On a Tight Toy Budget?

When I refer to ‘expandable toys’ I don’t mean toys you can literally stretch! I mean toys you can add on to, building from the original toy.

For example, rooms of furniture for the dollhouse, small construction sets to go with bigger construction sets, vehicles to go with the action figures, track to go with wooden trains, buggies for dolls etc.

Expandability in a toy is one of the greatest assets for parents on a tight toy budget for three reasons.

1. You don't have to invest a lot of money up front to gauge a child's interest.
Even if you’ve done your homework and observed your child in play, there’s still a chance they might not like whatever toy you choose. By starting with a small set, you can test the waters to see if the child has any interest, before investing in lots of product.

2. The add-ons make for great gifts from family and friends.
If you know the toy will be a hit, having other family members buy add-ons means your child can get the ‘big splash’ of a toy without breaking the bank. Although you know that you only bought the ‘starter set,’ all your child knows is that he got, ‘a whole lot of Lego, Playmobil, etc.!’ Plus, you make shopping easy for grandma and grandpa, aunts and uncles.

3. Add-ons make the original toy (and original investment) new again.
The best thing about expandable toys is that it doesn't take much to make the whole toy new again. If your child already has a dollhouse, adding a new room of furniture makes the whole dollhouse new again, and renews interest in playing with it. The same holds true for the wooden trains. Add a new building or a few new pieces of track and the whole train set becomes a brand new toy. New Playmobil brings the old Playmobil back out of the toy box.

Here's a mathematical example. You have $30 to spend on a ‘big’ item. You could spend that on a stand-alone toy that is not expandable, or on an expandable toy. With the non-expandable toy, the following year you will need to spend another $30 to replace that item with another ‘big’ item. But if you went with an expandable toy, just a $15 add-on in year two will actually give you more ‘new’ toys for your child.

And imagine how fast the savings add up when you account for the $30 that grandma and grandpa spent on add-ons that first year. Now your $15 investment the second year makes $75 worth of toys ‘new’ again!

Observe your children in play and look for expandable toys—a money savings tip guaranteed to work!

Need more help choosing a toy for your child? Read this!

Note: Thanks to my toy mentor Phil Wrzesinski for the lesson above and for his unselfishness to share with all.

Joanna Mileos and husband Craig Hartman are the owners of The Granville Island Toy Company in Vancouver, BC, a member of Neighborhood Toy Stores of Canada (Nets). Their moto:  “We Don’t Cease to Play Because We Grow Old, We Grow Old Because We Cease to Play.” GB Shaw