Presents that turned out to be disappointing

[bob1985]

Wondering if it might be handy to
share gifts that actually turned out to be a bit of a let down and why.

Last christmas got my DD a yoto. Thought it would be amazing. It's barely been used, she's not got the slightest interest in it. Gets bored of the cards after 5 seconds. Prefers a book.

Lego and Playmobil here. We made the mistake of buying dd things we wanted as kids and didn't really realise she doesn't like building things and isn't fussed by Playmobil characters, she's into dolls and dressing up, which I hated as a child!

Amazon Kids Fire is one of the most used things in our house - both DC love theirs. See also Nintendo Switch. But both my kids (& DH & myself are techie).

Bad ones have been Sylvanian Familes - thankfully it was all my old stuff rather than spending a fortune on new, but was somewhat heartbreaking that DD just let it gather dust.

A sodding 1m high working toy crane - let DD choose a present for DS - he loved it, initially, but it's huge & ridiculous & now just gets in the way & hardly ever played with.

Playmobil Pyramid - a PITA to put together, & house & barely touched.

One of those little photo printers you link to your phone. DD takes loads and I thought she'd love it. I even bought extra paper. Turns out she'd rather store thousands of photos on her phone and do fuck all with them.

Chocolate coin maker
oh gif yes, so many bits and so finicky! Made one set and then some tiny part went missing and we were gone again!!!

we had that crane. Tbf ds actually loved it and played with it quite a lot but it was so big and easy to knock over and quite temperamental. I was glad when it eventually went to the charity shop!

The Furby we got DS1 one year. He loved playing and interacting with his teddies and there was an app on Kindle Fire to inretact with too. He was bored of it before New Year.

The Kindle Fires have been great for us. Both DC got them for Christmas aged 5 and 3. They're now 11 and 9 and each has been replaced under the cover of darkness for a newer version each time they start to get sluggish. I think they're on their third now. I do agree that they can be slow and frustrating though.

The Samsung tablets are responsive like ipads and you can set them to Samsung Kids so the whole interface changes and children can flip between apps. You need a password to come out.

I have a Samsung phone and it looks like this if I open Samsung Kids. The tablets are the same. I don't know about the range of apps available though. We like that we can put Disney+ and Netflix on the Fires. That's all DS1 uses it for these days.

Interested in these Tonie and Yoto boxes. My two have a Dot each and we just stream Audible through those. How do they differ?

Ours was a dolls house. As with previous posters my mistake was buying something I would have loved as a child. I genuinely played with that dolls house more than the kids! Mine preferred craft sets.

Mine are teeena now but when they were younger we're obsessed with animatronic pets... played with once and forgotten, every one, yet wouldn't part with them and the latest one was always on the next list (and invariably bought by an indulgent aunt).

Those of you despairing over Sylvanian Families... my girls didn't play with them much and I got rid of giant house and most other stuff when we moved... then they had a sudden interest aged about 9/10 and bought some sets with their Christmas and birthday money and played with them in a second hand dolls house that was given to them... I wished I'd not got rid of all the rest of their's so quickly as they were used a lot until they gave up on toys in favour of music and teenage attitude...

Cant remember the exact name but last year in the Christmas present threads people raved about this long piece of plastic that rolls up and sticks onto windows, etc, it's a race track for cars to go down, loads of people bought it

I hate it, it just curls up at the end, it can't do a loop or anything as it doesn't 'stay' and my kids get really frustrated with it. it's rubbish and it doesn't roll up that small either 🙈

Various large playmobil kits that come in millions of pieces and don't stay together once assembled....DS seemed to be in a constant state of frustration that his petrol station/airport/playground kept coming apart mid-play....

I'm not even sure I can sell/donate these now as key bits have gone missing - so just have piles of useless plastic bits everywhere....

Same, almost. Two years of asking for the house, the pizza parlour etc, and all untouched. Family got in on it and would also buy.

Then - BOOM! - after two years of it sitting there, two weeks ago, aged 8, she pulls it out and is suddenly in total amazement at the detail of all the stuff. I was thinking of packaging it all up when she finally took to it!

OODIE (the wearable blanket)

I bought one last week as a gift to myself 😂Can't return it as I removed the tag, but within 30 mins of wearing it, the sinking feeling of regret hit me in the gut.

It's so heavy. The massive sleeves get into everything. It's way too long for me (I'm 5'2"), I feel claustrophobic trying to walk around my apartment in it, and I wish I'd bought a blanket instead haha. AGH.

People rave about them and I think a lot of kids/teens are going to be asking for them this Christmas. And if they spend a lot of time sitting down, watching TV, gaming, texting, etc., maybe they'll live in it. But for me, I just want to take it off and enjoy the freedom of personal movement again 😅

Lego ... ... I know so many DC love it but my DS just wasn't interested at all and it all went to the local charity shops.

Playmobil- so long to build and never stayed together.

my eldest preferred Lego and my youngest - who is into small world type play - had zero interest in it.

We never bought lego because non of mine have ever shown even the slightest interest... Im always amazed it seems so popular on here.

As a kid I didnt care for it nor anyone I know did either, Mechano and Knex where king for building toys.

Another Sylvanians one here, the sodding caravan which constantly breaks

Mine ignored anything that looked self-consciously 'educational'. They still do ...and one of them is now a teacher :)

We use our old Dulpo as bath toys. It buys me a good hour of peace and quiet!

I bought myself a Mr Frosty last year after forty years of no one else buying me one! Yup - awful. Maybe I'll get the A La Carte Kitchen this year....

My kids hate most expensive toys. They love second hand tablets (we're less precious about them than if they were new) and use them for audiobooks online, YouTube and apps. Brilliant. Does the YoTo do anything else?

Dolls were always pointless for me and the kids. Why would we want a fake baby?!

My DD top request one year was Swimming Sindy . So excited to put it in the bath . Turned out she should have been called Sinking Sindy.
I also got my DS a KMX , low slung racer type bike. But got filthy muddy and always wet , so hardly used. A Very expensive mistake.

People would definitely want this still. I always pick up bits of odd playmobil in the charity shop to add to my kids' Christmas stockings (try to shop secondhand when possible as they're so little they'll not notice)

My daughter was obsessed with Frozen (watching it multiple times a day obsessed) a couple of years ago. She wanted everything Frozen for her 4th birthday so we bought her lots of the dolls, one of the houses, the horse etc. It all barely got played with! Complete waste of money, my 4 year old son has started playing with it now.
I have bought her Barbie stuff and other Disney dolls that have also barely been touched. I think she likes the idea of it all but would rather do crafts, play on her tablet or with smaller playsets such as Polly Pocket, Paw Patrol and Peppa Pig.

@Onionbhajisandwich my 6 year old has been asking for that bloody flamingo for nearly 2 years! I've stubbornly avoided buying it, I've heard too many people complain about it. I was planning on buying it for her this year as I thought she would forget about it but she's still going on about it!

I just know it'll be played with once or twice and then discarded....

Our Yoto was also a flop and we have been trying for 18 months now to get some interest. She uses it as a clock to say when she can get up or not now. But her best friend loves his Yoto so definitely not an easy one to predict.

mr Frosty was on this year’s list ( it was always on my list- so may have been subconsciously promoting).

her best present was a set of moveable drawers filled with craft materials- a drawer of glue sticks and the girl is happy!

There’s a decent second hand market for play mobile even if it’s missing a couple of bits.

Duplo is a big hit here also those magna tiles which has been popular since age 1 up to age 10!

Maybe kids either like building if they don't.