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

Just to buck the trend, our wooden castle is played with a lot by ds. Ditto most other wooden things - pirate ships, farm, wooden railway, etc. Having a good selection of knights/pirates/animals/whatever does seem to make a difference though. The big toys themselves just provide the setting for the games IME - so the pirate ship has at times doubled as an aircraft carrier, or Noahs Ark, and the pirates have been known to attack the castle, or to act as rustlers and capture the animals from the farm and sail off with them.

Message withdrawn

must echo the hot wheels thing - hot wheels shark park followed naively by the dinosaur thing the following year - both rubbish and too expensive to throw away so stand huge in teh corner reminding me of my blind stupidity (I wouldn't spend even half of that on something I really wanted!)

(BTW have changed mynake from fatthighs to dimpledthighs after much protest at my negative self image.)

Ooh thanks Northstar...where do you live?

will cat you.

Am trying to CAT you but having problems.

Can you email me on [email protected]

Sorry to be a PITA!! Northstar!!

Collision, just wondering did you get the thomas aquadraw I sent?

Biggest Hits and Misses with DD

When 2-3:
HITS: Brio track and trains, Aquadraw, Huge plastic kitchen (now banished to the Playhouse in the garden ), any jigsaws,happyland track/farm, Wooden Farm (Plan Toys one), a Russian doll set.
MISSES: Lego Duplo, only ever played with in the bath, Sticklebricks, Baby Annabel (but she loves it now she is 4), ELC dance mat

When 4-5:
HITS: Leappad - she loves it, but has lots of different books. Pollypocket and any fiddly playsets where dogs are involved, usually with 1000 pieces, Wooden Doll's House - not very interested in the ELC furniture, but there is a Doll's house emporium near us, and she adores all the 'bits' like bowls of fruit, tiny clocks, telephone, dog basket, vase of flowers etc. They make the play more 'interesting' for her.
Misses Wooden castle with all the King's horses and all the kings men, and some princesses thrown in for good measure, she gets bored after 5 minutes, unless you are playing pretend with her.

ELC dolls house. My DD's played with it constantly at other people's houses but aren't interested in it in their own home!

wooden dollhsoue has had lots of play here

playmobil has the most play value of anything and everything

the barbie horse head was so shit I have openly said 'no barbie or polly stuff EXCEPT for the dolls'

Ds only 16 months but absolutely ^loves all cars tractors fire engines dump trucks etc the best ones I think are by a UK company calle WOW toys -plastic and ugly as anything but very sturdy, come with little figures (firemen farmer dog etc) and friction powered so no batteries and no annoying flashing lights or voices like the ELC ones. Was put on to them by a friend who is mum of a 4 year old and 7 year old who still play with theirs.

When DD2 was about 3 or 4 we gave her an ELC Baby Be Mine which was an interactive doll which cried until you fed her/changed nappy/played with her etc. By about 08.00am on Christmas morning (we'd been up for about an hour) she said "Mummy-this doll is giving me a headache" It's still one of the best used catch phrases in our house. To be fair - once we showed her the off switch she did like to play with it a lot.

Definitely the least played with game in our house has to be Dohnutters. DD2 saw it advertised on TV and I'm sure she thought it would come with real elephants - played with once!

Hits with ds, now nearly 3:
Duplo, esp the Zoo set - needed a few serious play sessions with parents before he really 'got it' though
Brio train set
a vile plastic piano-shaped 'book' that plays a small variety of tunes but mostly Old MacDonald, in an American accent with lots of 'Yeehah!' and 'Rock On!' I loathed it on sight. He has played with it, on his own for 10 minutes at a time, every day for 2 years.
Puzzles - big hit - esp the Maisy puzzle.

Failures:
Cars and friction vehicles - they need more coordination than he has at the moment I think. Will try again in a couple of years.

ELC wooden dolls house a total waste of money - originally bought for DS2 after he spent ages playing with one at a friend's house, thought DD (3) would like it now, but no. Star Wars lego was a disaster - designed to be looked at, not played with, and SO expensive.

Wooden castle one of the best toys ever - we bought one years before ELC started selling them, all three of my children (13, 8 and 3) still love it. DD loves the Leap Pad bought for DS2 who used it a couple of times. Baby Annabelle - last years Christmas present, I'm not exaggerating when I say it has been played with every single day since.

Polly Pocket House of Style - badly made plastic junk that is very tricky even for me to operate (the getting dressed bit of it). DD loves her otehr PP stuff and never plays with this.