Sunday, July 24, 2011

Dollar Store Toy Review: Table Of Contents

The Reviews:


Paddle Ball Bolo
The Ginormous Toothbrush
and the Crazee Jumpin' Beans Tumble Tray.

Xtreme Super Racer

The Airplane Shooting Gun

The Explanation:

I go to the Dollar Store a lot, as you know if you read this blog for more than about 5 minutes.

It's not always my choice to go there. Sometimes I just need something that I think is best bought at the Dollar Store, like a beach ball. Why would you ever pay more than $1 for a beach ball? Other times, I go there because Mr Bunches and Mr F love the Dollar Store slightly more than I do (if that's possible; I have a lot of love for a store that offers a selection of 14 different spatulas, all priced at -- you guessed it -- a dollar.)

The Babies! like the Dollar Store because of the ever-changing selection of toys, and because they are not limited to just one thing the way they are when we go to stores whose toy aisles feature things that were not purchased from a roadside stand in Xinhao Province.

I've come to learn that even in the Dollar Store, though, there is a wide variety of quality among the toys, and I've also learned that it is important to help the Babies! be discriminating about what toys they buy, because nothing is more heartbreaking than a kid who buys a great new toy only to find out it sucks. Try telling him "It only cost $1." To him, the cost wasn't just a dollar.

The cost was dreams.

That's not overstating it in any way.

Also, after posting THIS photo essay, I realized that a great many people had no idea what was happening there. Mr Bunches wasn't just soaking dinosaurs in water. He was growing them. That was when I realized that in addition to sometimes (shockingly!) not working that well, Dollar Store Toys are sophisticated things that require some explanation.

So a new feature has been added to this blog, and from time to time I'll be bringing my intellectual capacities to bear on these Dollar Store toys with the same attention to detail (almost none) and forethought (ditto) and dignity (is it possible to have negative dignity?) you've come to expect from Thinking The Lions.

1 comment:

anna. said...

this is awesome.