Comments on: Why do toy manufacturers hate parents?

By: Video Martyr

Video Martyr — Wed, 29 Mar 2006 03:47:43 +0000

Modern day packaging provides several positive things:
A feeling of accomplishment - if you can get it open.
An appreciation of product packaging design - What robot put this together?
An extention of the anticipatory delight of the new toy - Because the toy inside will just break after 5 min of play.
The bemusement that a childs toy, which has been tested 9 ways from september for safe operation, comes packaged in what is really cheap electrical wire! - Will my daughter’s next Barbie be wrapped in Asbestos?
Finally, The shear benevolence of manufacturers providing tie wraps for the load after load of land fill sitting along my driveway waiting to be compacted.
Morale: Reduce, Reuse, Re-Gift!

By: richard whitcomb

richard whitcomb — Fri, 17 Feb 2006 04:23:33 +0000

On NPR one day they talked about neat gifts.
One of the neat gifts was something called OpenX - it is some special tool used to open those horrible packages - those silver twist ties, the plastic things, all that stuff.
So I’m driving the kids to school while I’m listening to this, and the 7 year old boy says ‘dad, what do you use to open THAT gift?’
Ha!!!

By: rebecca lopez

rebecca lopez — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 06:19:04 +0000

I know exactly what you mean. I know exactly how you feel. I have gone insane with those things on more than one occasion. I have wanted to relieve it of it’s box by hurling it across the room. I even encountered one that was SCREWED down!
They do it not only to keep all the peices in place and it looking nice..but to keep it in the store, unitl it’s paid for. Toys are a big shop lifting favorite, and it was common to remove the item from the box to make it more transportable, and easier to hide.

By: Mike Ward

Mike Ward — Wed, 18 Jan 2006 16:17:39 +0000

My wife and I have 2 small children; 5 years and 17 months. The new “rule” for birthdays and Christmas to our relatives is that “If you bought it, you unpackage it.

If we buy it, I have a small pair of side-cutters I use to get all the twisty wires off the packaging. It cuts the time by about 75%!

By: Genuine

Genuine — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 15:11:30 +0000

It’s a conspiracy by drug companies to sell more Prozac!

By: Chester

Chester — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 22:56:06 +0000

We’ve got 3 precious kids 8 and under. We stayed up late 3 or 4 nights before the big day and painstakenly removed the tape, wires, twists, clips, brackets, chains, glue, etc from the gifts and for some we neatly *put them back* into the packages then wrapped them.

That way on Christmas morning the kids could open them and simply take them out (just like how it should work).

By: The Elk

The Elk — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 17:07:04 +0000

Next time you find yourself engaged in the maddening process of freeing your childs toy from it packaging… thank a shoplifter. After all, they’re the very reason all that “loss prevention” stuff is there. What’s really funny though is that SL’s still manage to get that stuff out of the package and into a pocket while in the store. All it seems to accomplish is inconveniencing honest people. LOL! :)

By: Roland Gesthuizen

Roland Gesthuizen — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 15:02:15 +0000

Forwarned, the night before we removed nearly all the plastic bars and twist ties. After tossing all the cardboard into the recycling bin, the kids were delighted to discover the pile of cute plastic bars and ties. From the deritous of all our gifts there arose a new construction toy. (sigh)

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 01:12:53 +0000

That reminds me…my manager told me how for baby showers and first birthdays he always gives the parents a pocket knife/scissor tool so that they will be able to easily open all the rest of the presents the child get :)

By: Peter Norby

Peter Norby — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 07:03:43 +0000

We did a fair good job on cutting back this year. Not wrapping anything in stockings, using home-made gift bags for most things. But the grandparents sent in a veritable flotilla of tonka trucks and machinery that came in many cardboard and plastic contained units, not to mention all the wrapping paper. I think they accounted for well over half of our trash from that day. Luckily no wires or any of that junk. That stuff is dag-nasty evil.

-/\/