Parents/Caregivers: What in demand gift/toy/craze did you fight the mad rush for?

Posted by XStaticImmaculate@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 10 comments

A clip came up on TikTok of the demand for Teletubbies toys in the late 90’s (shoutout to my grandmothers friend who managed to grab a La-La for me) - I also remember my parents saying they bought the Wii I got for Christmas one year in October because one became available. Whilst not quite in the same vain, I remember parents and relatives I work with desperate to find that Prime drink for their teenagers. Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles etc. what did you give into and battle the crowds and demand for - and did you win?

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10 Comments

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Ok-Bullfrog5830@reddit

I paid for a flamingo that sat on a fake toilet to go the bathroom. I’m not joking. I met someone who was a scalper on Facebook marketplace. Made her year.

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leabow@reddit

A few Christmases back my youngest wanted a Gotta Go Flamingo, a plastic flamingo toy that comes with a toilet. You feed the flamingo food (hydrophobic sand) and then it proceeds to tell you it needs the toilet, then does a massive dump into the toilet while singing a song. I searched everywhere for the bloody thing, paid a small fortune for it and for her to play with it once and decide it scared her 🙄

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emmjaybeeyoukay@reddit

I worked in Tesco's in the early 80's when Cabbage Patch Dolls came out. We would pull a pallet out to the shop floor with a cardboard surround and be followed down the aisle to the drop point by a horde of parents. As soon as the cardboard cover came off it was a mad rush. You'd get people having arguments about "I must have a blonde one". Then you'd be followed back up the aisle to the back-warehouse area and they'd try following you in demanding to know if there were more coming out. We had one woman literally asking every day for the time the delivery would happen. Madness

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Wubnado@reddit

I've not had this joy yet but my parents took ages trying to find me a Thunderbirds Tracy island

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DarkNinjaPenguin@reddit

Worth every penny.

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Wubnado@reddit

Oh I was and they'd really got me excited building the blue Peter one too.

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Barnagain@reddit

Robux and now V-Bucks. I've tried to explain how it's literally just paying for differently-coloured pixels on a screen, but no luck. :/ Fuck that evil shit

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LimeGreenDuckReturns@reddit

Not a "toy" as such, but in 2021, peak crypto mining season, I picked up an RTX 3060ti in April for my daughters 10th birthday in December then kept it hidden in a box the whole time.

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DameKumquat@reddit

None. Apart from various console games (never new ones), one advantage of autistic kids is they never want typical presents. On the other hand, sourcing what they do want can be tricky. A cuddly narwhal, for example. Out of print books. The hardest was actually a lump of coal, given London's a smokeless zone. Ended up with a friend of a friend's neighbour donating a lump and it got transferred via various people from Yorkshire to us, in time for Christmas. Kid still loves it, years later... And may become a geologist.

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