20 most worthless pieces of junk: #16 -- Hobby kits

When someone gives you a hobby kit, grit your teeth and look out: Either your initial novelty with the pursuit is going to wear off, or the item itself is bound to wear out. Ideally, both things will happen at the same time.

This cycles back to the most essential quandary of gift giving, that most people give you things that THEY like, but that you probably don't. Still, when I received the balloon-animal kit, I had an open mind (even though the fear of pasty-faced clowns scarred me for life as a kid). "If I get good at this, I could make a tyrannosaurus rex for my preschool daughter," I thought. (She likes dinosaurs more than teddy bears, OK? Her favorite is the diplodocus.)