The other price you pay when you buy expensive toys

Would you pay $300 for a toy dinosaur?

The Wall Street Journal wrote yesterday about how pricey toys have been taking a hit. The article mentions a $300 dinosaur toy made by Hasbro. This giant robotic dinosaur that moves and sniffs fake leaves and is big enough that your kid can climb on it, isn't selling as quickly as expected. Nor are any other toys in this price stratosphere.

Why would anyone find this surprising? The WSJ apparently did, writing that toy manufacturers and salesmen had expected families to not scrimp on kids' toys. However, with unemployment at a generational high, families are indeed cutting back on expensive toys, if not only for budgeting reasons, but also because that kind of profligacy is a bad lesson to children during lean times.

Toy sales, the WSJ noted, fell 5% during the holidays.

It's an insightful article, but as the parent of two daughters, five and seven years old, I think there may be another reason parents aren't buying expensive, elaborately-designed toys. They're too cleverly designed.