What a Rip Off!
I bought this Dora Easter kit for the kids and I was so disappointed when I got it out of the box. Here are some problems/issues that I had with the kit:
1) The packet comes with 2 sheets of stickers that you color yourself. It also comes with 4 small markers. The problem is, the marker ink does not adhere to the shiny finish on the stickers very well and it wipes off on the kids hands and clothes.
2) The kit came with two “folding surprise boxes” which basically ended up being two boxes a little bigger than dice game pieces. The instructions on the boxes said to cut out the boxes on the solid lines and to fold them on the dotted lines. There were NO solid or dotted lines on the boxes.
3) The set came with five “punch-out paper doll sheets”. These were so small. When I looked in the package I thought they were stickers or something. The pieces that were supposed to hold up the dolls were too flimsy to use.
4) Everything was taped inside the box. The sticker and doll sheets were very hard to remove and some of them started to tear when I removed them from the packaging.
5) The kit came with sequins. Were we supposed to glue these onto the eggs? If so, I think the kit should have come with glue.
6) The kit included one bag of Easter grass. I could not see the grass through the clear packaging, but figured it was inside where I couldn’t see it. Nope. Do you see that small roll of green looking tape? That is the Easter grass!!!!! I can hardly believe that they are calling that Easter grass. My daughter saw it in the box and kept asking me what the string was for. She wanted to make a bracelet with it.
7) The kit came with glitter glue. If you’re going to have glitter glue, then you ought to have a stand to put the eggs on while you put it on and so that they can dry without rolling around.
All in all, the kids had fun. We used the sequins and glitter glue to make Easter pictures.
I simply bit my tongue about the cheap quality and junky features of this kit and chalked it up as a bad purchase. Thankfully, this wasn’t an expensive bad purchase.
Have you ever purchased any of these kits? Did you have a good experience?
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POSTED IN: odds and ends
15 opinions for What a Rip Off!
JayMonster
Mar 24, 2008 at 7:49 am
Not to put too fine a point on this, but these “kits” have ALWAYS been lacking in quality, but I guess that is what the market can handle for basically a disposable type thing. Granted though, now that they are “made in China” (along with everything else it seems) the situation has gotten far worse, and “Q&A” for something like this? Ha! Your lucky if all the parts are actually in there and identifiable (as you noted with the “grass” that identification step is not as easy as one would think)
But to be honest, we stick with the original Paas kits. We will buy stickers separately that can be put on the eggs, cards, whatever else and not “pay up” for the Dora version (or any other version) of the eggs.
Karen
Mar 24, 2008 at 7:52 am
I normally don’t buy this type of stuff, but I got it on clearance. I won’t be buying another one of these kits, that’s for sure.
Maria
Mar 24, 2008 at 8:18 am
Your experience is why we colored our own as kids… no kits needed. IIRC, we used food color, but next year my son will be old enough to have fun with the color, so we’ll probably branch out in to natural die using things like blueberries.
Karen
Mar 24, 2008 at 8:20 am
The blueberries sound nice. I like to use purple onion skins. It makes a pretty color and it uses something you have left over.
I thought the kit would be cute since my kids like Dora and Boots. I was looking forward to doing something different that wasn’t so messy. Oh well. You live and learn.
Lindsey
Mar 24, 2008 at 10:05 am
Ouch. Glad you had fun though. The good thing about kids is that they can have fun with anything. :)
My family usually just gets the original paas kit that costs about a dollar, but we did something different this year. I saved onion skins, kale, coffee grounds, red cabbage and lots of other things that we colored the eggs with. They were very richly colored, although not as bright as the paas kit. My son really enjoyed it, and was happy to put the leftovers and scraps into the fertilizer pile. :) Happy Green Easter!
Tami
Mar 24, 2008 at 10:38 am
We stopped using fancy kits because of the junky factor. Use just egg dye or food coloring. Much better.
Sarah
Mar 24, 2008 at 12:30 pm
A thrifty tip - buck the “tradition”! My 5-year-old told me yesterday “Mom, what do jellybeans have to do with Jesus rising from the dead? Let’s not do that next year.” We have decided that from now on, we’ll buy some jellybeans but have them on a different day. The best part is that it wasn’t my idea. And I spend, what, $2 on a bag of jellybeans? There you go - a great way to save on Easter!!
Karen
Mar 24, 2008 at 8:30 pm
Sarah, I know what you mean. Some people may gasp at this, but I’ve never given my kids a traditional Easter basket. I usually give them a toy or something that I’ve gotten on clearance. They have had egg hunts at church and they get plenty of candy at church from their Sunday School teachers, nursery workers, and others in the church that just want to do something for the kids. I have never bought them candy for Easter or Christmas. They are happy with the little trinkets that I give them. We’ll see how it goes as they get older. I don’t teach my kids that Santa or the Easter bunny is real though.
If you’re looking for something to do with jelly beans, try this poem that I posted at my other site:
http://littlefunlittlelearning.blogspot.com/2008/03/jelly-bean-poem.html
I used this Wed night with the kids at church and we also used the Resurrection Eggs to tell the Easter story. Have you seen the Resurrection Eggs before? They’re really nice. They’re made by Family Life, but most Christian bookstores carry them.
Karen
Mar 24, 2008 at 8:33 pm
Lindsey: I have never used coffee grounds, but I’ve used purple cabbage and onion skins. I think I messed up in an earlier comment about purple onion skins, but I’m sure those could be used too. I learned about using natural foods to dye eggs when I was in 4th grade. We had to give a speech/presentation to the class and one girl showed how to dye eggs. It was pretty cool. It must have been, since I still remember it. I’ll have to try coffee grounds sometime. Thanks for the suggestion.
Karen
Mar 24, 2008 at 8:34 pm
Lindsey - BTW, what do you cook with kale? The only recipe I have is tuscana soup.
Danelle Ice (Homemaker Barbi)
Mar 25, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Thanks for posting this. They always make the items showing through the package window look so appealing… the items inside rarely live up to the hype! I’ve never bought one as bad as the Dora one though! (The Easter grass was the best (worst) part!)
Sarah
Mar 25, 2008 at 7:09 pm
Yes, we do use the Resurrection Eggs, and my kids love them. We do a comprehensive review of them on Easter after they’ve found them all from their various hiding places. So we still have the fun, but it’s meaningful and reinforces TRUTH.
Karen
Mar 25, 2008 at 8:41 pm
I’ve never used the Resurrection Eggs in an egg hunt. I’ll have to try that next time.
My kids were so cute the other day. They were hiding eggs in the house for the other to find.
Deb Ng
Mar 26, 2008 at 6:17 am
I know how you feel. I gave in and bought this kit that was supposed to make gold eggs - It was a glaze to put over the eggs to give them a gold like finish. It turned them all a pee-like shade of yellow and was a complete rip off.
Karen
Mar 26, 2008 at 6:28 am
lol @ the pee eggs!
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