The hell that was 'The golden coin maker' haunts me still, what to avoid this year?

[zanz1bar]

If any of you got conned into 'The golden coin maker' my sympathies.
What do you suggest is best avoided (amongst the general tat I will probably get)to keep my sanity in tact

I saw a cupcake maker at the weekend that looked sure to disappoint. HTH.

yes, me too bran. There is also a sweet shop thing and a fondant fancy machine..I was so tempted (for myself of course) but it will be... crap!

Do not even think about buying Kevin Levins action cruiser(Ben 10). Biggest waste of money, DS was so excited about getting it, but was so disappointed with its general crapness.

So was I when I think about the £30 it cost...

Last xmas my brother bought that awful game where the elephant blows butterflies out the trunk. My dd spent 10 seconds totally failing to catch any of them and we then had to spend 5 mins picking them up and putting them back in. Repeat ad infinitum all xmas afternoon.

Elephant got "lost" on boxing day and has mysteriously never been seen to this day. She still wonders about it when we see the adverts for it.

nulgirl, we love the Elefun! Admittedly we don't bring it out much, but my nearly 5 year old dd and my 2 year old ds get really into it and they don't seem to mind that they can't catch them, they just like to se all th ebutterflies fly.

I did wonder why there are always available in charity shops for £1 ;)

Both ds & dd want the Golden Coin Maker.

I am thinking of getting it for them, despite knowing it will be crap, in the hope that it will be one less "Parental Failure" for them to moan about in the future.

Not that I still feel vague resentment towards my parents for never buying me "Mr Frosty", despite years of begging, oh no.

Last year the Hot Wheels Volcano - it literally broke the first time we used it and now sits in the corner of DS' room looking both sorry for itself and a constant reminder of the money I spent on it grr.

Yes our elefun was disposed of pretty quickly too.
Rose petal cottage broke within 1 month aswell, the first time we tried to take it down in fact.

FGS Yohoo dont.
It is beyond shite, it takes 2-3 days to make one small unedible chocolate mess, and needs constant parental involvement.

Already getting pressure about the 'Sweet shop ' will head that one off at the pass asap.

Aqua beads is waste of time, dont stick together, good idea but nooo
Moonsand,too. DD calls it blimming Moonsand.
The cupcaker maker, fondant maker also looks fab but assured to be disappointment.

Bloody bindeez...absolutely crap, and flatly refused to glue together.
DD1 cried when she picked up her first creation after 2 days of leaving it dry and it literally fell apart.

oh we're doing well at ours with aquabeads.
that cupcake maker does look bad.

aqua beads worked well for us too (well, apart from DD's lack of co-ordination meaning me having to do half of it).

Anyone had the HSM laptop? Looks crap, but is wanted, and I'm trying to gauge if it is truly crap or semi crap.

Saying that it could dd who suspected licker
she seem to put aqua beads in her mounth or put that tweezer pen in her mounth, the glue probably less effective due to her habit.

we have had several sticker makers over the year that never work and are so complicated to set up.

Yohoo - i will vouch for zanz1bar's sentiments about the golden coin maker - it is so ridiculously slow to make that the kids just get fed up! My DD's was under her bed for 2 years before i finally managed to sneak it out and bin it

Same DD keeps mentioning the Fruit Factory which to me looks like a pile of drivel - DD is a young 12. I think she wants to make the smoothies, so am just getting her a proper smoothie maker instead!

And she is another aqua bead rejecter - much preferring thousands of those bloomin hama beads!

Also several fiddly jewellery making kits that include nylon, wire and millions of tiny beads - sure to cause tears. And a perfume making 'science' kit that included a recipe for bright red goo that went all over the carpet.

ANYTHING Hotwheels bar the actual cars.

The cars are nice, well made pieces of kit. the tracks and various 'games' are flimsy expensive pieces of shite that shed parts, break and eat batteries.

The ELC car garage. Your children will stand/sit on it, and it will break.

I can confirm that the cupcake maker is a pile of shite not even worthy of the local civic amenity site....that is where ours ended up.

It was bought for them (by a loving uncle ...maybe my DNs will gett he coin maker as punishment [evil cackle]) last year.

you can make a grand total of 4 cupcakes and "ice" them. All hideously synthetic, made in the microwave...just grim....

Oh no what have I done - I have suffered 4 years of DD asking for the blooming golden coin maker, so I asked her uncle to get it for her!! Feck Feck Feck!

That girlie password journal - total shite, DD was so upset

we had snowglobe makers last year, i thought we would spend a lovely afternoon together making them.

what really happened was i had the biggest hissy fit with dd's to date, dh and i were nearly divorced and my kitchen looked like a crime scene.

DD's aquabeads and bindeez seem to stick together well with no problems. She madea whole 3D Easter garden for school out of them and it is still in her room, all flowers, trees, animals, etc intact.