Hello. We love your toys, they are amazing. Our house is like a shrine to toydom. We have about a million all in different shapes and sizes. Each one is "educational" in teaching Little Z the importance of colour or co-ordination or the alphabet. I'm fortunate in that Little Z actually plays with them instead of using them as a hammer or a weapon. Sometimes he does prefer to yank on the chains of the blinds instead for about an hour but on the whole we really love toys in this house.
I just have one small gripe. Call it constructive criticism. Or a moan… I'm not sure which it is. I'm not that fussed to be honest. I can be moany sometimes.
But what the hell is it with ALL that packaging? It's like trying to break into a safe sometimes. There's just so much of it before you get down to the actual toy.
Take, for instance, last week when we decided to buy Little Z his first remote control car. He was so excited when he saw it. He wanted nothing more than to get his hands on it so he could push it around our wooden floors. Ahhh, a picture of love.
So I start to open it and suddenly realise the top has been sellotaped down with about 10 pieces of sticky tape. Oh. Little Z waits patiently whilst I try to prise off the see through tape. I manage with a sigh of relief to get it all off and by now I'm covered in sticky tape. But that doesn't matter. I have an excited little boy to please.
Oh but wait… I then find that opening the top is pointless. It's the BOTTOM I should have opened to get the car out. *Grumble grumble* whilst I go about prising off another 10 pieces of tape (Do you have shares in sellotape or something?). Little Z is starting to look slightly bemused now with a look of "Am I getting my toy today?" on his face.
I eventually manage to pull the Toy out and find I now have to deal with the thing all parents around the world dread when it comes to unpacking toys. Toy wire ties. About 20 of them.
Now don't get me wrong. They are really very effective in preventing toy theft from toy stores and a pretty excellent way of ensuring the position of the toy in the box stays intact through all the transit in its little toy life cycle. But do you really need about 25 of them around one toy??? Do you know how annoying they are to get off? Just when you think you've got them all you find about 3 more that you completely missed, usually wrapped around the wheel axis in a really awkward way. And you employ people to do this right? I'm surprised your toys are not covered in spatters of their own blood from all the cuts they must get.
I FINALLY get the Toy out with a sigh, a sense of achievement and a TA DAAAAA!!!
Oh. Little Z got bored of waiting and ran off to do his "Show Me Show Me your groovy moves dance" with Chris and Pui. Once he's done doing the "freeze!" bit I wave the new toy in front of him with lots of ooooohs and ahhhhhs. The look of excitement returns and he runs towards me, past me, and straight to the packaging with its 50 wires all sticking out.
Maybe you should just sell packaging?
A mum trying to find all those wire things before Little Z puts one in his mouth.
This entry was posted in Baby Z, Blog, Dear So and So, Not My Year Off, Toys and tagged Dear Toy People, Excess toy packaging, how toys are packed, kids, opening toys, packaging, Sellotape, Toddlers, toddlers playing with toys, too much packaging on toys, toy packaging, Toys. Bookmark the permalink.
Haha! Brilliant. The one thing I hate about Christmas is the 20 miliion trillion wire ties. Oh and those invisable elastic band things.
Excellent post. Couldn't agree more about the wire ties. And what's with that packaging that not even a pair of gardening shears can get through? I can't count the times I've almost torn my hand apart trying to get one of those open!!!
Arrgghh, the wires! Hell. It's like parents need to unwrap and untie, before reboxing and rewrapping so the child can then play with the toy as soon as they unwrap it!
Yep, no point buying toys, just wrapping paper!
It's ridiculous isn't it? We've even had some that are screwed into the box. Cue trying to find a screwdriver with impatient child jumping up and down and nagging you.
Oh you did make me laugh! Toy packaging is ridiculous, both in the puzzle they pose when trying to fathom out where to start and the sheer waste of materials. I wonder if it'll ever get any better or if it will just keep getting worse?
So crazy isn't it? I bet just a couple of wires would do the trick. They must waste so much money with every Toy!