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've been putting my foot down about Elefun for about three years now on the basis of MN reviews!

Moon Sand is mildly irritating, but not the worst thing ever - we have long since stopped having multiple colours though, they've all mixed together and made green. Which is odd, as when you mix more than two colours of paint together you get brown. But I'm glad it's not brown.

Aqua Beads also okay, although I'm not allowed to play with them any more as I'm a control freak and insist on making everything.

My parents have 70s/80s Mousetrap and DD loves it. I think my dad may regret keeping it though. They're very good at present buying though - the in-laws buy awful Disney Princess games with unbelievably convoluted rules that drive us all nuts (but DD thinks she wants them) while my parents buy Playmobil that DD looks nonplussed at, but is still playing with after a year. And I kind of enjoy putting the stickers on.

Leslaki - I would steer clear of the candy floss maker, our neighbours have one which isn't a toy (but isn't nannynick's posh one either) and it takes about five minutes to make a stick of candy floss; I can't imagine a toy one is going to be much good.

Don't have much of this yet as DD is only 2 but I remember Mr Frosty being absolutely shite, after wanting it for ages. The ice wass impossible to grind.

Love this thread!
Last year I got DD a "rosebud cottage" which after an hour of swearing frustration putting it together, was not worth the hassle or the money I paid for it. Comes with a little blow up chair that has a fabric cover...by boxing day the damn thing had a puncture and was deflated.

My sis has bought Elefun for my boys...
Who ever asked DON'T but ELC bubble maker, it's pants. Very little bubbles and batteries run out in minutes. Also my ds sepnt most of their time shoving their fingers in the bit that went round.
On the other hand ELC garage has been brill for us. It stays in one piece even when 2 boys are standing on it. We are a bit on the small side as a family though.

Also agree that the elefun game is NOT fun. The blower is not powerful enough and so ours blows out maybe one butterfly thing every 2 minutes.

I completely disagree about the spiderman sandman set though. DS1 had one last Christmas and still plays with it every day (although got our cheap in matalan. Would probably feel aggrieved at having to shell out £50 for it!)

Scatty my DD still plays with her postman pat laptop now and she's almost 5. We mustr have had it for 3 years

Lego pyramid game

quite fun making the game but we lost the will to live trying to play it-too complicated

Lego minotaurs game is better

The 'starter Meccano' fire engine was rubbish for then 3 year old DS-takes ages to put together, the rubber bits bend and the bolts (or nuts-always get confused) break resulting in a fire engine without its ladder. We have 3 other Meccano sets given to us as presents still in the cupboard. The ELC bubble machine-fun for a couple of weeks in the summer-then broke.
this bath toy -we thought it was great DS utterly terrified of it and would climb out of the bath shrieking.

Ah Hotwheels....takes me back to my teenaged boys' younger days..the hours to set up the track, the hours to set it up again when it fell to bits as soon as someone so much as breathed near it, and the anti climax of the cars not doing anything approaching what the ad said they would.happy days.

My poor DS(4) is desperate for one but I just can't bear the pain.

Other rubbish we have had include a doll sized little my pony thing that was meant to walk on its hind legs-why???!!! that hobbled creepily round the room before expiring about a week into January,

A furby (that had some serious issues of its own) and which never did anything except emit a loud, high pitched wail

and a scooby doo play house that was suppiled WITH NO FIGURES ffs (we hadn't realised and had to spend a month searching for them on the internet then when we finally got them the house fell to bits as soon as someone even though about playing with it.

Lego and brio , thats all you really need!!

I loved mousetrap when I was little!
DD got a gogo hamster for her bday, is quite good, we don't have the run or anything, but the little hamster is surprisingly inoffensive, almost sweet.

You and me 'deluxe' set is a bit rubbish, soft bodied doll and the change of clothes don't cover the body, just really really cheap. DD aged 2 is quite happy though.

No mention yet of Barbie Clean-up Pup?

Surprisingly, the advert is a touch misleading, so your angelic lo can't dip the puppy in water to get it's paws dirty and then simply rinse off to get him clean.

Oh No. What actually happens is that mummy must douse the little bastard puppy in ice cold water until its paws turn brown and mummy's fingers are blue. At this point lo nods approvingly and asks mummy to clean up the pup - throughout all of this Barbie is lying on the table, redundant by the way. So then mummy puts on protective clothing and heats up some water to nuclear temperatures to spray on the puppy to make its paws clean again.

We sadly lost -murdered- the puppy on the first day we owned it.

I second Slummymummy's comments on Polly Pocket race to the Mall!
LOVED Mousetrap and so do the dcs and give me Hama beads every time - ds, 6, sits for hours with them (the only thing he sits still for!!)

Lots of comments about broken HotWheels, I think it depends what you buy. As a child (70's!!) I probably had the original, clamp to table top, gravity fed track that did fantastic loop the loop etc and provided hours of fun (yes I was a tomboy). I made the mistake of buying DS a complicated battery powered figure of eight thing...........complete rubbish!

Just found out how much the hamster costs our next door neighbour brought one for my 2 year old - bless her.

In the last seven years, the only toys with batteries we have bought are a fisher price truck with bricks which has been fabulous and ones that only beep occasionally like the ELC fire station.

All advert-bearing tv is off-limits at the moment too.

That policy and as near to a ban on board games as possible has meant that very little has got broken or lost.

I had high hopes for the buried dinosaur bones though. DS got some from a friend for his birthday and the planned afternoon of wholesome fun degenerated fairly quickly ...

I have bought my niece the 'fondant cake maker'. It looks rubbish, it gets horrific reviews on Amazon, and RRP is pretty expensive. BUT, she really wants it, and it wont be me who has to make the revolting synthetic fondant things (evil cackle) (and fully expecting my ds to receive something large, loud and plastic in return)

NancyBotwin they are my buying tactics as well. I have 'steered DS toward something I had already bought him

My best friend had Mousetrap when I was a kid & insisted we played it all the time. I thought it was c**p & hated it. Whem my ds started asking for it when he was 4, I
lectured him gently explained how rubbish it was & that I was not supid enough to spend £'s on plastic tat.

Unfortunatley when queuing in Toys R Us, he noticed the man in front was buying Mousetrap and proceded inform him of my views about how rubbish it wad & how anyone buying it must be a completely stupid. God I was so embarrassed.

Some 'kind relative' did buy it for him eventually & he discovered just how rubbish it was.

My dd loves Bindeez, Aqua Beads & Hama although they can be quite frustrating.

Peppa Pig house - flimsy and brittle plastic. It doesn't close properly, the floors fall down constantly, the pigs can't actually sit on the furniture. Total rubbish but could have been so good.

Marble run - I still have nightmares about this one - five fucking hours to assemble. Fifteen seconds for DD to break it and then a two hour tantrum to end (and that was me not DD. ).

Fantastic thread!
Agree with elefun....my girls use the nets as hats....
Monkey madness is also a game that drives me nuts!!! Its now broken up and in various boxes.
Moonsand is my revenge xmas present for all those who brought my girls drums etc over the years ....might now add aqua beads to that list :-)
My dd got the gogo hamsters for her birthday. she loves them. the only problem we've had, is with the car. The force of the hamster can pull the roof off.....good fun tho!!
Previous thread convinced me to go for lego this xmas.....

Another vote for Elefun type thing but the fish one - so much work for so little entertainment!

Spiderman web blaster - ditto (try getting that blue stringy stuff off the sodding grass!)

Anything to do with Roary the Racing Car - ruined ds's Christmas day last year

This year I'll be mostly buying books in an attempt to intellectualise my children and because you can't go far wrong and they don't require thousands of pounds worth of batteries

lolol at this thread esp UnquietDad and the pile of dinosaur bone dust.

I had NO IDEA about all these food makers. Dear oh dear. How much gadgetry do you need to make a cup cake? I mean really.

I'm making lots of mental notes and am ready with the big NO at the first moment any of this shite is requested.

can I add the Magic Tooth Fairy Game? it's fun pushing the gold coin out but it is the most boring game in the world

Scooby doo haunted mansion, my ds has hardly played with it, got it last xmas and when he does is falls to bits. He has been asking for choc coin maker and kevin elev thinngiimabob but I think I will avoid thanks to these useful review was thinking of buying him some imginext items any reviews on these best/worse etc