eBay

momcqueen · ‎12-09-2016

Reading this blog post, to be honest, I don't know whether to laugh at this woman or cry for her.

http://www.scarymommy.com/sara-gruen-hatchimal-resale-charity/?utm_source=FB

i.am.vivian · ‎12-19-2016

After watching the how-to video and reading through all the ingredients & instructions, I wouldn't be able to eat it either. Not because the cake is so charming, but because by the time I finally finished making it the whole thing would have gone bad. 😄

i.am.vivian · ‎12-22-2016

@mjwl2006 wrote:

Maybe, in a five years from now, all these kids will still be playing with their precious Hatchimals 5.0 and I will eat crow.

Those toys only came out in October and already there are 'hatched' ones up for sale, "like new" and "never played with", so not much danger of that. Good to keep an open mind anyway.

And if it does come down to it, here's a handy link to have:

http://crowbusters.com/recipes.html

The Crow Kebabs don't sound too bad. LOL!! 😄

momcqueen · ‎12-23-2016

Interesting retrospective. http://m.livingly.com/The+Most+Popular+Christmas+Toy+from+the+Year+You+Were+Born

i.am.vivian · ‎12-23-2016

Interesting link. And how toys have changed! The big things these days all seem to be something electronic, a screen that kids look at, not so much a toy they really play with using their imaginations.

A few surprises in there. I would not have guessed those "pet rocks" were THAT popular. It didn't do anything. It was a rock.

I was surprised that Twister was so popular. It demands a level of intimacy I wouldn't have thought most people would like.

And doesn't a "furby" seem like a prequel to the Hatchimal?

momcqueen · ‎12-26-2016

Speaking of the lengths parents will go to get that special toy in time for Christmas.....

http://mashable.com/2016/12/20/turbo-man-kickstarter-doll/?utm_cid=hp-r-52#OPKvwhL5cOqb

i.am.vivian · ‎12-27-2016

I remember that film, only one really funny scene where the parents fight over the toy. Most of it was dumb but kids shows usually are, and without the kids we could never admit we watch that sort of stuff on our own. 🙂

I'm not surprised they are making real toys of these, only that it took them so long to do it. If there are items to be sold at a profit, eBay is the place to do it.

I think it is so sad that a world of parents can be made to feel like failures if they don't buy just the "right" toy at Christmas. Very much First World problems. And the money that people will spend, and often people who can't really afford it. I remember the madness over those Elmo dolls. There were many stories of fights, even arrests for altercations because of that toy. I see a video like this one and think Band Aid's "Do they know it's Christmas" should play in the background.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3g7HXTLAeg

And I noticed here that the $15,000 Hatchimal "sold", but no feedback either direction so not sure if it was bought by a prankster who never intended to pay, or if someone actually decided to fund this person. "We've had a rough year", and so have a lot of homeless people who were never in a position to buy one in the first place. I must be worse than The Great Green Grinch because I can't help but hope all these people who so grossly over-inflated the price of that toy will end up unable to sell them at all. How many kids went without because so many adults thought they could rake in a huge profit as if there was no limit to what a parent could spend.

Grumpy today. And so, as mother used to say, if you're in a bad mood go eat something. 🙂

(I think it was go DO something, but I've never found that as satisfying).

momcqueen · ‎12-27-2016

Now this has happened.
http://www.scarymommy.com/some-hatchimals-didnt-hatch-on-christmas-and-parents-are-out-for-blood/

momcqueen · ‎12-27-2016

And this: http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/business/hatchimals-fail-to-hatch-1.3913379

i.am.vivian · ‎12-27-2016

Great links! Well I knew that was going to happen. Not exactly as it is being told, but with that many bleeping things and all the buttons to press and repress, this mode & that, I would have expected MORE of them to malfunction. I sure do feel sorry for the kids though. Not their fault, the world they live in gets their imaginations and expectations way up out of proportion. But to have the thing not work at all. I can only hope there were other good toys for them to play with under the tree as well. The hatchimal doesn't work but the Lego and the Disney Cars all work perfectly! 🙂

Some sad stories there. The 4 year old whose toy stopped working and now the kid thinks she killed it. The 2 brothers who each got a hatchimal, one of them works the other is dead. That will be TERRIBLE for the brother whose toy doesn't work. Kids are very sensitive about things like that. And what about the sound playback, I didn't know they had voice recordings. That video I saw about them a while back had me thinking it was just beeping noises. I would not doubt it at all if some did make cuss words as the article says. This happened a few years back, only I can't remember which doll it was. Some smart alec programmed it to say dirty words. Not just ONE doll, but a run of them, they were all recalled. These things are all made overseas in factories. Nothing surprises me.

Like the one person said about the Canadian company who makes these things and their poor beleaguered Customer Service office, "I think that they're not big enough to handle what they've done."

momcqueen · ‎12-28-2016

To be fair to Spinmaster, I found them to be quite conscientious and capable when I've dealt with them for minor toy repair/replacement issues as a parent. Just as I have Mattel. Hasbro had the worst customer service satisfaction efforts that I can recall. I currently have an issue with breakage on a Jazzware item we bought for Christmas so we'll see where they measure up in terms of offering replacement parts for easily-broken aspects of an average toy used by average kids. Imperial Toy Corp took some effort to reach but offered a replacement toy after mine stopped working last Christmas. Lego, of course, has legendary customer service that really cannot be exceeded. Ultimately, toy companies cannot afford to alienate customers in this day and age of blogs and social media. One person's bad experience gets amplified in ways that didn't exist 20 years ago.

And these toys in particular seem to have a potential to be rife with problems. Kids don't read user manuals and it sounds as if there is a trick to get these to hatch correctly. Unlike a ragdoll, for example, which you pick up and play with or building blocks which are just that.

I'm half tempted to pre-order one of these from Spinmaster just to see how awful they really are. I have three birthdays between now and mid-February. Six actually, counting all my nieces and nephews.

i.am.vivian · ‎12-28-2016

mjwl2006 wrote:
To be fair to Spinmaster, I found them to be quite conscientious and capable when I've dealt with them for minor toy repair/replacement issues

Yes, it sounds like it. Everyone in the article seems to praise the CS reps, just some wondering if they may have bitten off more than they can chew with the volume of callers. All those with complaints are being offered a replacement. Sure hope those work well.

mjwl2006 wrote:
toy companies cannot afford to alienate customers in this day and age of blogs and social media. One person's bad experience gets amplified in ways that didn't exist 20 years ago.

Exactly. And not just toy companies, but any place that risks putting out a bad product or mistreats customers, there's all that twitter and facebook, online reviews.

Not so sure about online reviews. There's a shop here with over 200 reviews and most of them all read the same. Every time a real person posts a mediocre or poor review, the store owner obviously posts a slew of outstanding praise reviews to push it on to page 2. 😄

mjwl2006 wrote:
And these toys in particular seem to have a potential to be rife with problems. Kids don't read user manuals and it sounds as if there is a trick to get these to hatch correctly. Unlike a ragdoll, for example, which you pick up and play with or building blocks which are just that.

This here "how to" video. As it goes along, my head spins with all the Press this, Press that, shake it this way, move it that way. For only a fraction of a second we are shown the extensive instructions that go with it. Even though I don't doubt that a lot of these things are cheap made-in-China junk and like the rest of its ilk won't work properly, I also have to consider how many people can't grasp the instructions. "How to play with your hatchimals."

http://hatchimals.net/

The clip also shows the toy singing "happy birthday", but I can't make out a word of English. Is it supposed to be English? Or is it supposed to be some made-up language of bird talk, some hatchimal language. It would make it more universal I guess. It might explain the "cuss words".

Like this, "rotten egg", lol!

http://vancouverisland.ctvnews.ca/rotten-egg-victoria-parents-say-son-s-hatchimal-using-lewd-languag...

i.am.vivian · ‎12-28-2016

Oh, I know what I forgot to add, with reports of these things saying dirty words, you'll notice in the "how to play with" video that one of the many many MANY features seems to be a recorder. Say a word and the hatchimal repeats it, but only in its own voice and not that of the speaker. The "rotten egg" video appears to show the toy speaking upon hatching, something I thought came later. But I am wondering WHEN the toys are allegedly swearing at their owners. I am completely sure that it could have been programmed in at the factory, but also could be done at home after hatching (as demonstrated in the video). A toy with a seemingly foul ~~mouth~~ beak is the sort of puerile thing some kids giggle about.

I googled "hatchimal cuss words" and some of the examples do seem rather extreme but they look "home grown" to my old and jaded eyes. Nothing to suggest they came out of the box that way. I don't think the toys should be blamed unless the toys are actually guilty. 🙂

momcqueen · ‎12-28-2016

I'd die of laughter if that happened to me. The toys are all supposed to speak their own invented and random language and I do believe it's a most likely coincidence if they hatch saying things that sound improper. I've been listening to children learning to speak for too many consecutive years NOT to have heard bad words born of simple vowel movements and experiments with sounds and syllables. Still, that's funny. It sounds clearly like an obscene command. That's hilarious.

momcqueen · ‎12-28-2016

Like my friend's daughter, age three: "Merry Kiss-@$$!"

momcqueen · ‎12-28-2016

Also, yesterday and today were still stat holidays in Canada. I haven't bothered trying to call any Canadian enterprise about anything.

i.am.vivian · ‎12-28-2016

Oh yes, that "Top 5 Quick Fixes" or whatever it is. I have to wonder if a lot of the phone calls were from people who simply didn't understand some aspect of the toy, including how long they can take to hatch. That video makes it look like it will only take a few seconds. Already many videos up about it taking too long. The company must have put up that Top 5 to try to filter out some of the user-centered problems from the toy malfunctions. Better late than never.

mjwl2006 wrote:
Like my friend's daughter, age three: "Merry Kiss-@$$!"

LOL!! That's funny. She'll be saying it again when she's a lot older, too. 😉

momcqueen · ‎03-18-2017

So here is an update that risks permanently destroying all my credibility for years to come. As well as publicly disgracing myself.

I just bought a Hatchimal for Easter.

The Easter Bunny is going to leave it behind for my three youngest children to fight over. Hatchimals now have been restocked in retail stores and are selling at regular pace for regular prices. I took my eldest shopping and she agreed the boys would love it although she also thought it was probably a toy that will sit unloved as soon as it finishes hatching.

(SFX: me choking on my pride.)

I will update you in a month with a user review of the hopelessly dumb thing.