I LOVE the holidays and I just LOVE watching my kids happy on Christmas morning to open up their gifts, but I have to be totally honest with you. I am completely cringing at some of the prices of the “hot toys” for the year! And what in the world will toys be costing when my kids are teenagers and actually know what these toys are?! I mean, what’s the deal with Furby coming back and costing over $50! Ah! And an RC car (although cool) that’s over $100? Will anyone be adding these HOT TOYS for 2012 onto their kids Christmas lists? Do your kids play with these items enough to justify the price? Mine typically don’t! With the exception of our LeapPad – that one has been a fantastic investment! None of us even hardly ever use our Wii console! I was just curious what you guys thought of these prices?! Most of us are on the tight budget and frugal side of life but I’d love to hear your thoughts! Below I’ve listed all of the toys on the HOT gift list for the year with their approximate prices – but many of them have either sold out or the prices are doubled and tripled already!! OUCH! My kids don’t know the difference when they don’t have hundreds of dollars of toys year-round. One might argue that since I do blog reviews they have plenty which is certainly true, although we donate most of them. But at Christmas I think last year I spent about $20 per child. Granted they are younger……….but even when they are teens I still can’t imagine that I will spend hundreds of dollars on them…
Wii U Console – currently available for pre-order through Best Buy. The 8GB runs around $299 and the 32 GB runs about $349! Walmart also has a Wii U Bundle for $399 to pre-order. http://www.walmart.com/ip/Nintendo-Wii-U-Solution-Bundle-w-Customer-Choice-of-Wii-U-Game-and-Controller/21803986
Tabeo Tablet for Kids – pre-order at Toys R Us for $149.99
LeapPad 2 – $99.99
Jake and the Neverland Pirates Musical Pirate Ship $41
Furby is BACK! I’ve seen prices run from about $54 to almost $100!
LEGO Ninjango 9450 Epic Dragon Battle – $119.99
Hot Wheels RC Terrain Twister Vehicle – $99.99
Skylander Giants Set – pre-order for $74.99
One Direction Collector’s Dolls - $19.99+
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Secret Sewer Lair Playset – $119.99
Y-Volution YFliker F1 Scooter – $99.99
Micro Chargers Time Track Race Track $29.99
Gelarti Designer Studio $24.99
Lalaloopsy Silly Hair Straw Doll – $69.99
Doc McStuffins doll $39.99
Are any of these toys on your kids’ lists? What do you think about the prices of toys?
Last year we did the leappad and my son loves it. Definitely worth every penny! Plus most of the games last year were free for me since we bought lots of Tag books and TRU had the buy 4 leapfrog items get 1 free with their rewards (so sad that ended). This year I did plurge on the new wii. We don’t have a game system, but my son seems to enjoy them when we are at other houses that do. I thought it would be fun to play during the winter when it is just too cold or dark to play outside. I REALLY hope we use it and get LOTS of use out of it to justify the price. Time will tell I guess.
Splurge….not plurge!
I totally agree that way too many toys have become outrageous in their prices. Also, I agree that the kids don’t play with most of them for the money that is spent on them. My two grandkids (9 & 6) love to do science experiments with baking soda, vinegar, and such…and they love to make GAK & slime & things like that…..cheap but very fun! My grandson loves Ninjago but I definitely won’t be spending over $100 for any of them. What happened to the days when girls made mudpies and boys turned cardboard boxes into cars & boats???? And one more thing….over my 31 years of teaching I saw children’s creativity really decline and I strongly believe it’s due to too many battery-operated toys that do not require any imagination on the child’s part.
WOW! I really cannot believe the prices on some of those items! I love shopping black friday when I can get a deal on some of the items, and I really hope the leap pad is on there so I can get that for my kids. Other than that, I love clearance racks and such! I am very cheap when it comes to toys that I know won’t be played with for very long.
*I know I commented on your facebook post, but that was before I looked at the prices! Holy cow!!