Thread "The Toys Are Getting Worse" in forum "Comic Talk and General Discussion *"

Posted at 6:11AM, Nov. 15, 2011

As it gets closer and closer to Christmas, I've been seeing more and more toy ads on the TV…

And they get worse and worse.

Gone are the innocent days of Tickle Me Elmo…now we have this:

Doggie Doo The Game

What are other really bad toy ideas that you have seen cropping up? Or maybe remember one from years ago?

Posted at 6:11AM, Nov. 15, 2011

Always wondered when Play-doh would finally admit that their product looks like poop.

Posted at 9:11AM, Nov. 16, 2011

Oh man… I saw that commercial on TV. The most hilarious part of it is when the kids are hugging and coddling the plastic dog, right before they force feed it and cause it to poop. There have been plenty of bad ideas for toys, but I think this one ranks pretty high.

Posted at 7:11PM, Nov. 16, 2011

That is just..wow XD. I've heard of a stripper pole toy once, I don't know if it tops that.

Posted at 12:11AM, Nov. 18, 2011

Eww… I saw that one a few months ago, but it was called "Kackel Dackel", the original German commercial is kind of hilarious. "OH NEIN!"
Gross as that is, I think the toy that has broken my mind is the "breast feeding training doll" I saw on another site a while back (I can't remember if the tag the guy used was "wretchedness" or "things that make me drink" so I can't find the post!)
The product, yet another aimed at grooming small girls for motherhood, is a doll that makes "sucking sounds" and works in tandem with flowers, attached to a training bra-like garment worn over the chest. *shudders violently*
Dog-poop play-doh I kinda put in the "Gooey Louie" category along with those pooping animals from gumball machines and the brown-jellybean candy dispensers. Disgusting, but that's been going on since the late 90' at least.
Baby-training for toddlers honestly makes me angry at the world :(
Hey boys, you can be a soldier or a pirate or a samurai or ninja or monster or a mad scientist!
Girls, you can be their mommy! (or, a princess)

Posted at 1:11AM, Nov. 18, 2011

I get what you're saying completely Amelius and I agree with it 100% - but I have to think though that if you flip it around and gave the booby training toy to a little boy instead that it gives rise to a whole raft of issues of another order entirely.

- Pirate and Ninja things can easily and appropriately become gender neutral, but dolls with a maternal theme would seem pretty problematic in the hands of a male child (as viewed by society). That could be the larger hidden issue here?

Posted at 4:11AM, Nov. 18, 2011

Toys aren't getting worse, merely the designers getting more specific because of the technology.

The big doll when my sister was a kid? Betsy Wetsy. You fed her a bottle, she sucked the nipple (but without digital chip sound) and wet her diaper. This was the late 1950s early 1960s.

And the pooping Play-doh dog goes back to the 1970s. It's a retro toy. Now let's all pray to the gods of fashion that no more 1970's fashion shows up in the 2010s.

Posted at 6:11PM, Nov. 18, 2011

Amelius wrote:
Baby-training for toddlers honestly makes me angry at the world :(

Are you sure that isn't a fun toy for mommy? Like, the kid is a toy they're accesorizing for their own enjoyment?

Posted at 4:11PM, Nov. 20, 2011

Here in the netherlands we don´t have a lot of weird toys, we did have a small doll that you could feed all kinds of goo and that would then poop out the same material as a solid, that was pretty neat. They also sell voodoo dolls among the normal toys, some even have instructions on how to use it…

Posted at 10:11PM, Nov. 20, 2011

This doll. Having a doll that's educating children about the human body is one thing, but this isn't really age appropriate.

It's plush with cheerful colors and velcro to stash all the organs in the torso correctly. It's a toy designed for toddlers…….

Oh, and also this creepy ass kid's bank that one can only assume was invented by a parent who wanted to discourage their children from asking for allowance money.

Posted at 6:11AM, Nov. 21, 2011

Ally Haert wrote:
-
Oh, and also this creepy ass kid's bank

I'd like to see That as a pencil sharpener. or maybe really large as a paper shredder

Posted at 9:11AM, Nov. 23, 2011

bravo1102 wrote:
Now let's all pray to the gods of fashion that no more 1970's fashion shows up in the 2010s.

Wait…you mean like Bell Bottoms, hip huggers and paisleys? Too late! Hell the eighties are coming back right now…*HEADDESK* HEE

Posted at 3:11PM, Nov. 23, 2011

Ally Haert wrote:
This doll. Having a doll that's educating children about the human body is one thing, but this isn't really age appropriate.

Haha, my parents are scientists and my older sister wanted to be a doctor when she was younger, so we used to have a see-through realistic model of a person which could be taken apart and put together again. For whatever reason, that seems less creepy to me than this doll.

Posted at 5:11AM, Nov. 24, 2011

Darwin wrote:
Wait…you mean like Bell Bottoms, hip huggers and paisleys? Too late! Hell the eighties are coming back right now…*HEADDESK* HEE

I think he just meant fashion in toys :)
Yeah, 70's clothes came back on the late 90s and a bit into the 2000s. 80s fashion came in about 3 years ago I think and it's finally starting to bugger off now. Hipsters still get their supply of day-glo patterend high-top shoes though T_T

You know what toys aren't coming back though? All the martial ones; war toys. All those realistic life size metal coyboy cap-guns, water-pistols in the shape and colour of realistic assult rifles… all that sort of thing. I think you can still get war toys, but they're no where near as popular in the toy shops anymore and the variety has gone right down. Now-a-days water pistols are more likely to be werd and bulbous, in bright colours than realistic models of real weapons.

Posted at 9:11AM, Nov. 24, 2011

I saw some baby toy versions of dino riders. Now I wish they'd rerelease the old Dino Riders toys! They had such awesome dinosaurs!!!

Posted at 3:11AM, Nov. 25, 2011

ozoneocean wrote:

You know what toys aren't coming back though? All the martial ones; war toys. All those realistic life size metal coyboy cap-guns, water-pistols in the shape and colour of realistic assult rifles…

Bad idea! Don't want your kid getting shot by the police because they thought it was real…

Posted at 4:11AM, Nov. 25, 2011

But how else will a child learn how to become a good soldier for the corporate machine? ^_^

Naw, you don't need to have a realistic looking facsimile of a gun to get shot by police. Anything will do; A table leg, a comb, a remote control, a hair drier, whatever, you name it, if it can be used as an excuse to shoot someone it has.
I think in this equation it's not what the person is holding that matters but the lack of intelligence and or bravery of the person doing the shooting.

Posted at 8:12PM, Dec. 3, 2011

*laughs* Oh my god XD
That's gotta be the worst idea for a toy.

Posted at 10:12PM, Dec. 9, 2011

I'm glad the Transformers toy commercials of today aren't like the way they did it in the 80s. I imagine right now those child actors in the commercials (now adults) are probably traumatized by seeing their eyes glowing while saying "Robots in Disguise" in a robot voice in those old commercials. O_O

Posted at 12:12AM, Dec. 10, 2011

I know it's old news, but who remembers the vibrating Harry Potter wand that was around in 06-07? They pulled those off the shelves crazy quick…. You all can figure out why.

Ally Haert wrote:
This doll. Having a doll that's educating children about the human body is one thing, but this isn't really age appropriate.

I think it's only creepy because the guy has a cheerful smile on his face. Kids have been poking around body parts for a while… I mean who hasn't played a game of "Operation?" But even the "Operation" guy doesn't look too happy about being a surgery patient. http://www.bitmeintheass.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/operation-game.jpg And for that reason, it's a lot more forgivable.