Christmas presents you thought would be a huge hit but were actually a major flop

[Gillian76]

I'll start.

ELC wooden dolls' house for DD1. Played with about 5 times

pmsl DC - reminds me of the time I took MIL to see Scary Movie at the cinema.

MY BIL is obsesesively into Mini's (the cars ), I sourced for him a motor show brochure of the year trhe car was launched..... fabbo thought I..... 'Oh' said he as he tossed it aside

rude bugger!

Trike for ds3

scooter for ds1 which he never used, rusted out in the garden but he still bizarrely describes as trhe best gift ever????

wagon of bricks for ds3

scalextric from Mum to ds1 and 2 lasted less than a day

spiderman radios they could never be bothered with

Ah the list goes on......

Wobble deck

It's only a flop because it's so bloody hard!!!

(and although it says "NEW" on the site, it's not...we got it last yr and it had been out for a while then. The price is new though...it was 25 quid last yr!!!)

ooh won't buy a roboraptor then! we got a little people garage, i think he used it twice. he preferred the fisher price one from the 70s.

I got dd2 Roboraptor last year.
It works really well on our wooden floors. You have to have decent batteries in it though.

LAst year I go tmy Mam some vouchers for a pamper day and she didn't use it!
I would have if she'd said

black and decker work bench,ds never played with it and it took up so much room I dumped it and kept the tools.
Also huge plastic easel sitting in the gargage.

Oh crikey

ELC wooden castle top of our "to buy" list this year

Do you think children have forgotten how to play with this sort of simple, imaginative toy? I mean sort of "unlearnt" it due to prevalence of plastic beepy shit, TV, etc etc?

Don't know Franny. I think it depends partly on the child's individual preferences. One year we bought the ELC wooden farm, with animals and tractor. The onlybit ds ever plays with is the tractor. However, he plays a lot with his wooden train set, Playmobil fire engines, lego stuff, and Brio builder system toys. I think he is just not very interested in animals, and prefers things with wheels on, or things you can take apart and put together.

He wouldn't go for a castle at all, but he does play very imaginitively with fire engines, diggers, etc.

But then, ds hasn't had much tv or plastic beepy shit...

That bloody terrifying Barbie horsehead that was THE big toy for girls last year. DD got it, realised it was shit because a) the plastic 'jewels' wouldn't stay stuck to the head and b) the hair was so matted and minging that it couldn't even be brushed/combed, never mind styled.....

Dd's wooden dolls house is the most played with toy ever, by her and her friends, so I would say all this is pretty child-dependent. She's probably played with it more in the last few years though (she's 8).

Our ELC castle has been played with almost every day!

at DominiConnor and "that filthy book"

My dad had a similar experience. he was visiting his younger brother in Johannesburg for the first time in years and had brought what he though was a good family film (he hadn't really looked at it) they could all watch together. So they all sat down, the brother, his wife, my dad, two teenagers, twin one-year-olds and a 9yo girl.

It was Full Metal Jacket

My ds1 still says, every time the decapitated horse head with makeup comes on: 'Maaam it's that headless horse that mumsnet hate!'

old wooden dolls house - given one year, not played with much.

new posher wooden dolls house, lights and conservatory etc, still not really played with.

2 castles are played with lots though, one wooden and one plastic.

my mum bought my DP an "adult fantasy novel" for Christmas one year. It turned out not to be about dragons and things, but started with a masturbation fantasy and went on from there really. I don't think my mum has even heard of masturbation.

lol at all of the books

Leap Pad and lots of the books for it -I thought DD would love it at the time but its hardly been used. Hopefully DS will grow to love it.

Oh yes, Leap Pad a no no here too

How many people got a chocolate fountain last Christmas?
It's still in the box.
What an awful waste of money

Wooden fort, never played with, as is thomas aqua draw - complete crap and teh tomy light up drawing thing - plastic tosh. buy DS's great toyr but all theye ver play with is cars. They just love matchbox type cars, lines up om the windowsill. they are in heavne

Oh yeah leap pad- waste of time

A couple of years ago dd was really into astronomy. There was this thing called an Interactive Solar System we saw in Tridias. Thought dd would love it. Tridias ran out, couldn't get any more but managed to pay well over the odds for one on eBay.
A complete flop.
Ah well you win some you lose some.

Ha! I was convinced DD was the only child on this planet that thought the LeapPad was crap! Reassuring to hear that there are others.