Holiday Toy Review
A Single Dad Review by Daddio, 2012
The holidays are over and the toys Santa brought have all been opened. Santa brought some of the hottest toys of 2011 but did they stand up to the kid test? Santa brought my daughter a few of the toys on that “Hottest Toy List of 2011” and in our house some didn’t cut the bacon.
The Air Swimmer (shark) was a very cool looking toy in the ads. The concept was even pretty cool but it wasn’t the easiest to put together and I’m a smart, educated, do-it-yourself kind of guy. It was cumbersome. The sticky tape that was designed to hold the fins and the motor in place was so sticky that it would be hard to pull off the fingers without it folding back onto itself rendering it useless. I literally spent 45 minutes putting the thing together, if not longer. It lasted one week then in the middle of the night it floated up into the ceiling fan in my daughter’s bedroom and the air swimmer was no more.
Another toy my daughter was excited about when she opened it was the Crayola Crayon Maker. Like the Easy Bake oven it works off of a light bulb which heats the crayons melting them to be poured into a mold to make new crayons. You can melt old broken or stubby crayons into brand new full crayons. It’s a nice concept if you can put in the bulb. To install the bulb you have to remove the bottom. The bottom is held in place by several crews. The instructions tell you that all you need is a 60-watt bulb and a Phillips head screwdriver. But the screws in this toy are not Phillips head screws. I have no idea what they are. Like I mentioned, I’m a do-it-yourself guy with tools. I’ve remodeled homes and I had never seen screws like this before. Apparently I have to now go to the Home Depot to see if they have a tool that can remove them – a lot of trouble and expense for a $30 toy.
I believe the toy manufacturers and battery companies are in partnership of sorts because EVERY toy, it seems, has to have batteries. But beyond that every compartment that holds the batteries are secured with the tiniest screws. Apparently gone are the days of the old lock-in-place compartment that didn’t require screws?
Santa also delivered the v-tech InnoTab. This is a tablet for kids with games and stories and has the ability to play videos and display pictures. Ideally it would be a great stepping stone to the more grown up tablets. My daughter really liked this toy but the batteries we put in it (brand new Ray-O-Vac) was drained in minutes and while there is a connection for a power adaptor, no power adaptor is included.
The best “toy”, if you want to call it a toy, she got (which Santa added to her list at the very last minute I might add) was the Apple iPod Touch. She has been begging for a phone for at least year and her mother and I have a hard time justifying a phone for a six-year old. She is always playing games on my iPhone or on her mom’s so I figured the next best thing to an iPhone would be something on which she could listen to her music, watch her videos, take pictures and video and it looks like and iPhone. Another great thing about the iPod Touch is that she can send free unlimited texts to her mom and I, and she can Facetime us so we can actually see her cute little face when she calls to tell us goodnight. Unlike the iPhone there is no monthly service fee as it is all done through WiFi. Of course she was fortunate enough to be inundated with toys of all kinds but by far this “toy” was the best investment and one of the best gifts she got this year. That, and of course she just loves the little puppy Santa brought her too.
So next year when its time to tell Santa what toys to bring your little ones think about what it’s going to take to make that toy work and how long is it likely to last. Is it worth the price? Of course it’s hard to put a price on your child’s smile when their eyes light up with such joy on Christmas Day.
