow dome, utter crap.

Bought for my Dd3 used once, sent to a charity shop.

Bendaroos, get stuck in the carpet

Have golden coin maker, she loves it but gets frustrated because they dont look like the ones from the shops.

We have many versions of Guess Who, its well loved in my house and Hama beads. Dd3 can be a little obssessive and has made about 50 coasters

Guitar Hero with the drums kit and shit. Your available living room space dimishes by half and no-one ever uses it. You find small tumbleweed on the foot pedal months later.

Your available living room space dimishes by half and no-one ever uses it. You find small tumbleweed on the foot pedal months later.

I have a guitar hero no drums or shit but the guitar gathering dust at the corner of the telly bloody thing she wont get rid of it

I'll read through in a minute to see if anyone agrees but

INNOTAB

Not all fucking that.
Not much of anything in fact.

Any bloody girly crap. We have the nail art set- nail polish stickers in a massive cumbersome case. Tag thing maker to make pointless things to attach to bags etc. numerous jewellery maker sets. An ice cream maker for which you use your own milk and ice so is basically some plastic containers for thirty quid.
The candy floss maker is good though

My mum used to buys them all that ledkr dd has asked for a sequin art thing this year i said ask you gran sigh

Alphabet pal!!! I swear mine was possessed. Would go off at all times of the day and night. Had it four years with dd1 and only err found out the "ooh that tickles" thing when dd2 got hold of it. Not sure what's worse. The fact it scared the shit out of me thinking it's like something from child's play or the fact that my dd was swearing.

Anyone mentioned Mouse Trap yet? Wars have been started...

yy Ice Cream Maker

It would be cheaper and less hassle to have ice creams flown in from Italy

I was watching a demo of Innotab on Argos TV last night It looked like utter rubbish. Made me not want to buy it. Thanks Argos

I loved my furby!!

It's not even ice cream it's a kind of angel delight yuck.
All baby dolls that eat and pooh. I did major abdominal surgery on baby alive to unblock her

All those paint your own piggy bank\ mug\tea sets which all look crap and can't be used as the paint comes off

Disney Snowglobe maker is utter tat, all the glitter sticks together and the water leaks! DD was so excited to get it and was bored after 5 minutes.

Fabric pens. Kids prefer designer to self designed