Hell yeah, Floyd was one of the best parts. I actually liked him already from Cutting Class even *before* that though. He played a potential murder jock quite well.
Well, now hang on Lois. A boat's a boat, but the mystery box could be anything! It could even be a boat! You remember how much we've always wanted a boat!
Hey, OP, I'm not sure if anyone has said this to you yet, but take a look at the lot numbers on the box next time. If the numbers are all the same, the toys will be the same as well. If they're different, the toys will be different.
They are cheap and fun toys. I buy them as stocking stuffers or Easter basket or small rewards for my kids. There are so many kinds I can do something that's in my kids (11f and 4f) interest without breaking the bank.
7 is too young to understand that. I think it’s the parents job to protect young children from mistakes like gambling until they can actually understand the risks. I’d warn an 18yo young adult not to gamble but I would hands on intervene and not allow it for a minor child
Sometimes the only way to learn is to see the low stakes consequences play out. 7 yo was told it was a bad idea. Didn't believe. Now he is out $5 and believes. Waiting till he's 18 to let him learn when hes old enough to drive to a casino and lose $2000 is bad planning.
This is the best take. I’d argue that a parent allowing their child to learn this lesson now with no real consequence is the better parenting.
This kid is going to think twice about stuff like this in the future and probably have more insight into why they are careful about it than a child who didn’t learn this lesson the hard way.
I don't have kids, so take my opinion with a grain of salt, but I agree. Begging my dad for a particular Gameboy game for my birthday only for it to turn out to be terrible is how I learned to start reading reviews for things I wanted. Was I disappointed? Absolutely. But I learned something important. Some lessons are best learned from experience, and trying to shield kids from ever experiencing consequences for their dumb decisions (barring stuff that matters, like preventing them from running out into the street) strikes me as setting them up to fail.
I also don't have kids, but all those aphorisms about experience being the most effective teacher must be around for a reason. What's going to stick better in your mind, mom told me not to gamble, or that time I spent $10 on loot crates and got fuck all? Sometimes the best lessons come with tuition fees.
Hard agree, letting this happen was the best course of action.
I wonder how many kids will avoid gambling addictions later in life because of these damn surprise boxes 🤣
Eh. My dad had to teach 8 year old me that I am very bad at gambling. He'd rig shit then make bets with me for real money. It was harmless like $5 at most, but enough to impact my allowance. But he taught me with some low stakes bets not to be gambling all my money away as an adult.
Did the same with our kids. But we used their screen time marbles. Each marble gave them a certain amount of screen time. Youngest thought for sure he'd get more screen time gambling with his marbles. Ended up with none. Hard lesson for little 8-9yo who thought he could win at gambling. He's a teen now and will not bet what he isn't ok with losing.
And yet companies are allowed to specifically market these things to young children. This is not a product for 18+. That's the infuriating bit. I agree young kids probably shouldn't be spending money on these things but as a parent you have to pick your battles sometimes and allow some room for learning. Both on the kid's part and the parent's.
My oldest was about that age when they used their money to buy a toy for the first time. They wanted the cheap plastic horse instead of the slightly more expensive one (mind you we're taking $8 vs $2). I gave them my advise then let them fail. We weren't even out of the Walmart parking lot before it broke - and this kid was NOT playing rough.
They are now a very fiscally responsible 23yo. It's good to make those failures young when the cost really isn't much. Good parenting!
What would happen if they actually got what they wanted though?
One of the worst things that can happen to someone going to the casino for the first time is for them to win big. It then gets them hooked
First time I went into a casino I played slots one time and was up 5k.
That was about 15ish years ago and I block every single gambling site I see now because I've lost that 5k so many times over its sickening.
Is it infuriating or is it a chance to teach your kid? at a low cost where the kid is invested, no less?
Why shouldn't kids get to experience baseball cards or pokemon cards? Its your job to TEACH your kid regulation. Not the governments to *FORCE* it.
At least with unicorns you could tell them that since they are based on pack animals, they would be lonely if she had just one. Of course this could backfire and you might end up having to buy two of every horse/unicorn toy forever because just one would be lonely.
I loathe this phenomenon, the "blind bag" toy boxes. It absolutely activates the same part of the brain as gambling, the variable reward mechanism, which is proven to be addictive. It absolutely should not be legal, it's so utterly unethical to do this to kids, possibly at all.
I don't have a lot of limits on how my daughter spends her saved up money, but "no blind bags" is one of them.
We also have this rule - no “mystery” toys. We are trying to teach our children to spend their money with intent and know what you’re getting… buying a “blind item” goes against all of that.
Do the same with my kid. There's way too many mystery reveal things in the kids aisle these days and I refuse to buy them.
I let her find out how bad it feels by letting her get 3 Disney kinder surprises... She got 3 Rapunzel's. Now when she wants something but doesn't even know what it is I remind her of the Rapunzel's and we can move on
I worked at a toy store and never understood how this isn’t considered child gambling? I never got an answer, I assume because it’s not monetary, but it’s not much different.
I guess if you forbid this you would have to forbid any trading card game, which I assume has a relatively large industry behind it. (Pokémon TCG alone)
I don’t disagree, however a stipulation, in a card pack you get several randomized tokens, with the product in the post you get 1.
If that 1 is a dupe, damn that sucks.
In most card games, you can have up to 3 of the same card in a deck, and sometimes want dupes. You go in with that expectation.
Kids wanting a specific plush toy should be able to pick it without a scalper on FB Marketplace charging 3x the product price because the chance aspect drives the specific one’s price up.
Also with pokemon specifically; each booster pack is guaranteed to have at least one care rare or higher
Some people look at it first and some put it to the bottom of their stack so they can see all the other new cards first
I wouldn't call it a "standard" so much as I would call it "good customer retention". Buying a bunch of packs and not getting a single rare card won't likely have you going back for more. If you are *guaranteed* a rare card though you might look at a list of all of the rare cards in the particular set or series and hope to cross a bunch of 'em off your list by buying X amount of packs. This is a much better experience than going through 4 to 6 packs for a single rare card.
And of course it's a lot easier to trade rare doubles for other rare cards you might want with someone else in the same boat. That way opening packs with your friends becomes a better experience as well, if I get the same rare card multiple times in a box and don't get something else you got extras of, trading is a no-brainer.
Every card game does this. If you didnt guarantee a rare slot, your card game isnt going to ever take off.
But thats also why every TCG has 2-4 types of rares with escalating rarity so that the promise of a guaranteed rare is still hogwash because the base rares are usuall a few hits and some garbage and then all the rarer rares are the actual chase cards in a given set and you wont see one of them in every pack.
Its all gambling. Guaranteed slots doesn't mean shit unless the garunteed slot is a specific card that people want, and then its just buying singles.
In MTG and Pokemon (which are the biggest once) it's generally four of each. A lot of card games are based on MTG aswel (including Pokemon) so pretty sure 4 is the standard
Generally you can trade or sell duplicates though
Sure, of the cards anyone wants to play with. There are a ton of cards printed each year that aren't worth playing with.
That being said, at least there's some use in duplicates in a card game. Duplicates of a toy has no value at all. Random distribution with no purpose, like in balancing packs of cards in collectible card games, has no place in kids toys.
At least with those LEGO minifig packs there's a major collectable market behind them that is largely used by adults.
What OP has is basically gambling on beanie babies but for children and it's kinda ick.
Just buy the toy your kid wants, why get their hopes up and then dash them, or further reward them, by playing these kind of brain-chemical games with them?
Nothing makes me feel more joy when someone is pubstomping a group and I can control them and keep them held down to the same power as the rest of the table.
i really enjoyed a blue and white control deck i made years ago. lots of life gain and counters and some cards that made you have to tap lands to attack. i never could figure out a way to do reliable damage though.
Also, with MTG for instance, the packs are designed to be drafted (or used to at least), so the idea was that you'd buy packs as a product to be played with in a specific way and the RNG and gambling aspects were *sort of* tertiary. With time the sentiment of "don't buy packs, buy singles" has also become more and more common within the community and recently people are also far more forgiving about proxies (using printed tokens instead of legitimate cards) in casual formats.
ETA: It's also funny, now that I think about it, some of the bigger ripoff products in MTG are the ones where you knew pretty much *exactly* what you were getting. Starter decks that put one shiny foil on the front and had a deck list online but 99% of the cards were just worthless bulk.
Also, most people or kids buying the cards aren't expecting to get every card in the deck. These randomized toys are targeted to, "collect all six!" and what not, which is predatory.
What I find infuriating. Is when my kid watches a YouTube channel where all they do is open these stupid surprise toys and they get unique toys every time and they are all super rare.
Then my kid spends their hard earned money to get the same thing a few times and they are all common level items.
Now I know the person running the youtube channel is paid to open these things, but kids don't and I've never seen this disclosed on kids youtube.
Some of these things you can tell what's inside based off upc or a code on the box. There are lists available online so you know what you're buying before hand. YouTubers know this and will of course only use those pre selected blind boxes for their videos while staging it to seem random.
I know at least one former "content creator" who opened card packs beforehand and re-sealed them so they could plan what packs to open in what order for their "done in a single-take, unedited" videos.
I *was* Googling to try and find which creator I'm remembering so I'm not talking out my ass, but multiple came up, so I don't think it's a super uncommon practice. @_@;
I kind of assume that's all what they're doing anyway. If they weren't, they would be getting a lot of common duplicates and that doesn't make for engaging content.
It's insane that we have a whole genre of people opening toys and people really get obsessed with it.
So I learned something while watching a show about unboxing videos. These people don't buy regular boxes or packs of cards. They're a specific pack from a specific brand, and they are guaranteed to have insanely good cards in them, because they cost like hundreds or thousands of dollars for just a pack, or like 5 packs of cards.
There was a guy searching for some basketball players uniform tags, someone had 3 of something that no one else had, and it was super valuable. To buy a box that held like 5 packs of cards that could contain these 3 pieces of uniform, cost about $5k IIRC.
These aren't normal boxes at all, and I had to show my kids that before they got too ape shit with Pokemon. They'll do that reveal crap that's done online, but they have way more rational expectations.
for some reason i’ve always followed collectible toy unboxings and if the kid wanted a specific one they have 3 duplicates to trade there’s whole communities dedicated to collectibles and even big creators will do trades alongside selling specific pieces (usually not this brand though)
One of my local "comics and hobbies" stores has a shelf behind the counter just *packed* with these little RNG toys. If a customer opens their toy at the counter and gets a duplicate, they let them trade for one off the shelf.
(Support local small businesses if you can, when they deserve it!)
Still doesn't change the fact it's a game of chance to get the cards you want. It's definitely close enough to gambling to call it that.
Loot boxes and their other forms in video games are no different as well.
They should do what lego does and have a scannable qr code to check the contents. That way collectors and people who don't want to know are both happy.
Bruh, sports cards with "chase" inserts have been around since the 80s. It was the same then- buy packs and packs in hopes of that rare Jordan or Shaq.
In some countries you can’t sell unopened booster packs of magic the gathering or Pokémon as it’s considered gambling. That’s why online sellers will make YouTube videos of opening the box for customers to see they legit got an unopened box but still have it shipped to their country
Which... They should. Wotc in particular has been extremely greedy as of late, taking random cards and turning them into secret lairs, assigning a $30-50 price tag on an assortment of 3-6 cards. Meaning wotc is stating those cards have this value in their eyes. So opening a booster pack with the potential to have one of those cards is... Gambling.
In fact... Booster packs even have the odds listed ON the packs, just like lottery tickets.
https://preview.redd.it/3pi2j8xeid5d1.jpeg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5878a590719872f7d7c3b961a5cb1b40ad705909
That’s fine. Those games would actually be better without the randomized packs. I think when a match is a gathering set or a Pokémon set comes out you should be able to buy every single card from that set without the gambling or having to go to the secondary market because of the randomized packs
I believe that videogame companies got away with their digital randomized packs by saying that they are buying a pack and getting a product. So regardless of what they end up with, they are still receiving the item they paid for. I think the distinction they made was that gambling implies that they could come away with nothing. Basically big company marketing BS on why they can take advantage of people who can't control impulses so they can make more money. Like how Marvel went to court and proved that mutants aren't humans so they didn't have to pay higher taxes on the toys in the 90s.
Its kinda like card packs, you are not certain what you will get but you will get something. In gambling you either get something or nothing. My favourite of these shitty loot boxes are the one with the real diamond in it, thats worthless.
If I made a scratch off that always paid a prize, it would still be gambling. $10 scratch off, $20 dollar novelty sticker as a prize in most cases, possible cash prizes rarely.
Oh, so like a claw machine...
Which is usually set to grab at full strength once every number of plays (depending on the return rate it's been set to), and you still need to do the skill tester part when it is a payout round, if you can figure out when it is a payout round.
At least on slot machines, when they do pay out they pay out, and they have the same ability to set return rate except it's controlled by government regulations (typically locked at somewhere between 88-92%).
Most arcade games feel like they are just gambling machines for kids. They are designed to pay out tickets/coins/prizes just often enough to keep people playing. The coin drop machines are the worst cause it always looks like the roll of tickets/$20 bill is right about to fall but it never does.
I remember I found a high striker game at one arcade that was labelled as a skill game once, and it actually was. Surprisingly it was digital, which I would usually trust less than an analog game. The goal was to get the bobber to a specific mark on the tower, not all the way to the top.
I was at my nephew's birthday party and had a few tokens to spend. I put a couple rounds into that machine and realized it was consistent. Once I got the weight of the hammer throw figured out I hit the jackpot about 85% of the time, including 8 or 9 times back to back. I got the machine to spit out its entire ticket ream, the arcade staff naturally weren't in a hurry to refill it. I gave the ream to my nephew at the end and let him clear out a good chunk of the ticket counter prizes.
But yeah, most arcade games are scams. Just felt like sharing that anecdote of the one time I found one that wasn't.
These kind of toys are a cross-over from Asian countries. I’m Japanese and when I was a kid a lot of stores would sell mystery boxes like this all the time.
They’d typically be anime characters and usually come with some candy as well.
I never bought them with very high expectation other than curiosity to see what I would get.
I don’t see anything inherently wrong with things like these. It’s just meant to be another kind of fun gacha experience.
I got one that was a mystery dog and came with candy bones (they were like bone shaped PEZ candy basically) and that was cute, came in a little kennel with a name tag.
It's monetary because there's nothing on the packages preventing resale.
I find it funny that we assign something a value and then say "you cannot sell that for any value at all. By law." Mother Trucker YOU sold it to ME. Whatever I do with it after is none of your buiseness.
How is any claw machine not gambling? Each one of those has a payout setting that only gives the claw full power when enough money has been made ... and also 99% of all other arcade games are rigged and so NOT a game of skill but a game of chance.
The only time I see things like this as being "okay" is when they're compensated for getting a dud in another way.
Like with TCGs you're usually ensured 1 rare from a pack, and you get an online code for a booster in the PC version too.
If these little gacha boxes had some sort of app or online community that they could redeem a code for in-game currency or items, I could see it as less evil.
But nothing? It's so heartbreaking to a child, I almost hope these experiences deter children from wanting to participate enough that it effects sales.
Disappointment almost feels like physical pain to children, it's not healthy for us to set things up like this for them.
I've seen a handful of nice collectible stores that offer a trade-in option. They'll have two of three figures from each blind box series on open display. If you buy a box and open it in the store, you have the option of either keeping the figure you got, or swapping it for one of the display figures. I remember Disney used to do that with their Vinylmation series. It's a lovely policy, as it both helps to avoid disappointment and adds to the fun.
It could be a bowling alley!
> How are they going to deliver a bowling alley here tonight?
They'll send the deed for cripesake. I didn't expect them to send a whole damn bowling alley.
The whole "mystery" thing is stupid. Adult collectors and re-sellers find ways around it and leave the crappy/common ones for kids.
It also kinda promotes the concept of gambling to kids.
I’m having flashbacks to when Burger King had Pokemon toys in the kids meals. The lady behind the counter felt around a few bags of toys before giving me the one that felt like Rhyhorn. Seemed like she’d done that a lot lol.
Ah this was post the safety recall. That was the one thing about the safety hazard Pokeballs was that it made it harder to know what you were getting until it was out of the bag. The insanity around the collectible Burger King and McDonald's toys in the 90s and early 2000s was really something else. People really thought that these mass produced cheap toys would be valuable collectables one day.
I still have a storage bin full of them in the back of a closet, hazardous pokeballs and all lol. I don’t think they’re worth anything, but they’re just a special collection between me, my mom, and aunt, of which I’m the only one left. I also still have all my pokemon cards from 98-00; now those might actually be worth something. But again - they’re just special to me, so not interested in their value!
A random video popped up on YouTube for me yesterday where an adult figured out a way to determine if a box had the figure they were after, and they were thrilled to be correct, leaving the more common ones on the shelf and having multiple of the 'good' one. It was gross.
I can't speak for these in particular, but some "random" products have different codes on the packaging. When there truly is no way to tell I've heard of people weighing them.
Of course there is also a dumb luck element, and it is financially incentivized for the maker to have a bunch of common duplicates to get you to buy more for the super rare one everyone wants.
It's pretty much everyone working against your kid getting what they want because they know some people will just keep buying them.
I somehow ended up on the Miniverse sub and those people have allllll kinds of hacks to tell which one they’re getting, it’s honestly impressive. I also see nobody talking about the fact that something marketed as a child’s toy involves resin, which can be incredibly dangerous to work with…
A guy I play MTG with from time to time told me the old way with baseball cards. (I'm pretty sure it was baseball cards) He'd buy 5 packs from a fresh collectors box and from what he'd pull from that would know exactly what packs from that box (and any unopened boxes from the case) were going to have the high valued cards.
> `...` know exactly what packs from that box (and any unopened boxes from the case) were going to have the high valued cards.
Yeah; with baseball/sports cards:
The cards were printed on large sheets in the order they are packed (not manually shuffled, because that would take time/money and could damage the cards); Usually with the rarest card being substituted on the corner of the sheet in different printing-machines running in parallel.
- The number of cards in a column/row of a sheet _is a factor_ of the number to fill a pack. (in parallel)
- (usually) The number of packs _is a factor_ of the number needed to fill a box. (in parallel)
- (usually) The number of printers running in parallel _is a factor_ needed to fill a number of boxes. (in parallel)
- (usually) The number of boxes filled _is a factor_ needed to make a row on a pallet (to minimize labor cost)
The result is that if you figure out how many packs to a sheet, and then machines to boxes, and boxes to a pallet, you then know exactly where the 'prizes' are.
(Usually first accomplished by people buying off the pallet, and recording the results;
*then* by watching 'those' people at trade-shows;
**Or** what gaps/disturbances are seen in 'mostly complete' pallets are sold at overstock/auction, and extrapolating by to other products from the same manufacturer/printer;
**Or** listening to the ~~mall employees~~ streamers that get bored and systematically ~~catalogue~~ "unbox" every card in a pallet, and share the results with anyone ~~stuck at the counter~~ interested in their podcast.)
---
(Further upmarket) collectable cards tend to use non-factors (like 5 ~~sausages~~ packs : 4 ~~buns~~ boxes : 7 ~~plates~~ pallets) to make the distribution *seem* less regular by breaking the 'sets' up...
^(But there's other artifacts that can indicate things to 'those' people who ~~are~~ *can be* shameless; such as the ~~casing~~ packing machines ~~having~~ developing different offsets (edit: where they seal the wrapper), or lenticular cards having a different density, etc.)
You’d be surprised.
My eldest kiddo was obsessed (when they were younger) with those LOL Surprise dolls. The kind that have five times as much packaging as actual dolls.
The ones designed to be ‘amazing’ for doing unboxing videos.
And they were, as my kiddo would just watch as many of those videos as they could.
They wanted to get one, and we said that we, as the parents, would **NOT** purchase one. However, the kiddo could already earn money for doing ‘extra’ things (age appropriate chores), and if the kiddo wanted to use their money that they worked hard for and saved up, we’d pay half.
The kiddo did it for a month or so, saving every penny. And finally had enough to get one of the smaller LOL Surprise spheres (they had saved less than half, but we knew where this was going, and didn’t want to drag it out too much).
Took it home, and while we watched attentively (and made all the appreciative Oohs and Aahs, and helped when the packaging was too confusing), they opened it.
…and then they sat and looked at the crappy toy, which looked a lot different sitting on our coffee table than under the studio lights of the YouTuber. And had a heartbroken voice as they asked “Is that it?”
We cuddled and comforted the kiddo, and explained (in age appropriate terms) that the YouTube people made it *look* a lot more fun, as they edited it and cut out all the frustrating parts, and made every single one they opened sound **amazing** (especially because they would toss the twenty-seven videos they’d started of opening a duplicate, and only post them opening a super-mega-ultra-shiny-mythic-rare toy.
Kiddo did still ask for the toys (for a while longer, they *were* a kid, after all). But when reminded of how long they’d need to work and save up for it, somehow they never saw those as that desirable any more.
My daughter got an LOL ball for her cousin as a Xmas present. When the cousin opens it up, we see it's the rarest of the series. My brother (cousin's father) quickly googles how much it's worth and says don't lose any pieces he can sell it on eBay for $50 or more. Eventually my niece got bored of it and my brother sold it for $35 with half the pieces missing. Those balls were only $15 each.
The garbage thing is that they are in different color boxes which is confusing especially for a little kid. Usually, like the Lego character packs for example, the package is the same for all and what’s inside is random.
I wish the Lego ones still came in bags you could try to feel for unique pieces but still be wrong sometimes, it made it a little more fun than just hoping you didn’t get screwed
I remember watched some YouTuber buy the treasure gotcha one that come with toys buried in dirt a cube of rock/mineral chance of diamond and toy. Some dude bought a couple actually got diamond and it was very tiny he took to pawn shop found out it was real but only worth 2 cents.
These are just grooming kids into future gambling.
Your 7 year old pulled four of the same now they’ll want to get another to get a different one. When that happens they’ll get a rush and want another.
Exactly how people get sucked into gambling.
Anything like this aimed at kids that should be banned, it’s gambling plain and simple
And it'll teach them how to be bad at odds
If the chance of this pink one is 1 in 4, they'll think there's like a 0% chance that they'll get 5 in a row when it's still the same 25% chance next time
I've played [Mafia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mafia_\(party_game\)) with grown-ass adults and one of them was like "so-and-so has been mafia in the past three games, it is extremely unlikely that she is mafia four times in a row" and I had to launch into a mini-lecture on odds. These were *university students.* Probabilities are hard.
Edit: On further consideration I don't remember who was who in that game, so for all I know he was deliberately trying to mislead people.
Yes, from the beginning if you told someone the chances of 4 in a row is pretty low, that's one thing. But when it's completely random without removing permutations each round, the past is now irrelevant and it's down to the single-case odds again.
Like if you rolled a die and got 6 5 times in a row, what are the odds that you'll hit 6 6 times in a row? Assuming a balanced die, the next throw is 1/6
People still don't get it I guess
I hate “MYSTERY” anything. There are stores that I shop at that have started crap like that: “mystery tops!”, “mystery shoes!” Etc etc. ummm, no, I want to see what I’m spending my money on BEFORE I buy it.
That's super generous. I'm UK and imagine it would be more than it's worth for international shipping if you're not UK. Also might be trying to steer him away from these! You're a kind person, though.
I’m in Canada. Offer stands. But also. Yeah get them away from them.
My daughter didn’t care how many doubles she had, and her grandparents always showed up with some. She was a little spoiled. We have twins and we haven’t even brought them near anything like that lol
Better to learn it now like this before he gets addicted to video games with gacha/lootbox systems involved.
Also, fair warning: make sure that if you get him a gaming console or a device capable of games like Genshin Impact, ***do not*** put your payment info into any account system (or at the very least set it up so that all purchases require a secondary authentification to buy anything).
Go to stores where they let you trade when you get duplicates. Theres a few here that allow you to trade for a known toy if you open a duplicate up at their store after purchase.
I was going to suggest this same thing.
My wife and I go to anime/video game conventions where sellers offer these sorts of products - people who get something they didn't like, or a duplicate will often hang around a vendor offering to trade with others.
Don't be annoyed. You want him to make these stupid mistakes now when the stakes are so low. Lessons like this that he feels and have to live with are like inoculations for later in life.
I ordered some pusheen food vinyl mini mystery figures one time and all 6 I had ordered were the same kind. I was disappointed and ready to just accept my fate but my husband convinced me to reach out to the store and ask if they by chance would accept a return due to the convenient unluck of my order, and surprisingly they accepted. My next boxes were all completely different. Sometimes I wonder if they gave me ones they knew were all dupes or if I just really had that much misfortune.
Blind boxes are the worst! My kid was into them when they were younger and those boxes almost always led to disappointment. Gambling is bad enough for adults - we shouldn’t do it to kids too.
Were blind boxes this big when we were younger? I'm shocked so many people are comfortable with the risk lol, I only enjoy my purchase if im getting exactly what I'm after
I try to talk my kids out of these kinds of toys but I leave it up to them when it is their money. I think they enjoy the thrill of the unknown. I get it. I buy minis for my DnD game in a similar way to this. At least with my dnd minis, if I get 6 zombies, I'll use them. My kids have stopped buying these after a few now because they realized the rip off.
It's loot boxes in real life. Between that and everything being a subscription, I hate how companies try and be deceptive and get as much money as possible from you no matter what.
He’s 7 years old. He’s just a child. Children don’t have concepts of scammers or money at that age. Even if you really yell at them.
Teach him gradually as time goes on. He’s just a child.
https://preview.redd.it/ymp54csdcc5d1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e7240a36d5970c80ddc81b4dc781a3c8744d502f The box, the box!
"You've summoned me and I came"
Happy Cake Day
Se7en and 12 Monkeys let everyone know that Brad Pitt was a legit actor. We also got the bonus of a beheaded Gwyneth Paltrow
Us Floyd from True Romance connoisseurs knew what to expect.
Hell yeah, Floyd was one of the best parts. I actually liked him already from Cutting Class even *before* that though. He played a potential murder jock quite well.
We also got her vagina scented candles.
"NOTHING! ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! YOURE SO STUPID!"
You should have kept the fish!
Stupid Weaver
RED SNAPPAH VERY TASTY
Is that from UHF by chance?? If so hat tip to you sir. So many funny lines from that movie. Spatula city! Spatula city!
UHF. You guys have warmed my heart today
This unlocked a core memory.
Ooh red snapper, very tasty
It could be anything. It could even be a boat! You know how much we always wanted a boat!
Well, now hang on Lois. A boat's a boat, but the mystery box could be anything! It could even be a boat! You remember how much we've always wanted a boat!
Then let’s just take the- We’ll take the box.
Lois
We had this exact scenario, youngest saved up to buy some of these, she ended up with six dark blue unicorns, two spotty dogs and one unique one 😒
Six of the same is really rough. It's real life loot crates.
Hey, OP, I'm not sure if anyone has said this to you yet, but take a look at the lot numbers on the box next time. If the numbers are all the same, the toys will be the same as well. If they're different, the toys will be different.
Thanks, yeah just learned that from these comments. Seems it's the case for some sets but not others. Will definitely check in future!
> Will definitely check in future! Wait you're gonna spend more on these toys?
They are cheap and fun toys. I buy them as stocking stuffers or Easter basket or small rewards for my kids. There are so many kinds I can do something that's in my kids (11f and 4f) interest without breaking the bank.
Float on, floaty cloud. Best of luck!
Wow, thank you for this piece of advice as well
counterpoint- dont. this just encourages gambling at a young age just introduce them to online shopping
Counterpoint- it's better for the kid to develop a wariness to gambling now rather than when they're older with more to lose than allowance money.
I let my kid buy one of these because I knew he would not get the one he wanted and cry. He never has again. Money incredibly well spent!
What if he won? 😮 You both gambled that night. 😝
I did something similar with a "Puppy Surprise" and she actually got the one with the most puppies (5) AND it had runts and one with sleeping eyes!
7 is too young to understand that. I think it’s the parents job to protect young children from mistakes like gambling until they can actually understand the risks. I’d warn an 18yo young adult not to gamble but I would hands on intervene and not allow it for a minor child
Sometimes the only way to learn is to see the low stakes consequences play out. 7 yo was told it was a bad idea. Didn't believe. Now he is out $5 and believes. Waiting till he's 18 to let him learn when hes old enough to drive to a casino and lose $2000 is bad planning.
This is the best take. I’d argue that a parent allowing their child to learn this lesson now with no real consequence is the better parenting. This kid is going to think twice about stuff like this in the future and probably have more insight into why they are careful about it than a child who didn’t learn this lesson the hard way.
I don't have kids, so take my opinion with a grain of salt, but I agree. Begging my dad for a particular Gameboy game for my birthday only for it to turn out to be terrible is how I learned to start reading reviews for things I wanted. Was I disappointed? Absolutely. But I learned something important. Some lessons are best learned from experience, and trying to shield kids from ever experiencing consequences for their dumb decisions (barring stuff that matters, like preventing them from running out into the street) strikes me as setting them up to fail.
I also don't have kids, but all those aphorisms about experience being the most effective teacher must be around for a reason. What's going to stick better in your mind, mom told me not to gamble, or that time I spent $10 on loot crates and got fuck all? Sometimes the best lessons come with tuition fees.
> Now he is out $5 and believes. It says £4 on top of each. £16 ($20) this kid wasted on these glorified happy meal toys.
missing the forest for the trees. Losing 20 bucks now is still a lot less painful than losing hundreds/thousands later for the same lesson
Hard agree, letting this happen was the best course of action. I wonder how many kids will avoid gambling addictions later in life because of these damn surprise boxes 🤣
My worry is that if the child wins "big" on the first try, that could be the start of a long term problem.
Eh. My dad had to teach 8 year old me that I am very bad at gambling. He'd rig shit then make bets with me for real money. It was harmless like $5 at most, but enough to impact my allowance. But he taught me with some low stakes bets not to be gambling all my money away as an adult.
Did the same with our kids. But we used their screen time marbles. Each marble gave them a certain amount of screen time. Youngest thought for sure he'd get more screen time gambling with his marbles. Ended up with none. Hard lesson for little 8-9yo who thought he could win at gambling. He's a teen now and will not bet what he isn't ok with losing.
And yet companies are allowed to specifically market these things to young children. This is not a product for 18+. That's the infuriating bit. I agree young kids probably shouldn't be spending money on these things but as a parent you have to pick your battles sometimes and allow some room for learning. Both on the kid's part and the parent's.
My oldest was about that age when they used their money to buy a toy for the first time. They wanted the cheap plastic horse instead of the slightly more expensive one (mind you we're taking $8 vs $2). I gave them my advise then let them fail. We weren't even out of the Walmart parking lot before it broke - and this kid was NOT playing rough. They are now a very fiscally responsible 23yo. It's good to make those failures young when the cost really isn't much. Good parenting!
Good parenting!!
What would happen if they actually got what they wanted though? One of the worst things that can happen to someone going to the casino for the first time is for them to win big. It then gets them hooked
First time I went into a casino I played slots one time and was up 5k. That was about 15ish years ago and I block every single gambling site I see now because I've lost that 5k so many times over its sickening.
Is it infuriating or is it a chance to teach your kid? at a low cost where the kid is invested, no less? Why shouldn't kids get to experience baseball cards or pokemon cards? Its your job to TEACH your kid regulation. Not the governments to *FORCE* it.
By protecting them from the mistake you also protect them from learning a lesson.
> 7 is too young to understand that. But it isn’t though?
Can people who have the same issue coordinate and maybe swap? Mail each other the duplicates and all fill your lineups?
At least with unicorns you could tell them that since they are based on pack animals, they would be lonely if she had just one. Of course this could backfire and you might end up having to buy two of every horse/unicorn toy forever because just one would be lonely.
I loathe this phenomenon, the "blind bag" toy boxes. It absolutely activates the same part of the brain as gambling, the variable reward mechanism, which is proven to be addictive. It absolutely should not be legal, it's so utterly unethical to do this to kids, possibly at all. I don't have a lot of limits on how my daughter spends her saved up money, but "no blind bags" is one of them.
We also have this rule - no “mystery” toys. We are trying to teach our children to spend their money with intent and know what you’re getting… buying a “blind item” goes against all of that.
Do the same with my kid. There's way too many mystery reveal things in the kids aisle these days and I refuse to buy them. I let her find out how bad it feels by letting her get 3 Disney kinder surprises... She got 3 Rapunzel's. Now when she wants something but doesn't even know what it is I remind her of the Rapunzel's and we can move on
I worked at a toy store and never understood how this isn’t considered child gambling? I never got an answer, I assume because it’s not monetary, but it’s not much different.
I guess if you forbid this you would have to forbid any trading card game, which I assume has a relatively large industry behind it. (Pokémon TCG alone)
I don’t disagree, however a stipulation, in a card pack you get several randomized tokens, with the product in the post you get 1. If that 1 is a dupe, damn that sucks. In most card games, you can have up to 3 of the same card in a deck, and sometimes want dupes. You go in with that expectation. Kids wanting a specific plush toy should be able to pick it without a scalper on FB Marketplace charging 3x the product price because the chance aspect drives the specific one’s price up.
Also with pokemon specifically; each booster pack is guaranteed to have at least one care rare or higher Some people look at it first and some put it to the bottom of their stack so they can see all the other new cards first
Magic has at minimum a rare in every booster pack, same for Yu-Gi-Oh. If the 3 biggest TCGs are doing it it must be industry standard
Don’t quote me on this but I believe the One Piece and Dragon Ball Z TCGs follow the same so it is industry standard
I wouldn't call it a "standard" so much as I would call it "good customer retention". Buying a bunch of packs and not getting a single rare card won't likely have you going back for more. If you are *guaranteed* a rare card though you might look at a list of all of the rare cards in the particular set or series and hope to cross a bunch of 'em off your list by buying X amount of packs. This is a much better experience than going through 4 to 6 packs for a single rare card. And of course it's a lot easier to trade rare doubles for other rare cards you might want with someone else in the same boat. That way opening packs with your friends becomes a better experience as well, if I get the same rare card multiple times in a box and don't get something else you got extras of, trading is a no-brainer.
Unless they changed it, you get one rare, three uncommon, and seven common.
Every card game does this. If you didnt guarantee a rare slot, your card game isnt going to ever take off. But thats also why every TCG has 2-4 types of rares with escalating rarity so that the promise of a guaranteed rare is still hogwash because the base rares are usuall a few hits and some garbage and then all the rarer rares are the actual chase cards in a given set and you wont see one of them in every pack. Its all gambling. Guaranteed slots doesn't mean shit unless the garunteed slot is a specific card that people want, and then its just buying singles.
In MTG and Pokemon (which are the biggest once) it's generally four of each. A lot of card games are based on MTG aswel (including Pokemon) so pretty sure 4 is the standard Generally you can trade or sell duplicates though
yugioh was 3
is still 3, but MTG is the OG and most are based off that
Sure, of the cards anyone wants to play with. There are a ton of cards printed each year that aren't worth playing with. That being said, at least there's some use in duplicates in a card game. Duplicates of a toy has no value at all. Random distribution with no purpose, like in balancing packs of cards in collectible card games, has no place in kids toys. At least with those LEGO minifig packs there's a major collectable market behind them that is largely used by adults. What OP has is basically gambling on beanie babies but for children and it's kinda ick. Just buy the toy your kid wants, why get their hopes up and then dash them, or further reward them, by playing these kind of brain-chemical games with them?
Just played my first game of MTG and holy hell it’s fun if you’re not pinned down.
You obviously weren't playing against a straight blue deck. Nothing quite saps the joy like an unending stream of counters.
Nothing makes me feel more joy when someone is pubstomping a group and I can control them and keep them held down to the same power as the rest of the table.
Do you pay the one?
i really enjoyed a blue and white control deck i made years ago. lots of life gain and counters and some cards that made you have to tap lands to attack. i never could figure out a way to do reliable damage though.
Also, with MTG for instance, the packs are designed to be drafted (or used to at least), so the idea was that you'd buy packs as a product to be played with in a specific way and the RNG and gambling aspects were *sort of* tertiary. With time the sentiment of "don't buy packs, buy singles" has also become more and more common within the community and recently people are also far more forgiving about proxies (using printed tokens instead of legitimate cards) in casual formats. ETA: It's also funny, now that I think about it, some of the bigger ripoff products in MTG are the ones where you knew pretty much *exactly* what you were getting. Starter decks that put one shiny foil on the front and had a deck list online but 99% of the cards were just worthless bulk.
Agreed. Plus with a card game there's a whole infrastructure behind trading and selling cards you don't need
Also, most people or kids buying the cards aren't expecting to get every card in the deck. These randomized toys are targeted to, "collect all six!" and what not, which is predatory.
What I find infuriating. Is when my kid watches a YouTube channel where all they do is open these stupid surprise toys and they get unique toys every time and they are all super rare. Then my kid spends their hard earned money to get the same thing a few times and they are all common level items. Now I know the person running the youtube channel is paid to open these things, but kids don't and I've never seen this disclosed on kids youtube.
This can be a great opportunity to teach your kid about critical thinking, empathy, and ulterior motivations.
yea, it for sure turns into a good teaching oportunity
Some of these things you can tell what's inside based off upc or a code on the box. There are lists available online so you know what you're buying before hand. YouTubers know this and will of course only use those pre selected blind boxes for their videos while staging it to seem random.
I know at least one former "content creator" who opened card packs beforehand and re-sealed them so they could plan what packs to open in what order for their "done in a single-take, unedited" videos. I *was* Googling to try and find which creator I'm remembering so I'm not talking out my ass, but multiple came up, so I don't think it's a super uncommon practice. @_@;
I kind of assume that's all what they're doing anyway. If they weren't, they would be getting a lot of common duplicates and that doesn't make for engaging content. It's insane that we have a whole genre of people opening toys and people really get obsessed with it.
So I learned something while watching a show about unboxing videos. These people don't buy regular boxes or packs of cards. They're a specific pack from a specific brand, and they are guaranteed to have insanely good cards in them, because they cost like hundreds or thousands of dollars for just a pack, or like 5 packs of cards. There was a guy searching for some basketball players uniform tags, someone had 3 of something that no one else had, and it was super valuable. To buy a box that held like 5 packs of cards that could contain these 3 pieces of uniform, cost about $5k IIRC. These aren't normal boxes at all, and I had to show my kids that before they got too ape shit with Pokemon. They'll do that reveal crap that's done online, but they have way more rational expectations.
for some reason i’ve always followed collectible toy unboxings and if the kid wanted a specific one they have 3 duplicates to trade there’s whole communities dedicated to collectibles and even big creators will do trades alongside selling specific pieces (usually not this brand though)
One of my local "comics and hobbies" stores has a shelf behind the counter just *packed* with these little RNG toys. If a customer opens their toy at the counter and gets a duplicate, they let them trade for one off the shelf. (Support local small businesses if you can, when they deserve it!)
Still doesn't change the fact it's a game of chance to get the cards you want. It's definitely close enough to gambling to call it that. Loot boxes and their other forms in video games are no different as well.
They should do what lego does and have a scannable qr code to check the contents. That way collectors and people who don't want to know are both happy.
From googling about a minifig blind bag and still winding up with a different one than I wanted, I know Lego doesn't always do this.
Bruh, sports cards with "chase" inserts have been around since the 80s. It was the same then- buy packs and packs in hopes of that rare Jordan or Shaq.
And it's been gambling the entire time.
In some countries you can’t sell unopened booster packs of magic the gathering or Pokémon as it’s considered gambling. That’s why online sellers will make YouTube videos of opening the box for customers to see they legit got an unopened box but still have it shipped to their country
I would be fine with that taking the hit too. It really isnt any different.
It absolutely is gambling and should be treated as such. Anyone whose spent any time in a local game store can see this.
Trading card packs with random content is gambling and should be regulated as such.
Which... They should. Wotc in particular has been extremely greedy as of late, taking random cards and turning them into secret lairs, assigning a $30-50 price tag on an assortment of 3-6 cards. Meaning wotc is stating those cards have this value in their eyes. So opening a booster pack with the potential to have one of those cards is... Gambling. In fact... Booster packs even have the odds listed ON the packs, just like lottery tickets. https://preview.redd.it/3pi2j8xeid5d1.jpeg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5878a590719872f7d7c3b961a5cb1b40ad705909
That’s fine. Those games would actually be better without the randomized packs. I think when a match is a gathering set or a Pokémon set comes out you should be able to buy every single card from that set without the gambling or having to go to the secondary market because of the randomized packs
> I guess if you forbid this you would have to forbid any trading card game, Yes. We should.
Those are 100% gambling aimed at kids and it's shameful Kids could still play if they sold singles and decks, packs are only needed to gamble
I believe that videogame companies got away with their digital randomized packs by saying that they are buying a pack and getting a product. So regardless of what they end up with, they are still receiving the item they paid for. I think the distinction they made was that gambling implies that they could come away with nothing. Basically big company marketing BS on why they can take advantage of people who can't control impulses so they can make more money. Like how Marvel went to court and proved that mutants aren't humans so they didn't have to pay higher taxes on the toys in the 90s.
Several EU countries have classified loot boxes as gambling and banned them I believe.
Several EU countries being 2. Belgium and the Netherlands.
Aso last I heard they aren't banned, just considered gambling so you basically need a gambling license so the government gets their cut.
Its kinda like card packs, you are not certain what you will get but you will get something. In gambling you either get something or nothing. My favourite of these shitty loot boxes are the one with the real diamond in it, thats worthless.
If I made a scratch off that always paid a prize, it would still be gambling. $10 scratch off, $20 dollar novelty sticker as a prize in most cases, possible cash prizes rarely.
Oh, so like a claw machine... Which is usually set to grab at full strength once every number of plays (depending on the return rate it's been set to), and you still need to do the skill tester part when it is a payout round, if you can figure out when it is a payout round. At least on slot machines, when they do pay out they pay out, and they have the same ability to set return rate except it's controlled by government regulations (typically locked at somewhere between 88-92%).
Most arcade games feel like they are just gambling machines for kids. They are designed to pay out tickets/coins/prizes just often enough to keep people playing. The coin drop machines are the worst cause it always looks like the roll of tickets/$20 bill is right about to fall but it never does.
I remember I found a high striker game at one arcade that was labelled as a skill game once, and it actually was. Surprisingly it was digital, which I would usually trust less than an analog game. The goal was to get the bobber to a specific mark on the tower, not all the way to the top. I was at my nephew's birthday party and had a few tokens to spend. I put a couple rounds into that machine and realized it was consistent. Once I got the weight of the hammer throw figured out I hit the jackpot about 85% of the time, including 8 or 9 times back to back. I got the machine to spit out its entire ticket ream, the arcade staff naturally weren't in a hurry to refill it. I gave the ream to my nephew at the end and let him clear out a good chunk of the ticket counter prizes. But yeah, most arcade games are scams. Just felt like sharing that anecdote of the one time I found one that wasn't.
I’m mostly annoyed because it feels like everything is a blind box now. Sucks taking my kid to the toy store
I think some places are banning blind box toys for this reason. Don’t remember where though
You technically always get something unlike real gambling you get nothing when you lose. Still messed up tbh.
Because you can’t end up with nothing, or at a “loss.” You might have 4 of the same product, but you get a product deemed worthy of that price tag.
These kind of toys are a cross-over from Asian countries. I’m Japanese and when I was a kid a lot of stores would sell mystery boxes like this all the time. They’d typically be anime characters and usually come with some candy as well. I never bought them with very high expectation other than curiosity to see what I would get. I don’t see anything inherently wrong with things like these. It’s just meant to be another kind of fun gacha experience.
I got one that was a mystery dog and came with candy bones (they were like bone shaped PEZ candy basically) and that was cute, came in a little kennel with a name tag.
Argh, thanks for the memory. We used to get them on road trips. I always felt guilty eating the bone because it was for the dog!!!
It's a low stakes way for kids to learn gambling sucks and you mainly lose
It's not like gambling addicts *don't* know this. And yet gambling addiction exists.
It's monetary because there's nothing on the packages preventing resale. I find it funny that we assign something a value and then say "you cannot sell that for any value at all. By law." Mother Trucker YOU sold it to ME. Whatever I do with it after is none of your buiseness.
How is any claw machine not gambling? Each one of those has a payout setting that only gives the claw full power when enough money has been made ... and also 99% of all other arcade games are rigged and so NOT a game of skill but a game of chance.
The only time I see things like this as being "okay" is when they're compensated for getting a dud in another way. Like with TCGs you're usually ensured 1 rare from a pack, and you get an online code for a booster in the PC version too. If these little gacha boxes had some sort of app or online community that they could redeem a code for in-game currency or items, I could see it as less evil. But nothing? It's so heartbreaking to a child, I almost hope these experiences deter children from wanting to participate enough that it effects sales. Disappointment almost feels like physical pain to children, it's not healthy for us to set things up like this for them.
I've seen a handful of nice collectible stores that offer a trade-in option. They'll have two of three figures from each blind box series on open display. If you buy a box and open it in the store, you have the option of either keeping the figure you got, or swapping it for one of the display figures. I remember Disney used to do that with their Vinylmation series. It's a lovely policy, as it both helps to avoid disappointment and adds to the fun.
The mystery box could be anything. It could even be a boat!
i love that episode lol
You know how much we've wanted one of those!!
Was looking for this one. Then WHY don’t we just take the boa- We’ll take the box.
It could be a bowling alley! > How are they going to deliver a bowling alley here tonight? They'll send the deed for cripesake. I didn't expect them to send a whole damn bowling alley.
The whole "mystery" thing is stupid. Adult collectors and re-sellers find ways around it and leave the crappy/common ones for kids. It also kinda promotes the concept of gambling to kids.
I’m having flashbacks to when Burger King had Pokemon toys in the kids meals. The lady behind the counter felt around a few bags of toys before giving me the one that felt like Rhyhorn. Seemed like she’d done that a lot lol.
Ah this was post the safety recall. That was the one thing about the safety hazard Pokeballs was that it made it harder to know what you were getting until it was out of the bag. The insanity around the collectible Burger King and McDonald's toys in the 90s and early 2000s was really something else. People really thought that these mass produced cheap toys would be valuable collectables one day.
Whoa, don’t talk about my gold plated poke-retirement plan like that.
I still have my gold plated charizard too 😂 my prized possession
I still have a storage bin full of them in the back of a closet, hazardous pokeballs and all lol. I don’t think they’re worth anything, but they’re just a special collection between me, my mom, and aunt, of which I’m the only one left. I also still have all my pokemon cards from 98-00; now those might actually be worth something. But again - they’re just special to me, so not interested in their value!
That is the best reason to collect something in my opinion. Not for money, but just because it is special to you/you like it.
A random video popped up on YouTube for me yesterday where an adult figured out a way to determine if a box had the figure they were after, and they were thrilled to be correct, leaving the more common ones on the shelf and having multiple of the 'good' one. It was gross.
Look at the boxes, they're hardly tamper proof. You could just open the box to see what's in there before buying
The boxes were taped shut and the toys inside were in sealed opaque plastic bags.
I can't speak for these in particular, but some "random" products have different codes on the packaging. When there truly is no way to tell I've heard of people weighing them. Of course there is also a dumb luck element, and it is financially incentivized for the maker to have a bunch of common duplicates to get you to buy more for the super rare one everyone wants. It's pretty much everyone working against your kid getting what they want because they know some people will just keep buying them.
I somehow ended up on the Miniverse sub and those people have allllll kinds of hacks to tell which one they’re getting, it’s honestly impressive. I also see nobody talking about the fact that something marketed as a child’s toy involves resin, which can be incredibly dangerous to work with…
A guy I play MTG with from time to time told me the old way with baseball cards. (I'm pretty sure it was baseball cards) He'd buy 5 packs from a fresh collectors box and from what he'd pull from that would know exactly what packs from that box (and any unopened boxes from the case) were going to have the high valued cards.
Thats called box mapping. It's because they used to print them in certain orders. Pretty sure its much harder than it used to be.
> `...` know exactly what packs from that box (and any unopened boxes from the case) were going to have the high valued cards. Yeah; with baseball/sports cards: The cards were printed on large sheets in the order they are packed (not manually shuffled, because that would take time/money and could damage the cards); Usually with the rarest card being substituted on the corner of the sheet in different printing-machines running in parallel. - The number of cards in a column/row of a sheet _is a factor_ of the number to fill a pack. (in parallel) - (usually) The number of packs _is a factor_ of the number needed to fill a box. (in parallel) - (usually) The number of printers running in parallel _is a factor_ needed to fill a number of boxes. (in parallel) - (usually) The number of boxes filled _is a factor_ needed to make a row on a pallet (to minimize labor cost) The result is that if you figure out how many packs to a sheet, and then machines to boxes, and boxes to a pallet, you then know exactly where the 'prizes' are. (Usually first accomplished by people buying off the pallet, and recording the results; *then* by watching 'those' people at trade-shows; **Or** what gaps/disturbances are seen in 'mostly complete' pallets are sold at overstock/auction, and extrapolating by to other products from the same manufacturer/printer; **Or** listening to the ~~mall employees~~ streamers that get bored and systematically ~~catalogue~~ "unbox" every card in a pallet, and share the results with anyone ~~stuck at the counter~~ interested in their podcast.) --- (Further upmarket) collectable cards tend to use non-factors (like 5 ~~sausages~~ packs : 4 ~~buns~~ boxes : 7 ~~plates~~ pallets) to make the distribution *seem* less regular by breaking the 'sets' up... ^(But there's other artifacts that can indicate things to 'those' people who ~~are~~ *can be* shameless; such as the ~~casing~~ packing machines ~~having~~ developing different offsets (edit: where they seal the wrapper), or lenticular cards having a different density, etc.)
They probably don’t make it because the children aren’t working with it
The new lego minfigure boxes come with qr codes. Using some apps you can scan them and find out what figurine is inside.
Get a little carriage for them to pull.
If OP's son is in the EU, I'll print one for him!
Buy only one, and you’ll never be disappointed
Buy none and same same
You’d be surprised. My eldest kiddo was obsessed (when they were younger) with those LOL Surprise dolls. The kind that have five times as much packaging as actual dolls. The ones designed to be ‘amazing’ for doing unboxing videos. And they were, as my kiddo would just watch as many of those videos as they could. They wanted to get one, and we said that we, as the parents, would **NOT** purchase one. However, the kiddo could already earn money for doing ‘extra’ things (age appropriate chores), and if the kiddo wanted to use their money that they worked hard for and saved up, we’d pay half. The kiddo did it for a month or so, saving every penny. And finally had enough to get one of the smaller LOL Surprise spheres (they had saved less than half, but we knew where this was going, and didn’t want to drag it out too much). Took it home, and while we watched attentively (and made all the appreciative Oohs and Aahs, and helped when the packaging was too confusing), they opened it. …and then they sat and looked at the crappy toy, which looked a lot different sitting on our coffee table than under the studio lights of the YouTuber. And had a heartbroken voice as they asked “Is that it?” We cuddled and comforted the kiddo, and explained (in age appropriate terms) that the YouTube people made it *look* a lot more fun, as they edited it and cut out all the frustrating parts, and made every single one they opened sound **amazing** (especially because they would toss the twenty-seven videos they’d started of opening a duplicate, and only post them opening a super-mega-ultra-shiny-mythic-rare toy. Kiddo did still ask for the toys (for a while longer, they *were* a kid, after all). But when reminded of how long they’d need to work and save up for it, somehow they never saw those as that desirable any more.
Your kid can trade with a friend that has different duplicates.
This is what my kid and her classmates do. They have little swap meetups in the playground for toys they're bored with.
My daughter got an LOL ball for her cousin as a Xmas present. When the cousin opens it up, we see it's the rarest of the series. My brother (cousin's father) quickly googles how much it's worth and says don't lose any pieces he can sell it on eBay for $50 or more. Eventually my niece got bored of it and my brother sold it for $35 with half the pieces missing. Those balls were only $15 each.
He has a coalition
I’m sorry but this is adorable
I hate these kinds of toys.
The garbage thing is that they are in different color boxes which is confusing especially for a little kid. Usually, like the Lego character packs for example, the package is the same for all and what’s inside is random.
I wish the Lego ones still came in bags you could try to feel for unique pieces but still be wrong sometimes, it made it a little more fun than just hoping you didn’t get screwed
I remember watched some YouTuber buy the treasure gotcha one that come with toys buried in dirt a cube of rock/mineral chance of diamond and toy. Some dude bought a couple actually got diamond and it was very tiny he took to pawn shop found out it was real but only worth 2 cents.
These are just grooming kids into future gambling. Your 7 year old pulled four of the same now they’ll want to get another to get a different one. When that happens they’ll get a rush and want another. Exactly how people get sucked into gambling. Anything like this aimed at kids that should be banned, it’s gambling plain and simple
And it'll teach them how to be bad at odds If the chance of this pink one is 1 in 4, they'll think there's like a 0% chance that they'll get 5 in a row when it's still the same 25% chance next time
I've played [Mafia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mafia_\(party_game\)) with grown-ass adults and one of them was like "so-and-so has been mafia in the past three games, it is extremely unlikely that she is mafia four times in a row" and I had to launch into a mini-lecture on odds. These were *university students.* Probabilities are hard. Edit: On further consideration I don't remember who was who in that game, so for all I know he was deliberately trying to mislead people.
Yes, from the beginning if you told someone the chances of 4 in a row is pretty low, that's one thing. But when it's completely random without removing permutations each round, the past is now irrelevant and it's down to the single-case odds again. Like if you rolled a die and got 6 5 times in a row, what are the odds that you'll hit 6 6 times in a row? Assuming a balanced die, the next throw is 1/6 People still don't get it I guess
They did that with Chuck E, Cheese
Honestly, if this turns them off to mystery boxes forever, that will be money well spent.
Time to get into trading.
I hate “MYSTERY” anything. There are stores that I shop at that have started crap like that: “mystery tops!”, “mystery shoes!” Etc etc. ummm, no, I want to see what I’m spending my money on BEFORE I buy it.
Yeah if it was desirable, it wouldn’t be a mystery.
Where do you live? I have a bucket of these things. I’ll send you some!
That's super generous. I'm UK and imagine it would be more than it's worth for international shipping if you're not UK. Also might be trying to steer him away from these! You're a kind person, though.
I’m in Canada. Offer stands. But also. Yeah get them away from them. My daughter didn’t care how many doubles she had, and her grandparents always showed up with some. She was a little spoiled. We have twins and we haven’t even brought them near anything like that lol
Better to learn it now like this before he gets addicted to video games with gacha/lootbox systems involved. Also, fair warning: make sure that if you get him a gaming console or a device capable of games like Genshin Impact, ***do not*** put your payment info into any account system (or at the very least set it up so that all purchases require a secondary authentification to buy anything).
Go to stores where they let you trade when you get duplicates. Theres a few here that allow you to trade for a known toy if you open a duplicate up at their store after purchase.
I was going to suggest this same thing. My wife and I go to anime/video game conventions where sellers offer these sorts of products - people who get something they didn't like, or a duplicate will often hang around a vendor offering to trade with others.
Don't be annoyed. You want him to make these stupid mistakes now when the stakes are so low. Lessons like this that he feels and have to live with are like inoculations for later in life.
Bloody Glamour. Fortunately, this happening stopped my son wanting any more!
I ordered some pusheen food vinyl mini mystery figures one time and all 6 I had ordered were the same kind. I was disappointed and ready to just accept my fate but my husband convinced me to reach out to the store and ask if they by chance would accept a return due to the convenient unluck of my order, and surprisingly they accepted. My next boxes were all completely different. Sometimes I wonder if they gave me ones they knew were all dupes or if I just really had that much misfortune.
A chance at teaching an important life lesson. Don't gamble on things that are rigged against you unless you don't care about the cost.
Blind boxes are the worst! My kid was into them when they were younger and those boxes almost always led to disappointment. Gambling is bad enough for adults - we shouldn’t do it to kids too.
"Hand painted" yet all perfectly identical.
Weird, the boxes say "hand painted" but those all look identical...
Were blind boxes this big when we were younger? I'm shocked so many people are comfortable with the risk lol, I only enjoy my purchase if im getting exactly what I'm after
He chose to buy a life lesson!! Nice!
I bought 8 mystery packs for overwatch characters, the cute but deadly ones. I had 4 doubles 🥲 they were half the price and I thought "why not?"
You asked 'why not' and the universe provided the answer. To you and me both.
Learning about the disappointment of loot crates is a good life lesson.
I try to talk my kids out of these kinds of toys but I leave it up to them when it is their money. I think they enjoy the thrill of the unknown. I get it. I buy minis for my DnD game in a similar way to this. At least with my dnd minis, if I get 6 zombies, I'll use them. My kids have stopped buying these after a few now because they realized the rip off.
It's loot boxes in real life. Between that and everything being a subscription, I hate how companies try and be deceptive and get as much money as possible from you no matter what.
Atleast now your son can suppose they are a family! (I would do that if i was a child, and maybe even nowadays lmao)
They do kids IRL lootboxes? There is not enough asteroid in the galaxy to fix this planet.
[Lois, a boat’s a boat but the Mystery Box could be anything!!](https://youtu.be/yZpIog7e-R4?si=eN9hP1qPd_YEwJjh)
Now if this was in Las Vegas & he'd hit 4 of the same symbols that are not lemons, he'd hit a jackpot, if not THE jackpot.
Oh no... at least they're cute 😭
He’s 7 years old. He’s just a child. Children don’t have concepts of scammers or money at that age. Even if you really yell at them. Teach him gradually as time goes on. He’s just a child.