What's Happened to cheap toys...??

I Know its Christmas soon, and your kids are worthy of a decent present of decent value, but what does value really mean - is Value the cost of the toy in Pounds & Pence or entertainment and play value.

For me its the latter. Spend £100 on a toy that does lots then is boring after a day or two its worth nothing to the child. Spend little and get hours of enjoyment out of it, then its worth its weight in gold.

Now I've spoken about how difficult I've had it over the past few months with my two and their moshling obsession, but its struck me that

a) they bought all of the toys themselves, and
b) that despite them not doing anything other than being static bits of plastic, my two play with their Moshi Monster Moslings everyday, for hours at a time.

Now I don't know what they do with them or for that matter, care, as long as they are happy. I know that at £1 a figure they are pretty expensive for what is basically a lump of moulded plastic, but then again they are very inexpensive - as my two can buy them and have in terms of play value - had a lot of time with them.

Ok their entire collection is confiscated at the moment (long story) but they love their moshlings and haven't spent a great amount on amassing a collection that they enjoy playing with.

So what has inspired this rant of sorts? - well, its the Toy Retailers Associations Top 12 Toys for Xmas list. In terms of Xmas Toy Lists this list when published every year is pretty much the one, because every Toy Retailer worth his salt will have contributed somewhere along the line.

However, its not a list of cheap toys.

Take a look below, the cheapest items are a Moshling Tree House and a Pooing Dog.

Now the Doggie Doo is fun, but I know from past experience of these type of toys that they will have very short play value. Fun for how long... probably as long as the poop lasts...

Being a stats man i've worked out that the entire list clocks in at a whopping average of just over £50 per toy:

Doggie Doo, John Adams, RRP £22.99
Fijit Friends, Mattel, RRP £54.99
Fireman Sam Pontypandy Rescue Set, Character, RRP £29.99
Kidizoom Twist, VTech, RRP £49.99
LeapPad Explorer, Leapfrog Toys, RRP £79.99
Lets Rock Elmo, Hasbro, RRP £69.99
Milky the Bunny, Flair, £59.99
Monster High Lagoona’s Hydration Station, Mattel, £39.99
Moshling Tree House, Vivid, RRP £18.99
Nerf Vortex Nitron Blaster, Hasbro, RRP £44.99
Ninjago Fire Temple, Lego, RRP £91.99
Star Wars Ultimate Force Tech Lightsaber, Hasbro, RRP £39.99

again I've said - your kids are worth every penny spent on them, this Christmas and every Christmas and Birthday. I just want you parents to think carefully before you buy this year.

At £92 the Nijago temple is an eye watering price. You'd be able to buy a few other smaller Ninjago Lego sets for that and get more play and value from it, or alternatively there are other construction brands out there with cheaper and in my opinion better value play sets. Take the Mario K'Nex range (see my offering here & here). I do appreciate Lego is expensive and does have play value for a long time, I'm still playing with my own Lego now and again! But expensive doesn't necessarily mean Value!

I know that electronic toys like the LeapPad & Vtech products are solid and well worth investing in. I just wanted to slap a be wary of how much you spend on the Top 10 (12) toys this year, because there are much more than this selection out there on the shelves and also a lot at a much better prices.

Xia-Xia

You may have also seen in the papers and on the news the next Zhu Zhu pet is here - in the form of Xia-Xia Hermit crabs. These are gonna beat all of the above toys, and at the current RRP will clock in at much cheaper than the above list. Not due here until early December, you might wanna hold out for some of these when they arrive. Originally they were due in January 2012, and the shipment has been brought forward, so look out for the limited numbers hitting December. We are trying to source some for Piggy Bank Toys, so check back for sure.

so parents be careful out there... toys are for longer than Christmas week...