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

DO you want to waste £9.99 on a tinfoil disc and some cotton?

The Mystery UFO from Hawkins Bazaar is the biggest con going. They say once you've opened the pack you can't have a refund. Luckily we managed to make it look like we hadn't opened it and got our money back. This is one of those annoying products that looks absolutely fanastic on the TVs that they have in store showing you the 'fun' that families are having with them and are utter utter rubbish. You have been warned!

We have the robot lego game and children love it! DS is 6 and lego mad. When he's a bit older will buy the other ones too probably!

Will avoid everything else with a barge pole!

are you my dh by any chance?
we have exactly the same with those plaster blocks. they start of beautifully, gently scraping away the plaster, carefully looking for bones...
1/2 hour later,
house and dc's covered in dust,
dc's hacking away madly looking for the final piece, which inevitably breaks, meaning your dinosaur will not stand up and is relegated to the bin within a day...
either that or it lanquishes in a glass of water trying to soak off the final plaster..
the exploding volcano is not much better, more a half hearted ejaculation than an explosion.

I love both Elefun and Moonsand! My DD's are way to young to catch any butterflies but really enjoy getting rained on by them and flapping nets manically! We had moonsand when I was a kid, but it disappeared...

My DS pestered me for Mr Frosty a few years ago. It is meant to make crushed ice.
It's crap - never really worked as the plastic handle and crappo blade never cut the ice up. Eventually it just melted.
My DS though he was going to be drinking bi drinks of Slush - but we never got a drop out of it.
Think there was a crap ice-lolly mold too.

In this house there will be no more hotwheels sets.

DS1 (23) still laments about The Grape Escape game. He said it looked brilliant on tv and it was rubbish. its quite funny hearing him say it

We had the POOH version of Elefun and DS does love it but the butterflies seem to get stuck even though we put new batteries in thinking the puff needed reviving. Some male friends came down on Boxing Day and after the first round were about to dismantle it to try and change the music, its a twee Pooh tune

A friend who is massivley a bit OCD hates Moonsand with a vengeance.. it has put me off, and DS keeps asking for it.

Does anyone else have the claymaker studio? DS2 had it for Christmas last year, we attempted to make one and it has been under the sofa ever since. Utter crap!

Agree with Bindeez too. We say they should be called Bin these!

Have managed to put them off the coin maker.

Undecided about Go Go Hamsters. DD1 really wants them. A bit like I love ponies Honey my baby pony whih she had to have last year and it was rubbish!

Avoid Tesco: Pirate Prison it really is terrible. Cast your mind back to MouseTrap and recall the problems setting that up... now think of a similar thing but the main pieces don't lock into the board. Then add a clicking boat thingy that does not seem to activate and poor game play. If I were to do a game review of Pirate Prison I think it would struggle not to get a minus score! You would have thought Tesco did research first... maybe they did... surely they did... does anyone have this game and actually like it? Maybe it's just me who hates it! If you don't have it... don't risk it.

Thought of another one... the new version of Guess Who. Now we all probably remember the old version, sometimes the people cards came out of that... but not as much as they do in the new version. If you want to get this game, search Ebay/Car Boots for the 1980's version.

Dr Who tardis set - tis utterly shitey badly made plastic shitey rubbish.

Another vote for the icecream maker as well. Absolutely pointless bit of kit, can make better with the old bag inside a bag trick.

And finally, my last vote goes to the popcorn maker, that doesn't make popped corn, just makes corn that is slightly burnt with sugar sprinkled on it.

We love Guess Who Extra and Elefun but will steer clear of everything else!

DD is desperate for the candy Floss makeer - she wants to set up a stall and sell candy Floss at Ds' football matches!!!! Please reassure me it is crap and I won't buy it even though I do admire her entrepreneurial spirit!!
DD also wants those swim to me puppies and go go hamsters! Help me please!!! Every marketing company's dream client!!!

Moon Sand is banned..... XH bought it for her when he left and when he got his own house it was sent back - oh dear, DD emptied it over his cream carpet!

Golden coin maker - wow!!! utter shite!

Mouse trap is in broken bits and never played with!

But we loved Elefun!!

Star wars lightsabre - £30 to remove your daughters retina at speed of light by over excited ds not good. Should be banned it is very dangerous.

Incidentally was in a bin bag in loft of assorted other tat . I intended to ebay this and other items but dh had a big clear out and has accidentally binned said lightsabre. I feel relieved as I couldn't have sold it knowing it was crap and dangerous.

Don't feel guilty about car booting our chocolate coinmaker this summer - a bargain at one pound!

and i thought it was just me being picky!!

itsmeolord in complete agreement about the Dr Who Tardis set. Expensive but crap.

Mousetrap - shit

nannynick - wilkinsons have a monster guess who for a fiver and the cards dont come out at all - bargainous...

Leslaki - you can get a real candyfloss machine from £130. Maybe a bit dangerous for your DD though (depending on her age) - but once a teenager may be something she could do at school fates, football matches etc to pay her college/uni fees.

I had mousetrap when I was a kid - it mysteriously disappeared one day after it took hours to set up...

I vote for any kerplunk type game where you have to spend ages putting sticks through holes then the game is over in 2 minutes (we have the elc bee version)

We do like elefun though - I actually brought a cheap one in a charity shop used the butterflies and dumped the elephant..

coll domesticextremist, will have to have a hunt for that - I see it's only £3 online. Nearest wilkos is about 15 or so miles away.

-coll- cool

I also hate games/toys that you have to dismantle to put back in the box. DS has Pooh Tree game, it was really simple for a 3 yr old and something he could play with alone But you have to take apart the three parts of the tree to get it in the box which is a very strong box but why on earth couldn't it of been made just one inch wider and the tree could be left whole

Mousetrap is definitely the worst game for this

I also hate games/toys that you have to dismantle to put back in the box. DS has Pooh Tree game, it was really simple for a 3 yr old and something he could play with alone But you have to take apart the three parts of the tree to get it in the box which is a very strong box but why on earth couldn't it of been made just one inch wider and the tree could be left whole

Mousetrap is definitely the worst game for this

DD had the Marshmellow Maker a few years ago. We tried to use it and just managed to make a mass of goo. DH sold it on a car boot sale.

Another vote for Mousetrap here and anything with play-doh in the title!

Marshmallow even!

lol at this thread...

OP - I gave away the chocolate coin maker on freecycle this very week, - complete with optimistically purchased refill.

My ds had clamored for years fr one and I succumbed last year.

Never in the history of childhood has anything taken so much time and so many procedures, generated so much frustration and disappointment, to create so little..

Hotwheels anything has always been doomed to disappoint too.

Also a game called rumble in the jungle. For all the same reasons as Mousetrap.