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

Any racetrack thing that requires dad to put it together and it takes 3 hours and he gets all pissed off at it and when the car finally goes round they are totally underwhelmed and so dad gets even more pissed off and the child can't understand why dad hates playing with them and starts to cry.

don't mention racetracks, threebob. DH bought one for ds 2 years ago, he was 4, the track was aimed at a 9+ years. Complete nightmare, it has now gone to the tip.

Oh yes I saw that horsey thingy, small print in bottom of screen said 'price about £300'. I started to smile smugly as I have two boys but then remembered DS1 is seriously into helicopters and DH has been looking at remote ones.....

Hotwheels and scaletrix both complete disasters - and tried it twice because I thought maybe the cheapie ones weren't exciting enough

OTOH - Wooden castle, playmobil (including the airport) and lego played with endlessly!

For DD just about everything has been a let down - from wooden dolls house, baby annabelle throught to Bratz and just about everything in between!

However, any kind of styling head (she has decapitated a few) and papers, pens and pencils have always been a real hit

Very glad to hear that about the scalextric, keep finding the argos catalogue open on those pages. Will get lots of lego instead.

soapbox my 5 year old is the same.

Loves anything to do with art and craft.

Last year we got her baby born and her cot.

She gave it straight to her younger sister!!!!!!!

So glad i got her loads of other bits as well.

Rocking horse, fkin expensive thing too, has been played with ONCE since she got it for xmas last year This year her letter to santa says she wants a baby annabel. She is the most ungirly girl in the dolly sense I ever knew, and now I feel like I have to buy the doll but its bloody expensive and I don't want it stuffed in a toybox!!

(you are right of course Fawkes Bride, it's just the phrase FatThighs seems so negative and damning, it makes me wince. Hope you are not offended by our discussing your name FatThighs )

barbie house. it's collecting dust.

this year i'm only buying things i know she will like. which means it's all art & creative stuff as that's what she's interested in. yesterday she sat down and drew pictures for 5 hours without getting bored!

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..... DITTO DITTO DITTO
scaletrix- played with once as was hotwheels fireball

However baby annabell was a hit as was the elc castle and dolls house- We bought the castle about 4 years ago and it broke last year because someone stood on, It maybe more sturdy now?

I bought ds a cybershocker last year for about £70 as it was what he REALLY wanted. Has not even looked at it since xmas day!

A Thomas Loader Toy thingy...where a little truck transports some balls around and various Thomas characters pass them to each other......

Looked fab....fiddly to construct....ds bored after ten mins as he can't actually do anything...you just have to watch!
Watched once...in a whole year..bits now spread to the four corners of the universe!!!!

LOL at loads of the toys on here - same experience. My ds too had a thing about hammers - I hid his when he was 3 (he's now 6!) and I found it 6 months ago - within 5 minutes I had to hide the bl..dy thing again as he was back to tapping on the windows - what is it about boys and hammers?!! My dd's wouldn't give it a second look - perhaps I should paint it pink and put sequins on?!

Well nothing to add on the present front but will take this opportunity to talk about mememe!

FranneyandZooey - I do not mind you discussing my name at all - in fact surprised it even came up. It was more frustration than anything else when I was trying to choose a name for mumsnet all my choices came back as already taken (and there I am thinking I am so witty and original) so I typed fat thighs as a long line of many already calimed names and it was free! So more chance than anything.

Fact is I do have fat thighs - lost my baby weight from everywhere (breasts gone from C to A) but will not budge from my thighs - looks like I am wearing jodphurs! Funny thing is in the real world no one mentions my fat thighs but in this virtual world where none of you can see me it is my name. I like it because it makes me feel like I really am myself - I could be 'stunning, slender blonde with big boobies' but would not be me.

I also like 'dimpled thighs' as a tribute to my cellulite! May change it if I can work the thing - if not you shall have to get yused to my fat thighs!

Yes DimpledThighs is much nicer - if you want to change, go to "your registration" up the top

or be FatThighsToCrushYouWith

or something with a little humour in perhaps

and thank you for not minding me sticking my nose in

The Meccano set made in the 70s of various bits and pieces bought off Ebay was and still a success a year later. Son absolutely loves it.

Failures include the playmobil pirate ship - played with only for a short time.

microscooters are good. only problem just youngest dd's keeps breaking, buy one for her every year, only last a short while.

ELC happy street - very old - roads and cars BIG hit. Sad to sell when we moved

another vote for the roboraptor, works ok but guzzles batteries and once you've seen it walk a bit and roar a bit, it's a bit ho-hum.

Harry Potter lego, cost a fortune, just got mixed up with all the other lego.

LeapPad went down well with DD1 (3 yrs) but mainly because she likes to torment us with it by making it say the same word a BILLION times.. Worst (from ILs) was an extremely ugly pram / dolly / high chair set from Argos which they thought was the bees knees because it is supposedly Silver Cross. DD1 not at all maternal and it just sits gathering dust. I may have to 'accidentally' break it. Am going for loads of books this year and arts and crafts stuff - deffo the only things she really likes. And nothing for 6 mth old DD2 or am I being tight and cruel?!

Collision

I would sell it to you like a shot, but it is all about possesion. It would become his favourite, IYKWIM.

Sherlock , Noooooo!!! after all that lol .

Matchbox Car Mountain - played with at Christmas put away since.

LIZS

Sadly yes...............he was lucky to see his 5th birthday in May.

Was reminded today of the puppet thetre aI bought ds2 last year

has never had a single proper use despite being much begged for and supplies iwth various form of puppet (taht was ELC too)

Anyone else want to sell a Thomas aqua draw or an ELC wooden castle??

Anythin made by Hotwheels. All their stupid fecking track thingies take 26 hours to assemble, take up too much space to leave up and DO NOT WORK!. But ds2 adores them and asks relatives for them (I learned my lesson years ago). So for his birthday a coupla weeks ago he gets this snake track loop-the-loop thing. Took hours to put together and then the motor wouldn't work. He wept and wept. Grandma took it back, got a replacement. Guess what - same problem. He was inconsolable. So now grandma is refusing to take this one back ''as it will be embarassing''. So I have to lug this huge opened box back to woolworths and stand in huge queue, only to be told I can't get a refund as it was paid for on a debit card (ie grandmas) so she has to take it back to get the refund. GRRR.

Meanwhile ds is mournfully nagging me every 10 minutes ''can we get another one, it might work this time''...