Hits and misses for dc presents?

[Onelittlebugbear]

Ds (4) had a ton of stuff. His favourite was a lollipop and a packet of stickers. Someone please remind me of this next year when I'm spending loads of money. The lollipop and stickers cost £3.50 in total, I should have stopped there!

However hits have been: imaginext dinosaurs, light saber, make your own dinosaur magnets, light up globe, doc mcstuffins dr kit and burping burt game.
Misses have been: toothless fire breathing Dragon (doesnt work properly), furreal daisy (as I knew it would be but he'd been begging for it for months), great big armed forces helicopter (too big and requires both hands to lift so then can't shoot).

We still have some stuff to look at and put together tomorrow.
Is it me or do most toys nowadays seem a little, well, shit? Apart from the imaginext most of what ds has had feels rather flimsy and as though it might break quite easily. Or it just doesn't work properly in the first place.

My dd 16 s favourite was her monsters inc onsie it hasn't been off her in 5days
My ds 5 loved his lego, hasn't really touched anything else
Ds2 13 months loves his squeaky hammer, me not so much
Baby girl is too young only 6 weeks but loves the new sling I got!

The Imaginext Batman stuff was a huge hit.

The Darda race track was too - until Christmas pm when the first car broke, and then Boxing Day am when the second bit the dust. Should have just gone for the Hot Wheels, it would still have broken but at least replacements would be available.

DD1 (9) has been thrilled with everything, especially..

• old-fashioned stopwatch from Santa
• body glitter
• owl shaped cushion
• writing paper set
• Granny squares crochet blanket (her idea!)
• Paperchase bits and bobs
• Demon Dentist by David Walliams
• Goth Girl by Chris Riddell
• Third book in the Mysterious Benedict Society trilogy
• a striped dress from H&M with a red belt

DD2 (4) adores her proper, metal Slinky aka Springy Thing. She is also delighted with Santa this year because he brought her lots of AA batteries (as requested in her letter to him). Other successes include...

• rainbow shaped cushion
• cloud shaped mirror
• teddy bear tape measure
• dress from Bread and Jam (she likes the pocket)
• dummy for her doll
• sellotape with elephants on it
• Paper Dolls by Julia Donaldson
• 365 Penguins book

A massive hit with both girls was the £5 book token each of them was given by a Great Aunt. Another GA gave them each a crisp £5 note in individual Christmas cards.

Ds 2 (2.2) loved Wonderworld sound blocks, Monster Mtroyshkas, Playdough, FP Crocodile Keys, a fake fur waistcoat (that I think is actually for a girl but my mum bought it and ds keeps wearing it inside out and back to front next to his bare skin, so apparently loves it too ), little learner cat torch and his chalks and mini blackboard. Pretty much everything in fact!

Ds1 (9) loved the remote control car from his grandparents, and the Michael Morpurgo books from us. Everything else crashed and burned . All he wanted really was a Wii U

Can't get the link to work but it's on Amazon for £70 instead of £149 so a fab deal. Dh is the tech in our family and picked it out, works great. Ok, so it's called the AVerMedia Game Capture HD (C281). If you don't have a headset (ie headphones like they wear in call centres with the microphone), the you will need to buy one separately.
I left dh to set it up with the dc's, he said it was straightforward to install.
Would not have paid the £150 as that was way over present budget, so glad to have nabbed a bargain.

Lots of hits from very generous relatives; lots of books which always go down well, clothes, puzzles..

However, this is (I hope) a safe space for me to have a rant about the sequin art sodding picture which a distant relative of DH's deemed fit to give a 4 year old with the attention span of a gnat. Cue the entire box of sequins being emptied on to the kitchen table, a grand total of three sequins out of (approximately) 700 applied to the sodding butterfly picture, and a dismissive "I'm bored. You finish it, Mummy."

We have written a thank-you card, and of course I hate to be ungrateful, but dear God, why did I not re-gift it when I had the chance?

www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B005RKDI8E

this one vesta i had been looking at this one actually. and yes its a reasonable price reduced they are very expensive otherwise.

That's the one

Hits
Scalectrix
Finger lights
Doc mcstuffin
Remote inflatable dalek was huge hit!
Lego
Minecraft torch

Misses
Disney princess snow globe maker was load of rubbish, leaked all over the place.
Planetarium light was a bit meh as light is quite dim

Lots of hits this year as we were very careful to buy things the dcs would really like.

Dd1 (10) hits
Bike (secondhand)
Lego friends
Words with friends
Harumika
Blingles set

Ds1 (7) hits
Bike (bought second hand)
Lego batman
Angry birds frustration
Scalextric

Dd2 (3) hits
Baby Annabell Interactive
Peppa pig remote controlled car (all the dcs loved this!)
Basket of play food
Duplo house (found on eBay)
Peppa pig cards game and dominos

Slushy cup update....following snowmansshoes post I have eventually got round to trying them again...put a 3/4 full carton of cranberry juice in freezer for a few hours (was almost frozen solid - had to take it out and let defrost for while) - put in slushy cup maker....success!
Then went to do second one and the cranberry juice was still too frozen to come out - kept shaking the carton to defrost it quicker ...still couldn't get enough juice out - cut top off carton to find it was already a slushy ...did tip it into the slushy cup and let DD have a squeeze but really didn't need to ..!
So maybe save yourself £12 for a cup and make it for free...(and no fiddly washing up) - maybe I should be charging £12 for the tip!

I know what you mean unlucky83 I thought the same! Oh well the things we do.....

Just came on to say dd got a tapefetti thing that you design purses with. I've had a look and it was 10.00 in argos, I wasn't expecting much from it but it's really really good and well worth buying.

Catwalk creations on the other hand is a pile of rubbish.

Miss 16gb cameraless iPod
Miss big ear defender type Dre Beats headphones

However .... They led to a HIT when we took both back, upgraded the iPod, downgraded the headphones and we had perfection

miss - Mousetrap (not the same as the 70s/80s version at all) and completely baffled me!!!

hit - lego, stickle bricks, brio track accessories and TRIO building blocks

For ds's aged 7 and 6

Hits: First proper trainset, Roald Dahl books, Hudl, new Skylanders figures, Christmas jumpers, Beyblades, Lego Technic/City, Robofish. We haven't got to them yet but I'm hoping the David Walliams books will be a big hit once we have finished the Dahl boxset.

Misses: Lego chima - shame as they have been bought loads. Still, it will get mixed in with our bricks and played with.

Ds 21 months

Hits: Small battery operated drill, Thomas wooden trains

Misses: He has a love/hate relationship with his HappyLand trainset :)

I bought Price Little People Vehicle Mini Bus By Mattel this Fisher Price Little People Vehicle Mini Bus from eBay for my 1 year old DS. He loved it It is very easy for them to grip onto.

I also bought him a Scuttlebug which he also loves :)

2¾ year DS adored his giant roll of big bubble wrap (£10 off eBay). He is a huge Octonaut fan so also enjoyed some of those figures.