# Fisher Price - can your toys suck any more? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 6, 2004, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fisher-price-can-your-toys-suck-any-more/267925 "2004-10-06T21:37:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2004, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fisher-price-can-your-toys-suck-any-more/267925/81 "2004-11-19T15:17:54Z")
I found some more paper doll stuff:[Klutz](http://klutz.com/catalog/product.php?itemNo=1160&cat=search) They also have ( or possibly had) Pocket Paper Dolls for $6.95 that come in a velcro’d shut carrying case about the size of a post card. I just found these at a Scholastic Book Fair at our school as I was helping them load everything back up. The Person In Charge never put them out. I bought them. I have never seen these anywhere, so either they are new or discontinued or available only through Scholastic. Very cute. ---
**Author:** ![Sweetums](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Sweetums](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sweetums)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2004, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fisher-price-can-your-toys-suck-any-more/267925/82 "2004-11-19T15:56:49Z")
> [@Greathouse](#): > > INow the problem I have isn’t really with the manufacturer. It seems like a damn good product. But those fuckers at Wal-Mart can’t build anything. We went to the store looking for one that was still in the box so that we could build the thing together. Well, Wal-Mart and Target don’t sell them still in the box. The first thing they do when they get Bikes in is to build them (as poorly as possible) and put them on display, with a sign that reads “Free Assembly”. When we got it home and he tried to ride it the first time, the god damn brake fell off. I mean the whole damn rear brake (it only has a rear brake) fell off. So, I would recommend that anyone who buys a bike from Wal-Mart be sure to thoroughly check the torque on all screws and nuts. > > I know, I know. This should be pretty obvious, but he was just sitting on it and pushing it around the driveway to get the feel of it when the brake fell off. I would hate to think what would happen if someone just let thier kid take off on the bike down the street, trusting the assemblers at the store to have done a good job. Good Og! I used to be an assembler at Toys n’at, and belive me, it’s not rocket science (well it would have been, but we could never figure out how to get a rocket enging big enough, estes D size were still too small to… sorry) ! I mastered the art of taking my bike apart and putting it back together before I was 11. ``` There is no excuse for the people at Wally World to not be able to do this. ``` ---
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2004, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fisher-price-can-your-toys-suck-any-more/267925/83 "2004-11-19T16:49:55Z")
i agree, where have all the toys from my childhood gone, Legos (plain bricks), the old metal Tonka toys, the big ones that you could throw from a second floor window and it’d only scuff the paint, the simple. classic stuff however, if i might go off on a tangent, my 3 yr old nephew (who looks to have the potential to be a certified genius) really likes to play racing games on my PS2, games like Gran Turismo 3 and the Burnout series, sand you know what, this 3 year old can actually _drive_, yes he does a little pinballing off the sides of the track, but only in the tight corners, on more open tracks, he will literally steer into the turn and can avoid traffic, quite impressive considering he’s just started to ride a bike he wants me to buy a motorcycle game now… 😉 yes, he is supervised when playing, he’s very good with the equipment, doesn’t abuse it at all, heck, if i left it unattended, he’d turn on the PS2 and put the game in himself, he’s already figured out how to turn on the PS2 and load a game, i have to hide it or he _will_ play it unsupervised… for his 3rd b’day, i bought him a small 3 gallon aquarium and a betta, and he’s been taking excellent care of it, he shows responsibility in feeding the fish and cleaning the tank, i think i might have to upgrade him to a 10 gallon setup for Christmas, i already have a spare filter, and hood, so all i’ll need is a tank and heater the nice part of giving him a betta, is it teaches him responsibility in caring for an animal, he knows the betta’s not a toy or living decoration, but a living animal that deserves care and respect since he’s old enough now, i’ll start buying him “classic” toys for b’day and Xmas ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2004, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fisher-price-can-your-toys-suck-any-more/267925/84 "2004-11-19T19:15:33Z")
> [@MsRobyn](#): > > I give you… > > [Potty Elmo](http://www.fisher-price.com/us/sesame/products/product.asp?cat=plush&catcode=ss_stuff&pg=1&id=23464). > > Aaron got one of these from my mother. I am now genuinely afraid. > > Robin Well. That’s it. Conclusive proof that there is no loving God. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2004, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fisher-price-can-your-toys-suck-any-more/267925/85 "2004-11-19T19:45:35Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > Hand drum, I recommend a [djembe](http://www.rainbowskytrading.com/img/djembe-l.jpg). It’s the most fun for littles, because the center gives a good, deep satisfying BOOM, while the edge makes a neat BAT. They’re probably the most common hand drum at drum circles I’ve been to, and if your girlie can learns now, she’ll be able to hold her own through some great testosterone jams. Where can I get a djembe? I want to get one for my fiance for his birthday. He’s been mourning the loss of his drum set for years. ---
**Author:** ![Mtgman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Mtgman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mtgman)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2004, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fisher-price-can-your-toys-suck-any-more/267925/86 "2004-11-19T20:09:13Z")
> [@SpazCat](#): > > Where can I get a djembe? I want to get one for my fiance for his birthday. He’s been mourning the loss of his drum set for years. [Froogle to the rescue!](http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q=djembe) Enjoy, Steven ---
**Author:** ![Hyperelastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Hyperelastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hyperelastic)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2004, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fisher-price-can-your-toys-suck-any-more/267925/87 "2004-11-20T05:11:55Z")
This is a great thread. My boy just turned three, and my mother sends him the absolute worst toys possible. Her heart is in the right place (she taught kindergarten for years so she knows what kids like), but the problem is she buys stuff online, where everything looks fun. Last year she sent him a blow-molded plastic car with accompanying blow-molded plastic gas pump. The car doesn’t have pedals, you push with your feet, like Fred Flintstone. But the seat is too deep - his thighs are too short for his knees to bend at the edge of the seat, so he can’t move his legs. And it’s not that he’s too small - if he were any bigger, he wouldn’t fit in the door. In fact, the car is so small, the steering wheel (which has no real function, it just spins around) is designed to be removable, otherwise the kid wouldn’t be able to fit in and out. Why didn’t they just make the fuckin’ car bigger? The gas pump is basically a huge blow-molded plastic block with a picture of a gas pump pasted on the front. God, the fun a kid can have with that. Then there was the blow-molded plastic sliding board. The goddamned thing weighs at least 40 pounds, but the slide is about two and a half feet high. Real thrill potential there. All this junk is now taking up valuable cubic footage in my garage. This year for his birthday she sent an inflatable “jumper”. Looks like a fun alternative to those expensive rental jumpers, but there’s a hitch - you have to blow it up yourself. It’s fucking enormous - big enough for two kids to jump around in with a big inflatable “cage” that you step into. There were about six separate chambers you had to blow up. I tried it and by the time I had the first chamber inflated, I was having Carlos Castaneda-style hallucinations from lack of oxygen. A tire pump won’t work because the valve is the wrong shape. So my wife bought a rechargeable electric air pump - $25. We charged the pump all night, and it did a pretty good job on the next two chambers, but then it started to run out of juice, and it became clear it wasn’t going to go the distance. Fortunately, my kid is young enough that he really didn’t notice or care that the jumper was only half-blown up. He hopped around on it for a while and when he got bored, I stashed it. We shall not speak of it again. ---
**Author:** ![Hyperelastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Hyperelastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hyperelastic)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2004, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fisher-price-can-your-toys-suck-any-more/267925/88 "2004-11-20T05:15:26Z")
This is a great thread. My boy just turned three, and my mother sends him the absolute worst toys possible. Her heart is in the right place (she taught kindergarten for years so she knows what kids like), but the problem is she buys stuff online, where everything looks fun. Last year she sent him a blow-molded plastic car with accompanying blow-molded plastic gas pump. The car doesn’t have pedals, you push with your feet, like Fred Flintstone. But the seat is too deep - his thighs are too short for his knees to bend at the edge of the seat, so he can’t move his legs. And it’s not that he’s too small - if he were any bigger, he wouldn’t fit in the door. In fact, the car is so small, the steering wheel (which has no real function, it just spins around) is designed to be removable, otherwise the kid wouldn’t be able to fit in and out. Why didn’t they just make the fuckin’ car bigger? The gas pump is basically a huge blow-molded plastic block with a picture of a gas pump pasted on the front. God, the fun a kid can have with that. Then there was the blow-molded plastic sliding board. The goddamned thing weighs at least 40 pounds, but the slide is about two and a half feet high. Real thrill potential there. All this junk is now taking up valuable cubic footage in my garage. This year for his birthday she sent an inflatable “jumper”. Looks like a fun alternative to those expensive rental jumpers, but there’s a hitch - you have to blow it up yourself. It’s fucking enormous - big enough for two kids to jump around in with a big inflatable “cage” that you step into. There were about six separate chambers you had to blow up. I tried it and by the time I had the first chamber inflated, I was having Carlos Castaneda-style hallucinations from lack of oxygen. A tire pump won’t work because the valve is the wrong shape. So my wife bought a rechargeable electric air pump - $25. We charged the pump all night, and it did a pretty good job on the next two chambers, but then it started to run out of juice, and it became clear it wasn’t going to go the distance. Fortunately, my kid is young enough that he really didn’t notice or care that the jumper was only half-blown up. He hopped around on it for a while and when he got bored, I stashed it. We shall not speak of it again. I, on the other hand, bought him Tinkertoys. The classics never disappoint. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fisher-price-can-your-toys-suck-any-more/267925.md?page=4)