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

Any Hotwheels sets.

Again.

I was 'anal' enough to actually put a coloured dot on each piece in an attempt to keep the sets together but the sad reality is they are crap. They are flimsy and badly made. The pieces rarely clip together and the cars NEVER actually do what they're supposed to.

Buy lego.

Early learning centre easy painters, paints in bottles with sponge tops that you can just draw with, really watery, pretty crap really.

robotic/remote control tigger toy. complete with irritating voice. dh bought for ds birthay. RUBBISH. expensive rubbish at that.
also tigger toy like buckaroo where you hang things on and then eventually they all get thrown off. never works proberly and was banished to the loft about 1 wk after we got it. dh not to blame for that one....

Gah. I bought the magic UFO thing for ds's friend's birthday the other week, as usually the Science Museum stuff is quite good.

I hope I haven't ruined a friendship!!!

Candlemaking kits are only suitable for either enemies or people with throwaway kitchens.

pmsl @ buy candle kits for your enemies - I've just bought one for my BF!

Has anyone succumbed to pressure and bought the Screature water-squirting dinosaur?

DD is in love with him and I'm v. tempted to buy it for her for the simple reason it's not pink/Barbie/hello Kitty... please tell me it's not shit!

Ditto all the crap stuff so far.

We found the cereal bar maker the best of the worst of the catering type products.

For age five plus Cranium games are fantastic. We have had balloon lagoon for some years aand it's not broken or crap in any way. The older age group cranium games are great too and the only games in our house that get brought out time and time again.

We always found wooden trains a good buy when they were little.

what is wrong with the coin maker?

DD loves it and it keeps her occupied for ages!

Thanks for this thread, it's been really useful at stopping me from making some crap purchases.

My boys always ask for the new lego star wars. It literally takes HOURS to put together and then my sons lovingly take it apart again and make small ships with it. You wouldn't believe how much this upsets my husband...............lol

Fruitbeard, here's the reviews of Screature from amazon (.com - no reviews on uk site yet)

It generally sounds OK, when it works!

reviews

sigh.... I have bought the Golden Coin maker for ds .... going to brace myself for the trantrums Christmas day.

Crap toys that now live in the garage (holding place before they go in the skip):

Sticker maker - just a roll of big selotape isn't it?
Alien Making kit - goo all over the carpet and makes shite aliens
Coin Shuffler thing like the ones you get in arcades, cost me a fortune in loading it and it is utter crap

also my heart sinks when the operation game is brought out....

Sticker maker - just a roll of big selotape isn't it?

oh no we have this, is it really carp

Bubble machines: The ELC push around one is crap and spills and needs batteries. Get a Fisher Price bubble lawnmower instead (not ideal time of year tho). They are absolutely ace, spill-proof, no batteries required and make a tolerable noise. Best gift ever.

we're trying to stick to safe presents this year - make-believe kitchen, jigsaws, playmobil, etc. (DD 3yo)

Ha ha - this thread has really cheered me up on a very very bad morning full of whingeing 3 yr old, diet and miserable weather.

DD wants the golden coin maker! She has seemingly memorised the advert, even repeating verbatim in a low pitched voice "The Golden Coin Maker, suitable for ages 3 - 6"

Ha ha - am tempted to buy it anyway knowing it is shite. Everything they ever get is shite! They never play with any of it but parental involvement is always the killer.

LOVE the reviews of the cupcake maker on amazon - shocking. Go go pets are great though.

anyone know about the "flitter fairies" in hawkins bazaar? the fact they do not have any out doing a demo makes me suspicious they are not as great as the video makes out?

I got my sticker maker at a discount price too, the refill was more expensive than the item itself - lasted about 20 mins. You waste most of the tape if you do them one at a time - you need to get a production line of things being made into stickers.

the answer with the coin maker is to fill the melting thingy with HOT water from teh kettle

Meccano which said age 3plus on it. Impossible. Took DH half an hour!

Speaking of which, my ds's are asking for playmobil. DO any of these need to be constructed before use?

• Playmobil recycling lorry
• Family Camper Van
• police boat

Moonsand GRRRRRRRRRRRR. You open the colourful packets of sand, your child mixes them together, within seconds the whole lot is sand-coloured. And it gets everywhere .

My DD(7.6) loves the horrible science kits, but after one play you're done. £10 is a lot of money for one play! And they're totally over-packaged.

Well I'm giving up on the bubble machine then Although DS made me blow him bubbles for 1/2 an hour last night until I started to actually feel dizzy!

jellyhead - I almost bought the metal detector in Sainsbury's on Wednesday! I stopped myself because I've already bought him far too much but was going to seggest it if family asked. I'll definitely cross it off the list then!!

Also, I nearly bought the sticker maker in the Summer because it was half price but couldn't because ds was with me.

I'm really loving this thread!!

furrycat Yes, playmobil does need assembling. If it's for pre-schoolers, it is best to this beforehand and to keep the box and instructions safely elsewhere.

Unless you like trying to solve logic problem type 3D puzzles at 5am or finding strangely uncomfortable lumps of plastic in your bed, that is.

Playmobil is still the best money that we have ever spend on plastic. Gets played with for hours.