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

BRATZ ski lodge.
Cost nearly more in the flippin wrapping paper it so was huge to wrap!
They said oooh and aaah and then never touched it after Boxing Day
Hate all Bratz toys actually as all the feet go missing and then doll will be rejected as not the 'cool one'.

Buying dc3 only wooden toys now!! Plastic didnt work for us!

My DS1 knocked a hole in the playroom wall with hos hammer

Had some stuff deliveres yesterday for DS's for Xmas. They have spent all eveving playnig with the cardboard box, I kid you not!

I don't think DD is that bothered about her kitchen but it is a hit with visiting children.

DS hasn't bothered with his dinasours that much. Also space hopper.

But OTOH loads of things listed on here have been well played with:
lego
playmobil
wooden castle
And as for the leappad (DS got it for his 3rd birthday nearly 3 years ago) and has played with it loads. DS and DD fight over it so much so that 2yo DD is getting one for Christmas from PILs.

DD got loads of Little People stuff from 1st BD onwards. Plays with the fairground stoff the most and the house as that's in her bedroom. But the farm and the castle - completely ignored!

Oh trefusis sorry I had to lol at yr dismal roboraptor troubles.

TBH I road-tested one last year (for work) and took it into the school playground where I was surrounded by a horde of 6yos. But I did feel its play value was limited. Ditto that Aquadrew thing with the mat and Thomas.

How about a thread for surprising successes?

FWIW my "failures" would be - an ELC trike which is naff, well worth not buying them. Got DD a Groovy Girl after a lot of hassle tracking one down and she barely played with it then (she was 3.5). She loves it now tho at 5.5, dolls have got much bigger. Also got DS2 that mountain/train track thing as he loved it at toddler group, but he hardly ever played with it. Mind you I paid £4 for it at the school fair so that was OK.

BTW we adoooore playmobil and play with it all the time so all is not lost if you've got that for Christmas (DS1 is getting the aeroplane after asking for it for 6 mths.

PMSL at tref putting socks,- SOCKS!!!!{grin]--- on the roboraptor and Dominic's mother's "filthy book"
One of my college lecturers sent his 2 elderly aunts to see "When Harry Met Sally" in the days when we didn't have orgasms in Ireland! Oddly enough they loved it!
When ds2 was 2 I got him this parrot which talked to you on a mobile phone. He was terrified of it and walked around it giving it a berth of at least 3 metres. I was so disappointed for him because it was his main present that year.

After I'd bought a plastic small charity shop dolls house, my mother suggested the wonderful ELC one! grr. gathers dust.

Metal detector

remote control cars, still fall for that.

have just bid on ebay for a wooden fort for ds (5) so am really hoping he plays with it after lots of negative comments here! He is v into role play and sits for hours with a couple of cars or action figures talking to himself so I'm hoping it will be a hit. Those bloody Winx Club dolls were my biggest disappointment last year. I bought dd 3 of them, took ages to find them and she must have played with them for about an hour. Now of course they are lost or broken at the bottom of a cupboard. Other mistakes have been board games they were too young to play such as Operation when they were 3 and 5.

Failures? We bought both girls ELC's version of Baby Annabelle last year. DD2(4) plays with hers alot, even takes it to bed. DD1 (5) is not that interested. We didn't buy the horsehead but DD1 did get an ELC styling head (she wasn't aware of the Pegasus thingie!) and has played with that a surprising amount. ELC wooden dolls house, a present from the previous year, not a failure exactly but infrequently played with.

Most played with things? The 'make and do' stuff in a kitchen cupboard. Unfailingly. Every day. Otherwise buggies, play food, cutlery and china, assortment of bags, dressing-up clothes, a heap of baby blankets, a pop-up tent, some face paint, board games and jigsaws and then after that anything they can scavenge from the house. Their scooters were also a big hit.

They have never seen TV beyond Cbeebies, so they have no idea what to ask for. I genuinely can't think of anything that I could buy them for Christmas that would enhance their lives beyond a big pile of tissue paper, glue and pipe-cleaners. Really.

I forgot to add. DD1's most requested Christmas present for this year? An electric toothbrush!?

i think it is the case with my two boys, that, because they have been bombarded with the likes of playstations and all manner of electriccy thingummybobs, they just don't naturally get pleasure from the toys that require imagination. it's sad i think!

ds2 got most of what he asked for last year and most has been a flop. wooden castle and knights etc , hotwheels t rex, skatepark and finger bikes, domino rally, meccano, wwf figures and stadium thing, all gathering dust .

ah, my kids just get a satsuma and a lump of coal and perhaps a knitted Clanger, so we don't have these problems...

FrannyZ: kids are quite capable of using their imaginations, but in ways that will still irk you. Everyone knows that the best toy of all is the giant cardboard box it comes in. They can spend hours figuring out ways to play with that.

But they don't get the giant box unless they nag you for the stupidly expensive toy airport first (our most expensive flop).

dance mat & fur-real friends cats

i bought my niece the ELC dance mat and was totally pissed off to find that it was too difficult for any 5-year-old to do. (but that's not what it said on the box, oh no).
it was too grim and too fast and too shiny. none of the adults could do it either. i should have taken it back, really but she wanted to keep it (out of politeness i think)

dd has the little people dolls house thingy, which she hardly ever plays with. She does however, drag it round the house and use it as a step to open doors etc.

Was planning on getting her a play house this year for the garden and as she wouldn't get out of the one on display at the toy shop today, I think we might be on a winner.

meccano made a bit of a come back last year so got ds (6) a set - played with once!

Science museum telescope in box still, ditto microscope - but probably my fault for not helping him to get going.

btw am not ghastly pushy mum with all my science and technology stuff - we have a house littered with dvd's and multi-coloured plastic wonder!

Best thing i ever bought was a hand made dolls house, sold to me by an old man at his back gate in harlow. cost me £45 4 years ago. it gets played with at least once a week. It has a total mishmash of furniture, 70's/80's style wallpaper. But it is so sturdy. dd1+2 used to climb on top of it toreach stuff. dd2 was sitting on it the other week. but still looks good.

worst thing i bought, was an impulse buy, bratz baby bumper car. dd1 aid as soon as she opened it, i dont like bratz. i think i recycled it as a birthday pressie for one of her friends or her cousin, but it may still be in the cupboard.

We bought dd1 a fur real panda, she's never played with it, also baby annabel and a buggy which she has only just started to play with after seeing a add on t.v.

Aqua Draw is the best thing we have bought her, she plays with it evry day.

Why would anyone buy a real fur panda???? Unless it was alive, of course... Yuk, ugh, am glad it wasn't played with.

DS won't go near any ride-on type of thing, even though our garden is littered with these. And another thumbs down here for wooden Noah's Ark type things, though to be fair, he's very little yet. This year (his second Christmas), he will be getting a few bits and a tin drum, and I bet he'll love that. Plus all the annoying plastic noisy stuff the rellies will get, of course (which always goes down a storm, doesn't it?)

Baby Annabelle and Furby both expensive-very 'in' toys but dd1 soon lost interest.

(Both bought by her Dad so at least I didn't pay for them )

RC guineapig - DULL

leap pad

at bugmum thinking marne bought a real fur panda! lol

biggest flop here was the play tent/dome/thingy-me-bob that we got dd last year..... she was facinated but only ever plays with the balls from it, not the tent itself.