Dollar Store Toy Box

Here is a toy mobile phone I found at a local Dollar Bazaar store. If you have not heard of that dollar store, it is probably because it is not really a big chain of dollar stores. The store itself is smaller than the average convenient store. So let’s take a look at the toy mobile phone.

The phone itself is painted a nice gold and purple color and my first thought was how much lead is actually in that paint. I will try to avoid touching the painted parts just in case. The back half is unpainted so it can be back handled.

Displayed prominently on the package is “Try Me!”. This is to let the customer press a few buttons to see how the toy is going to work before they buy. Many toys that require batteries often come with batteries so they can be tested. Upon seeing the “Try Me!’ on the package, I knew pressing the phone buttons would make some sort of beeping or buzzing noise to add to the fun of the phone toy. Just under the “Try Me!” are the projected features of the phone.

• Push Buttons to Hear Sounds – Completely Logical
• Real Telephone Sounds – I should hope so
• *Batteries Included – Remember this for later

If you have ever gotten anything that had a try me function, you may have noticed some of them have pull tabs in the back. These are to prevent the battery from being connected before they are used and draining the battery. A great way to irritate the crap out of department store clerks is to try out the toys constantly. Wanting to get one with full power, I searched until I found one with the tab intact to ensure the use of sound for trying it out.

When I finally got to the package, I removed the pull tab and tried pressing the buttons to hear the mobile phone’s dazzling real telephone sounds but unsurprisingly, it did not work. Guess I won’t have to worry about the “Don’t hold close to your ear” warning.

That won’t be a problem, it doesn’t work.I open the package to find the battery slot. Unlike the other smaller technology items, this one uses 2 AA batteries. I quickly discovered why it was not working. The two AA batteries that came with the mobile phone are warped! They were not leaking on the side I could see but there must be internal leaking. I am not even going to touch them, they can stay in there.

Take a look at the left battery. Yeah, not pretty. I am not touching that.I would hate to see this in the hands of children who would not know any better. Beware of any dollar store toy that requires batteries that includes them in the package.

Oh, Oh, can I add something? TAKE OUT THE BATTERIES!!!Ok, just because mine came like this doesn’t mean all will be like this. Does it?

Well this is a great injustice to kids everywhere and do you know who fights injustice? Spiderman fights injustice. I think it is great that superheroes are chipping in to fix this problem. I mean look at how Superman is fighting toy injustice. So how is Spiderman going to fight this injustice? By releasing his own brand of phone. Coming soon to a future post.

Related Post

• Batman Cell Phone Toy
• Spiderman Mobile Flip Phone Toy
• Delta Force Talking Scanner

Posted on November 4th, 2007 by Mike
Filed under: Gadget Toys