Kids toys that take forever to put together!

[rowdy]

Well I've just finished putting one of my lads toys together at half past one in the morning, a grand total of 5 hours to put together a bloody mechano radio controlled car.
Wouldn't be so bad if it was a proper radio controlled job but it was only the body that required building!
Thing that makes it worse is it says on the box suitable for 8 year +#-o.

To be fair, I'd like to see an 8 year old child put the damn thing together, the body is nissan 350z style but all the panels are straight and require bending into shape (sometimes 3 panels thick) whilst simultaneously holding a bolt with an allen key in one hand whilst trying to place a tiny nut on the end and do it up with an equally tiny spanner with the other hand.
If this is the sort of thing 8 year olds are capable of building easily then our future engineering industry should be in safe hands.

Either that or I'm a completely useless twot :).

[kellyjo]

No, i totally understand. Ive got 3 kids so birthdays are always the same routine - they open present, i spend hours upon hours constructing said present, they play with it for an hour or two, it ends up in a thousand pireces again, never to be reconstructed :-(
IMHO lego is definitely the worst, my kids are bright and at the tops of their classes but they cannot get to grips with the instructions for toys below their ages even, and i consider myself relatively intelligent with an amount of common sense but these things take FOREVER.

If you're a twot Rowdy then you are not alone, i'm right up there with you :-)

[metalangel]

Micro Machines, guys. The biggest sticker sheet you've ever seen, hundreds of tiny little street lights, buildings, fences... and then the challenge of making it fold up into the car battery/toolbox/whatever it's all alleged to fit into.

[kellyjo]

I shall cross those off the xmas lists that are already forming then :-)

[454697819]

give em a brick... its what tim wilky used to get and it hasn't made him grumpy... more just opinionated...

[flymo]

isnt the point behind Meccano partly the building of said toy? Thats half the experience. Take your time and your kids might surprise you.

Or you could just buy a pre-built radio controlled car.

[MrTom]

I'm afraid I'm the winner here, I built this... http://www.nce.co.uk/news/structures/life-size-meccano-bridge-erected-in-liverpool/5206528.article

[rowdy]

isnt the point behind Meccano partly the building of said toy? Thats half the experience. Take your time and your kids might surprise you.

Or you could just buy a pre-built radio controlled car.You are quite right flymo, but I would be extremely surprised if an 8 year old could put it together, it took half the time to swap the forks on my bike at the weekend, and probably less of a fiddly job to do as well.

Oh and there are many pre built radio controlled cars knocking about in the house, the last of which was taken out its box and the rechargable battery pack ripped to pieces because my lad thought the batterys needed unwrapping (doh) so is now an unused useless ornament.

I saw the thread you put up about this a while ago MrTom, you are indeed the winner.
When is the series going to be aired? ( I live not to far away from the site of the Lego house, I hear the que to get in to see it is about 4 hours! so could probably take a meccano set and build it while you wait)

[Bluewolf]

.

[metalangel]

I remember my grandmother buying me a very fast RC car that I was far too young to be able to control. Batteries in, controller on, and immediately it went flying down the stairs.

Luckily it wasn't damaged in the plunge and my mother made her take it back to the store.

[slark01]

I never buy anything that requires alot of assembly. The reason is simple, i'm too damn lazy :-)

Ste.

[kitkat]

micro machines - nightmare
barbie picnic van - omg it took hours to construct. spent next 2 weeks hooving up tiny cutlery and wine glasses that were scattered throughout the house
oh and my pet hate - hot wheels stuff - kids watch adverts on tv with giant spiders leaping down onto speeding cars doing loop the loop. buy it. construct it and spend next few hours trying to get car to loop the loop after spending even more hours trying to get track to connect correctly. kids have given up after 10 min and spend rest of time driving wee car along the arm of the sofa.

woohoo nearly xmas again

[redbouy]

buy them a slot car set or train set, that way you can play and sod the little buggers

[sv-robo]

I know exactly what you mean mate,the amount of hrs i've spent building my 2 boy's toys up,only last month i built my eldest a bmx up:shaking:took me hrs,when as a kid i could knock one together in half the time:confused:

It seems the more hi-tech toys/bikes get,the more difficult they are to build up when they should be easier imo.

[Jayneflakes]

Working in a bike shop I am often confronted by middle aged engineer type blokes who are dumbfounded by a simple BMX they bought in a box for their kids. They struggle with them for hours and bring them into me and I fix them in ten minutes. I swear that some times you can see the blood boil. #-o

The rear suspension bikes that kids love are a real pain and often require special tools that cost a few quid. I am growing fed up with older guys pulling up in BMW's and then complaining to me that a Free wheel removal spline tool costs so much (£6.99!) and they should get it free. Do they own every tool needed to fix that shiny new BMW? Try arguing that point down at the dealership! :smt014

Sorry, rant over. Anyway top tip for you lovely folks with kids who are planning a new bike for Christmas. Order early, the trade magazine Bike Biz has reported a national shortage of bikes for a while now due to a cut back in manufacturing. Things should be back to normal by now, but some smaller shops are still struggling with stock. :flower:

[sv-robo]

Working in a bike shop I am often confronted by middle aged engineer type blokes who are dumbfounded by a simple BMX they bought in a box for their kids. They struggle with them for hours and bring them into me and I fix them in ten minutes. I swear that some times you can see the blood boil. #-o



PMSL......now i just feel stupid lol#-o

[MrTom]

Rowdy, the series starts in November and should run up til shortly before christmas.