Best and worst toys

[glenniedragon]

Best toys- lego my boys love the stuff, and I buy it by the kilo from ebay! some of the more 'vintage' sets are the best- stuff I remember my brother having.
Swords and shelds

Worst toys- anything that has 'add-ons' stuff, you think you've bought the kit open the box, hey you need this to make it extra good, or both of these add on kits to make it go extra fast. We had that brief experience with some hot wheels set, a really one dimensional toy that exerted the imagination not a jot.

kind thoughts
Deb

[the.fee.fairy]

Best:

I had a climbing frame type set called Jimbo when i was younger -it was made of plastic, but it was a set of poles, joints and platforms. You had a key and everything clicked together. We made climbing frames, cars and slides and all sorts of other stuff with it. It lasted me for years, and one day i wanted to make something really special, but i didn't have the right joints, so i wrote to the manufacturers, and they sent me 4 joints free! They were great! Unfortunately, they went out of business (possibly because the stuff was such good quality it didn't need to be replaced). After i got too old for it, i donated it to a friend of the family who is a childminder, and she had it for about 10 years, it must have been at least 15 years old when it finally broke. It was kept outside in all weather and eventually went brittle. it was easily the best toy ever!!

Worst:

Game boy/game gear/PSP. When i was little, i had a game gear, and it was great. But, my parents put rules on me using it - i had to use earphones, and i wasn't allowed to use it if there was someone else around. Basically, i could play on it in my bedroom on my own, or in the car, but if i was at someone's house, or looking round somewhere, i wasn't allowed to play on it. Now, walking through the airport, i see so many children walking along playing their games consoles, ad its quite sad - they're missing out on so much because they;'re stuck on these games.

[Chickenlady]

Yes, I am so glad my girls never really got into the games consoles. We have an ancient nintendo that comes out every now and then.

But the marble run! I dug it out today for the kids I childmind and they loved it. Definitely a best toy.

[Esther.R]

Marble runs are great, my daughter has one at grandma's that comes out occasionally (heavily supervised as she is only 2) and she adores it.

Best worst and best (at 2) -

Best toys (bought) - Schleich farm animals - very realistic and chunky enough for a little one but beautiful too, any little people that she can play farms with, and in fact a toy with batteries I'm afraid to say - her weebleville townhall with weebles - it was bought at the local village auction for £3 and she has played it to death (literally, no longer needs batteries as dead as a dodo but she doesn't seem to mind). Little trampoline, little tikes slide and rocker. Any kind of doll or teddy bear - she is obsessed at the moment. Jigsaws, balloons. And of course the usual favourites - Playdough, paint, glitter, glue.
(not bought, well not for her anyway!) - sellotape/masking tape, sticks cardboard boxes, plant pots, buckets, watering cans....dogs, cats, hens and horses!

Haven't really got any obvious worst toys for her but for us - her battery operated car that plays songs for hours if you touch it and has no off switch she likes this occasionally but is not mad on it. And her battery operated book that also has no off switch. In fact all toys with no 'off' switch should be banned for the sanity of parents

[Green Rosie]

I find that you think you have found the perfect toy - something they have been asking for, comes with minimal packaging, well made etc and what do your descerning 4 and 5 year olds do. Yup - ignore it completely .........

Until several months later when they rediscover it at the back of the cupboard and play with it for hours/days/weeks .......

and then just as quickly they go off it again .

Fine examples of this:
Car mat
Train set
Lego
Play dough
Marble run

But in my house they never go off books, bikes, glue, junk and crayons, puzzles (older boy), cuddly toys (younger boy) and anything that needs Daddy to help them build.

One other things - our 2 (at the moment) never watch tv with adverts - makes the run-up to Christmas/birthdays a whole lot less painful

And I cannot stand anything that "talks"

[mrsflibble]

Best: large princess pink playtent from dunheim mill in colchester. soph seems to be living in there.

worst: I think has to be her ride-in car from toysrus. she has it outside and likes to sit in it, but unless one of us is in the garden to push her round, she just doesn't get it.

[citizentwiglet]

Yep, Ellis (20 months) doesn't get the 'pushing it along himself' bit, either!

Best toys he's had...
- The wooden blocks from ELC
- A hand-me-down Fisher Price garage
- A hand-me-down Playskool workbench
- Tupperware boxes, saucepans and wooden spoons from my cupboards

Worst toys he's had...
- A truely dreadful Tomy activity mat with a hoop that kept collapsing onto him
- The ELC buggy-driver which doesn't fit the buggy, the buttons stick on irritating tunes and he has practically ignored it completely
- Everything he got for Christmas which took an hour to get out of the endless plastic, fiddly metal wires and cardboard (he, of course, played with the cardboard).

I'm pretty lucky having a SIL with two boys who seem to outgrow toys every week, and neighbours with a young daughter as I get given most of his toys rather than having to buy them - fortunately he's still too young to realise that not all his Christmas presents were actually new. We're inheriting a crayola desk, a Little Tikes slide for the garden and a 'kitchen' thing next....all I need now is a larger house to keep them all in..

[Annpan]

I think our families have just about got the message about plastic toys.

When my Mum said she was going to get E a plastic sand-pit (we'd make one, when WE decide she is ready for it) conversation went like this...
I said 'don't, we'll return it'
She said 'you can't return it, it'll be too big'
I said 'I will return it, or I'll sell it, it will not clutter up my garden as a glorified cat litter tray'

She eventually got the message.

I am sure that some of these things are great for a while, but they are all my idea of a total nightmare, and for now, I get to choose

Though grandparents did get E a talking phone, intensly irritating, but she get's given it in the playpen when I need to go to the loo

[Russian Doll]

our best toy in the house at the moment is a massive dolls block of flats that mrs flibble made for my girls...it has lights lifts etc....my 5 year old with the help of paper mache and fabric has made the top floor into the tardis so her and alex can play doctor who

my eldest daughter has made the middlew floor into a vets surgery and the bottom floor has been left empty so my 1 year old can play crawling in and out

[Chickenlady]

Best: large princess pink playtent from dunheim mill in colchester. soph seems to be living in there.

worst: I think has to be her ride-in car from toysrus. she has it outside and likes to sit in it, but unless one of us is in the garden to push her round, she just doesn't get it.

Really? She is living in Dunheim Mill? I will look out for her!

[mrsflibble]

sorry!!!

[QuakerBear]

I'm probably abit of a geek but my best toys were my books. Worst toys, that nasty girls dressing up make up.

[funkypixie]

There have been a variety of best and worst toys for my boys, dependent on their ages at any time.

Best - construction toys always seem to be top of the list in some form or another. Wooden bricks and other shapes still come out to build bizarre constructions for cars to drive through/aeroplanes to land on/rockets to take off from. Then there's lego, geomags, knex and most recently - proper mechano!

Worst - a hideous train that warbled whenever anyone went near it. A keyboard with no volume control. Anything with no off switch. The DR Who Tardis - virtually fell to bits the first time it was played with.

Of course, favourites must include paper, glue, card, pens/pencils/crayons/paints as they are always around...on the ceiling, the floor, their clothes

[circlecross]

so far the ds1 has mostly enjoyed wooden train set and track
he enjoys construction toys, and has a set of Bob vehicles which are employed to service the railway, knock down skittles etc
he likes this big red plastic car thing we got off freecyle which is an outside thing
he also likes diggers out on our shingles (when we eventually lift them we know who will be doing the graft)
occasionally he will play with the castle, the pirate ship, the road mat

he loves musical instruments which he plays enthusiastically and tunelessly

he insists on racing around the house with the baby walker which issues an infuriating unmelodic tinkle as some kind of alleged reward for moving if you so much as breathe near it. He yelled so loudly the other day the possessed toy started warbling.

Worst toys
We were given a lot of toys when we first became parents and in the bundle was this plastic/metal cyborg hybrid Mickey Mouse with a demonic cast to its eye and an expression of loathing. It was a long nosed 30s stylee one, and its horrid legs moved as if possessed of St Vitus dance without any rhythm or purpose. ds1 howled everytime he saw it so it had to swiftly removed from the house. We have since acquired a wind up toy which flips over and ds2 shrieks with angry fright every time it is wound up.
Anything requiring batteries when they start to wind down

[Macha]

Best things in our house are books, duplo, hand me down fisher price farm and garage and take-a-long thomas and friends.


Worst the huge pile of %$£$ cars and trucks MIL bought at christmas, it's all in the bin it was so dangerous bits were falling off as stuff came out of the box!