So news of the Big Red Fella is popping up in our house and what’s going on lists and all that! Just wondering what toy could people not contain their excitement at getting and then being completely underwhelmed when you got it…for me it’s this joker….you would have wanted a stone crusher to grind the ice down…I’d say was used twice ever…that ad in the 90s defo oversold it!

https://i.redd.it/kl9eq7nnccvd1.jpeg

Posted by snnnneaky

26 Comments

  1. Ambitious_Option9189 on

    I always wanted a pottery wheel. One year my ma got one for my cousin. I couldn’t believe it. She didn’t even like things like that. It would probably have been a disappointment if I did get one though

  2. Got a whiskey decanter from a family member….. im early 30s, not retired. Don’t even drink whiskey at home.

  3. Printing_thoughts on

    The fact that I still know all the words to the jingle that went with that tv ad 30 years later is a testament to their marketing campaign

  4. TheDirtyBollox on

    Got a hairdryer, one year, which my mother stole the first chance she got and never gave back…

  5. Impossible_Hour_7548 on

    My cousin’s got batteries for their last year’s presents, I fell around the place laughing at the time, but it’s quite depressing really

  6. Dad sent me a picture of one of my old Christmas letters recently. My main ask was for something called Gaute Grand, and I have no clue what I meant. If Santa didn’t have Gaute Grand, [tomb of doom](https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/276572340401?chn=ps&_ul=GB&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=710-169260-534375-3&mkcid=2&keyword=&crlp=670833748941_&MT_ID=&geo_id=&rlsatarget=pla-325425753764&adpos=&device=m&mktype=pla&loc=9198456&poi=&abcId=&cmpgn=20488672762&sitelnk=&adgroupid=155578564071&network=g&matchtype=&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw68K4BhAuEiwAylp3kkuJvUOxPFvHPd-NVyU-OK1CuJGHs6ht4EEL405Gv45jvtTlmbCaNhoCQPcQAvD_BwE) would do instead.

    The most disappointing was when I opened a PS2 game I asked for and the box was empty. Another year, I found a jelly worm factory in my parents closet, assumed it was for me, but never got it. And I couldn’t ask about it because I shouldn’t have been looking!

  7. Oh man, I always wanted one of these 😆😆😆 but wanted other stuff more, I kinda felt like this would be a bit of a waste if I did get it!! One of the hardest decisions for a kid !!!

  8. Whatwasithinking79 on

    I got a remote control car. I was a married mother of two in my 30’s. I never once showed any interest in wanting one.

  9. Equivalent_Two_2163 on

    Are you Irish ?! I think we all wanted this & never got it. The ads on tv looked great.

  10. powerhungrymouse on

    I always really wanted one of those! Glad my parents didn’t waste money on it now.

  11. It was a simpler time. Christmas morning the sound of boys slapping their arses, shouting giddy-up, running along firing cap guns, filled the air.

    One Christmas I got the apex of gunslinger belts. Black, wide belt, holsters built into the belt, not hung on the belt by a loop, 2 guns, loops for bullets and bullets to go into them, thongs to tie the holsters to your thighs. I felt like a god that morning.

    Biggest disappointment was not my present. 3 of us had asked Santa for a battery operated tank. It was fairly big and controller by a whip aerial which worked like a gear stick. We had plans for battles with the tanks. Turned out I was the only one to get one. I loved it but disappointment was never getting to play those battles. It was years later I learned it was a struggle for my parents to afford it.

  12. Lazlow_Panaflex on

    Back in the late 80’s when I was around 7, I got the biggest coolest RC Monster Truck in an epic shiny red colour! It was the exact one I asked for and I was so excited and blown away when I opened it on Christmas morning!

    But, of course, the RC remote needed one of those square 9V batteries which wasn’t included in the box. Needless to say there were many tears. Me da says he always remembers that year as he felt so sorry for me. When I eventually got a battery a few days later, I was disappointed again when I found out how shitty the range/signal was on the truck.

    The next year however, I got an electric guitar and an amp with an effects box. Fuck yeah!! Still playing today all these years later.

  13. CaptainBrooksie on

    My wife claims I had an incredibly privileged childhood because I had one of these. She had a horse!!

  14. Oooh I have a disappointing gift story!

    I reaaally wanted this playset. I think it was hotwheels. It was like a truck or big van that opened up to show a little town with roads and small hotwheels cars to vroom vroom around. But there was one really cool part of the playset I was obsessed with. It was a car crusher at the junkyard part of the town. You put a little car in one side and slide it through and a car cube comes out the other. I of course thought it was really crushing the cars and was blown away and wanted the set for that alone.

    I asked for it for Christmas and I got it!

    Christmas morning and first thing I try was the crusher only to be myself crushed by the fact it was just pushing a plastic cube out the other side and not in fact crushing the toy car. I was devastated but put on brave face for my parents (it was time between kinda knowing there’s no Santa but not fully committing).

    The advertising got me, but still think about it like 25 years later.