Time for a Toy Buyer's Bill of Rights

I gave blood this weekend. But this wasn't a noble act. I was just trying to open some toy packaging.

Now that Christmas is over, I can't help but think that maybe I should have just stuck with buying books and clothes for my daughters, who are 4 and 7 and, naturally, asked Santa for just about every toy imaginable. I tried to oblige and bought what I could, but now I'm rather glad I didn't buy more. There are already toys that I can tell are going to be part of the backdrop of their bedrooms, like untouched props on a movie set: they help create an environment but little else and of all their gifts, their favorite seems to be a computer game that their grandparents bought them.

Anyway, I'd just like to vent and offer some unsolicited advice to toy manufacturers out there. If toy companies actually took some of this advice, I honestly think they'd have a better year in 2009 than they apparently did in 2008, where toy sales were expected to fall by five percent.