What toys do your kids have that they never play with?

[SSSandy]

Just gave dd's room a (much needed) thorough clean today and turfed out a fair bit of "artwork" and some small plastic toys etc. I was struck at how many of her toys she never or practically never plays with.

These include a castle with knights and dragons from Playmobil as well as a set of vikings and their viking boat; various other playmobil things; a baby doll with it's own bed and a buggy. She never ONCE played with those. Various Barbie stuff (dolls, furniture, a horse, car, plane, clothes etc); remote control cars; all the stuff she gets given by birthday guests. It's endless. I'm wondering what to do with it all.

I've decided not to buy any more toys. Next birthday she turns 6 and I don't think she needs more of this stuff. The only things she really plays with are building elements like blocks, lego, maybe a train set and things like coloured paper and glue etc for her artwork.

I told her for her next birthday we'd pay for riding lessons instead and she said ok but she might feel let down if she doesn't get a present in the hand.

all the damn cuddly toys people insist on buying her

my dd plays with her cuddly toys all the time and hardly anything else!

I know. I have 2 big zip bags full of cuddly toys. Dh kept buying them every time he went into a department store although I kept telling him not to. She does seem attached to them though but no child needs more than 3-4. She has at least 30 I'm sure of it. 4-5 on the bed and the rest zipped up in bags.

we'll have to do a swap CD

ooh no thanks, she already has about 50!

CD, how old is she?

Soft toys and ELC farm and house with people

cat, that's a good point. When they see you throw something out, suddenly it becomes interesting!

Recently rooted through ds's ever-growing stash and took out all the toys that are duplicates or v similar to another toy and filled a large box. All pressies from friends/rellies. Put by door for trip to charity shop....and it's all he's played with today!

cuddly toys are shit!
Got dd a dolls house for her last birthday, she never plays with it but ds does all the time!
Board games - because we can never be arsed to play with them so we conveniently 'lose' the dice.
Lego or that baby version of it - neither of them have played much with them.

The only things they do play with consistently are dolls and cars!

Oh yes, jigsaws, once they've done it they never want to do it again!

Loads!
I bought DS1 a playmobil airport for Christmas, which has been abandoned & pulled to pieces by DS2. It just takes up space in his room.
A wooden castle which again just sits there taking up space.
DS1 also has a robot which is never touched & the wooden market stall we bought them is not only not used, but they pull the wooden bars off it & wack each other with them!!

cuddly toys, apart from an ugly rabbit. She really loves her dolls at the mo, and doll highchair and pushchair. She loves the baby leapfrog book thing and books in general. In fact thinking about it likes most of her toys bar the cuddly ones.

I think toyswaps would be a brilliant idea.
My dd never plays with the expensive dolls' house we got her(but as in Rhubarb's example,ds does)
They have had a lot of mileage out of teasets,playfood,prams and shopping baskets though.
Oh,and a whoopee cushion.

my ds has tons we just cleared out his room too and am in process of putting some of them on ebay as they are as new literally not touched.

ds never plays with the two toys that take up half his room. A huge plastic red easel and a black and decker workbench.They were both gifts,one from a good friend and the other from my parents..too chicken to get rid of them.

He plays with train set/cars/building blocks/thunderbirds and duplo.

Probably most of them. But try and suggest taking them away and it's hell to pay...

It's unpredictable, though. Ds was given a playmobil castle by PILs the Christmas he turned 5, slightly against my will 'cos I thought it would just stand around taking up space. But he played with it literally (literally) every day for 18 months.

Conversely, Brio has never really taken off in our house, though I know other families where it gets used all the time.

The only really indispensible things for us have been the Lego/Duplo, Playmobil and art stuff. And the trampoline and swingball in the summer.

With some of the things like the whole barbie collection or the baby doll and buggy, etc, I am wondering whether she will start playing with them some time in the future. She's nearly 6 so I was thinking I'd get rid of the dolls seeing as how she never plays with them. Maybe though at 8, she'll turn around and want a baby doll!

What age were your kids when you stopped buying toys?

Most of her cuddly toys. Already had a cull or to in ast. Still loads though. She will play with the odd one but that is it.

Toy cars. She has some and a little road mat, but rarely plays with it. It is generally only brought out when we have little biys round to play.

OOn the whole though she is a toys person and does play with most of the stuff she has.

their blackboard gets largely ignored...

Dd (4 next month) likes playing board games at the moment (from the Orchard toys range) and ds (2) just likes his cars