I may sound like a very old person, but toys these days are not the standard they once were. It didn’t seem that long ago that you could keep the same toy from the age of five until you were fifteen. You could drop your wooden toy car from the top of a multi-story car park and the most damage it would receive would be a few minor scratches to the paint work. Do the same with a toy made these days and it almost turns into dust. There will be so many broken parts that even an avid model builder would have a hard time putting it back together.

Some people might suggest that today’s toys are more advanced and have more technical pieces to go wrong. This is a pretty lousy argument however as there are some toys that are just as simple these days, and yet they still fall apart. Also, think back to when got old train sets as gifts, and the intricacies involved with the small parts and mechanics. These trains seemed to be built from rock. You could lay something on the line to derail it and it even when the whole thing came off the tracks, it still stayed in one piece.

So why are these toys being made to a low standard? Well, as you might expect it comes down to money. There are still some toy makers and distributors that provide good quality products, but they are sadly in the minority these days and most companies are more concerned with getting high volume of products, for low cost and built from rubbish materials.

What to do? If you’re buying for a girl, hunt around for the best gifts for her on trusted websites, where you know you’ll get quality. When buying gifts for men you’re more advised to actually go to a shop to take a look at the build quality. Boys like to test their toys to breaking point, so finding a toy that can take a pounding is imperative