Toy season

[houseelf]

It might be fun to share our thoughts and experiences on toys since that season is just around the corner. What have been hits and misses in your households?

Hits:

--Light bright and Crayola overhead art projector (I cook dinner while this is being used).
--Brio water canal system (keeps child entertained for HOURS!)
--Trunk of Dress up clothes
--Set & Uno- games which are bearable for adults
--Play kitchen-used for years for imaginitive play.
--Walkie Talkies--keeps the neighborhood kids entertained for hours


Misses:

--Sit and spin. A bulky toy which rarely gets used.
--Candyland and Chutes and Ladders. Loved by children, painful for adults.
--Additional Rescue Hero/Thomas/Hotwheel cars. Although these are all beloved by my son, he has hit a capacity that makes additions to these collections an exercise in the ridiculous.
--Stuffed animals and dolls. See comment above.
--Walker and overhead baby gym. I think these get used for about 4 weeks and then you have to store them.


I'm contemplating a kareoke (sp?) set for this year. We have "Friday night raves" at our house in which we break out glow sticks and dance around to disco. Kareoke might be a fun addition for our family boogie nights. I am not going to get either of the kids that much because I know the grandparents will go crazy. For DD, I will simply regift DS's old toddler toys to her.

What about you all?

Kelly
Kelly

Hits:
any toys involving magnets...keep away from computer and electical components
the travel size versions of any kids card game.
Pixar/Disney/Myazaki videos
child size version of cleaning tools
books

Misses:
board games for kids (see prev. post)
educational cdroms
playdoh stuff (messy)
toy cars

Santa only brings one gift from here out. Before school it was two. DS only asks for his limit and has played with all the stuff we asked for for a long time.

[Phoebe]

Hits:

Puzzles
Board Games-Involving Princesses
Polly Pockets
Books
Play food
Movies
Anything Dora
Blow-Up Bounce House
Playdoh
Coloring Books and Paints
Little People

Misses
Dress up clothes
Blocks
Dolls

This year we are regifting a lot for DD#2. Hopefully, she won't know. DD#1 is getting a Leapster from Leap Frog and some small things. I am considering a Puppet Theatre for DD#1. Books are going to be high on the list. Grandparents go overboard on stuff we don't want so this year I am buying a bunch of stuff and letting them pay me. Lillian Vernon and has cute tents that fit on a kid's mattress like dinosaurs, castles, etc.

Jennifer

Jennifer

[DCJenn]

We've asked for contributions to the 529. Seriously- he's 1.75 years old- he has no need for any more toys!

Hits in our house are:
The hideous ball popper- makes horrendous noise but he loves it
A spinning ball thingie that plays music, etc. He had one in the orphanage so we got one here.
A toy car from his only Happy Meal (airport food!), a toy fire truck (hehehe kelly- THAT cracked me up and I'm sure you can appreciate why!), and a toy tractor. Apparently it's a genetic thing to drive them all over and make noises
Blocks- any shape or size

Misses:
An Aquarium thing that has balls that have fish in them (I was going to write fish balls and that made me laugh too much).
Anything that requires sitting still (finger paints, crayons, etc.)

Jenn

PS- On Sunday, we're all going to my parent's house and all of the parents of the toddlers have been invited to bring the toys either they or their kid hates and we're going to exchange them. I'm sure some of those will be "Christmas Presents".

Hmmmm. My kids have WAY too many toys - it's very hard to pick the big winners. Here's my best shot:

Little Tykes tool bench - picked it up at the 2nd hand store w/a zillion tools 2+ years ago, and the boys still dig it.
Buzz Lightyear - we have 2, I hand me down, one purchased, both loved
Bead Maze - always a hit at many different ages
Airtivity Ball Popper - the music gets annoying, but kids of all ages love it (inicluding me!)

Misses:

NEUROSMITH ACTIVITY BLOCK - this is the WORST thing in the world! It's quiet setting will blast your ear drums and it's unbelievably obnoxious. It cost $60 and I basically gave it away at my garage sale.

Limbo Elmo - need I say more?

All stuffed animals - the kids do nothing with them

[Rapunzel]

Toy Hits:

* Imaginext castle and prehistoric playsets
* GloBonz sets (there's about four or five different sets on the market now) VERY cool and can occupy a kid for a couple of hours
* Tangrams with Tangram cards (in various difficulty levels) another activity that occupies my kids for an hour or two
* LEGOS - anything from that company is a hit although byfar the best purchase is still the basic box with a gazillion pieces for something like $15 - $20
* Ditto the dress-up stuff mentioned previously
* Yu-gi-oh! I actually have to put a time limit on my kids playing with those cards At least they teach 6 year olds more advanced addition....
* CARS Little boys (and many little girls) can play with cars for hours it seems
* Thomas the Train Engine sets
* Carcasson game (very, very cool and they just never get tired of playing it - not a standard board or card game at all) - the add-on editions are worth it
* JumpStart computer learning software - especially the Toddler, Preschool, and Kindergarten levels (Toddler and Preschool levels teach kids the motor skills to use a computer - Kindergarten does a good job with introductory phonics especially) - an hour or two of being occupied right there!


Toy Misses:

* The nefarious stuffed animals that just gather dust and take up way too much space (I think a kid needs maybe three stuffed animals - tops)
* Barbies and the like - my daughters play with them for about ten minutes once a week
* Play Do - TOO MUCH MESS! (as mentioned previously) And, the stuff just dries out and your kid inevitably mixes all the colors up into one ugly, pukey purple color
* Fisher Price Little People sets - super cute but they aren't played with very much
* Wooden Puzzles and Shape Sorters - too difficult for babies, once they figure out how these things work they're fun for about two weeks - after that they get bored (so, outside of a tiny "aha, this is how it works and it's new and exciting!" window they're either too frustrating or too easy)
* Hot Wheels race tracks and the like - the kids actually have more fun rolling the cars around on the kitchen floor (our race track pieces are almost never used while the cars have all had a good work-out over the years)
* Paper dolls - fun to look at but, in the end, a huge bore (and, they all get ripped up and wrinkled anyway)

Jennifer

[SueC]

Hits
Dress up clothes
Barbie, just the doll and clothes, the castle, car, and boat rarely get played with.
Art supplies, nothing fancy--just paper, crayons, and colored pencils
Leapster--my kids go through phases but have been known to play with them for hours
Tea set, play dishes and kitchen stuff
Matchbox cars, tonka trucks, basically anything with wheels
Puzzles, the 25+ piece ones. The smaller ones are useless for the reasons Rapunzel mentioned.
Memory, but not Candyland or Chutes for aformentioned reasons
Train table with knockoff Brio train set
Fisher Price Loving Family Dollhouse
Little umbrella stroller for pushing around dolls
Legos, mega blocks, wooden blocks, though they are usually used to build Barbie furniture
Collapsible tunnel--I bought one over 5 years ago when I watched children and it still gets played with when I bring it out.

Misses
Barbie castle, takes up way too much space and rarely used
Markers, my kids can't seem to keep the darn lids on
My Little Pony castle
Strawberry Shortcake house and dolls
Easy Bake Oven--way more fun to just cook with them
Collapsible tent--while they like the tunnel, they would much prefer to make a clubhouse out of blankets and chairs than use the ready-made one that pops up.

[Amiens]

Hits-

Anything from Leap Frog
Art stuff- crayons, scissors, paper, etc.
Trains (Brigham actually sleeps with his )
Firetrucks
Cars
Dress-up (Emma really wants Disney Princess stuff for Christmas)
Books
Little people
Doll house
Care bears, dolls, stuffed animals, etc.
Playdoh (in my book it's also a miss because I hate messes)

MISSES-
Playdoh
paints- the kids love them, but I "plan" when we use them.

[HeartRN]

Hits:
Babies, babies, babies, plus accessories. This child has nurtured baby dolls since she was very small. They are the one toy she ALWAYS comes back to!
Stickers, crayons, markers
Books...all varieties
airplanes/trains
Barney videos, music (God help me for ever introducing her to that purple oaf, but at least he teaches good lessons)
Blocks

Misses:
Painfully repetitive computer-type toys
Little People sets...sometimes a hit, though

[mommax3]

Hits-

blocks
KNex building sets
marble tower (plastic pieces that join together in a variety of ways that can be built into a tower that you can roll marbles through)
Light Brite
crayons, colored pencils, coloring books, roll of white paper
matchbox/hot wheels cars
soft balls of all sizes for playing with inside
light sabers......I should be an honorary Jedi by now, I have bought so many of these
plastic tonka trucks
plastic shopping cart for toddlers
karaoke machine
Little People garage
Neurosmith Music Blocks
Nintendo GameCube
V-Smile (newest hit....like a video game system, but for little kids with all educational games)
LeapFrog Fridge Phonics and Word Whammer
interlocking gears (one with a motor) that have magnets and stick on the fridge
plain old magnetic letters and numbers
ONE or TWO special (large) stuffed animals
train sets....Thomas and generic are played with equally
Sound Blocks (these are animals or vehicles split in half, one half on each block, and when the correct halves are matched, the child hears either the animal sound or the vehicle sound)
racing toy, where two little cars race down two identical spiral tracks, with sound effects
walkie-talkies
anything a sibling is playing with

Misses-
Mr. Potato Head (sadly)
any fake kind of computer for little kids
most electronic games
dolls for boys (I tried this THREE TIMES and totally struck out)
Leap Pad
Most Little People stuff....but it is cute
Pixter
most stuffed animals
Rescue Heroes get played with VERY RARELY
Matchbox/Hot Wheels car tracks.....more trouble than they are worth, imo
remote control cars

It is interesting to me, thinking through this, that what was a hit for one child could be a miss for another one or two.....this was the case with Power Rangers toys. My middle son LOVED them intensely for a couple of years, and the other two had no interest in them at all. So sometimes it is hard to know.

Sally

[PrincessFiona]

It's so interesting to read the responses here! Really, a hit for one family can be a miss for another, I guess.

Hits:

Playmobil (I hate trying to organize all the little pieces though!)
Legos
matchbox cars with little garages/houses/tracks to go with them
wooden train set
board games (I don't enjoy them, but Thomas plays a lot with them)
Little People Toys
Dollhouse
Barbies
Chicken Dancing Elmo

Misses:

Play-do
Light Bright (I was actually still finding light bright pegs from 2 years ago when I pulled back furniture to move a few weeks ago!)
puzzles
Leap Pad...It's too bad too...I have been thinking about buying a Leapster for Alex for christmas this year...like a gameboy but with educational games. Thomas said "Leap Pad" and so I haven't gone out and gotten it yet...I hate to throw away the money!

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http://www.larktoys.com/carousel.html