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The Pro McToy thread


Andronicus

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When 6-year-old SweetPea is on a cache hunt with us (which is usually), she goes for the McToys every time. We've found My Little Pony and Beanie Baby toys from McD's (still in the plastic bags, replete with logo!) in several caches, and honestly she prefers these to dirty golf balls and other "degraded" swag. We take the swag bag on every hunt and always trade way, way up, but a little kid shows no real preference between the freebies that came with someone's happy meal or the "nice" toy, puzzle, or book that we purchased for trading.

 

Love the Dora quote, BTW.

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The happy meal is the only way in my area to get a small burger, small fries and small coke from McD's. There used to be a time when you could get those three for a dollar (and get change back) but those days are long gone. That's my tolerance level of their food.

 

The McToys are left in their packaging and traded off as swag.

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There's a reason McDonald's spends millions on Happy Meal Toys... kids love them enough to get their parents to eat there. That makes them one of the most successful toy products (and marketing gimmicks) of all time.

 

What you think of their food is irrelevant - you can't deny that Happy Meal Toys are a huge success!

 

Why would a toy like that not be excellent swag in any geocache where children might trade?

 

Would a Happy Meal Toy be considered more valuable if it wasn't given away with the meal? If it was worth, say, $2.95 or more?

 

Check out what Happy Meal Toys are worth in the collector's market... you might start trading for every one you find in a cache!

 

http://www.collectorsconnection.com/mcdon.htm

http://www.happymealtoys.biz/

Edited by TheAlabamaRambler
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Ok, we all hear people bad mouthing McToys (aka McCrap). But lets face it, as a general rule, most of us don't even trade, it is really mostly when we have the kids with us that trading is done. So in my judgment, McToys are great! When I have my kids with me, they always love the McToys.

 

I don't think many people have an issue with McToys per se. I think a new one in it's original wrapper makes a nice trade item. It's the dirty, broken ones that look like someone found it under his car seat that many find annoying.

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Ok, we all hear people bad mouthing McToys (aka McCrap). But lets face it, as a general rule, most of us don't even trade, it is really mostly when we have the kids with us that trading is done. So in my judgment, McToys are great! When I have my kids with me, they always love the McToys.

 

I don't think many people have an issue with McToys per se. I think a new one in it's original wrapper makes a nice trade item. It's the dirty, broken ones that look like someone found it under his car seat that many find annoying.

 

Exactly.

 

Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever seen a McToy in a cache that was still in its original wrapper. So I'm guessing they were picked out of the kids toybox or from under the car seat. Plus, at least 50% of the McToys in caches are broken. So it's not so much that it's a McToy but rather that's it's a cast off. Doesn't feel like a gift, feels more like the cache container is a depository for discards.

 

New McToys in their original wrapper are a decent cache item.

Edited by Lone R
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Ok, we all hear people bad mouthing McToys (aka McCrap). But lets face it, as a general rule, most of us don't even trade, it is really mostly when we have the kids with us that trading is done. So in my judgment, McToys are great! When I have my kids with me, they always love the McToys.

 

I don't think many people have an issue with McToys per se. I think a new one in it's original wrapper makes a nice trade item. It's the dirty, broken ones that look like someone found it under his car seat that many find annoying.

I take my 5 yr old grandson with me and he loves to find the Mctoys and he knows that he must leave one of his toys to take a toy.but like brainsnat stated it's the broken ones or ones missing parts that should not be left.It's just not fair to the next child cacher

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If you look at geocaching from a kid's perspective:

 

You get to explore.

You get to get somewhat dirty.

You search for treasure.

You get to take some of the treasure.

 

For some of those kids, the McToy is that treasure.

 

I think most little kids would prefer a McToy left in original packaging to a golf ball, a hair scrunchy or a soggy "geo-signature" card.

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All my toy are belong to me!

 

I'd have a hard time trading even the most banal of my desktop collection, because they are who I am (a nut!)

 

What I do have are a lot of items cachers may find useful (I recently came into a massive collection of pocket mirrors :rolleyes: ) Bigger trick is finding caches large enough to house trade items. I just ran my numbers last night and found 2/3 of the caches I've found are small, micro or nano. :) Most of the larger caches I have found were in the first few years of caching and now the emphasis is on many small cache containers.

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So, all joking aside as long as they aren't the busted, filthy, chewed on crap often found there is no problem. More than a few that cache with young kids have stated that the kids love 'em and that makes 'em worthy swag.

What does cheese me off is old Kindred Suprize toys. Bhe only fun in those is building them. If it was new in that plastic egg thingy maybe ...

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Ok, we all hear people bad mouthing McToys (aka McCrap). But lets face it, as a general rule, most of us don't even trade, it is really mostly when we have the kids with us that trading is done. So in my judgment, McToys are great! When I have my kids with me, they always love the McToys.

 

I would much prefer having the kids find the McToys than the condoms that my 12 year old grand son thought were really crude. I assured him that the good thing was that they were new.

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I have to admit that I love trade items, not because of value or quality but because each one holds a memory of a particular cache experience. When I have a particularly memorable experience at a cache I will trade for something and keep it as a memento.

 

Here are some of the items in my home office that I have traded for, mostly I left an unactivated personal coin for them. All remind me of somewhere that I have been or something fun that happened at or on the way to a cache... note the several Happy Meal Toys among them!

 

And yes, I consider a $10 personal geocoin a good trade for most of it, even though most of it isn't worth a dollar! What's $10 for a lifetime memory?

 

Shelf2.jpg

 

Shelf1.jpg

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Here are some of the items in my home office that I have traded for, mostly I left an unactivated personal coin for them. All remind me of somewhere that I have been or something fun that happened at or on the way to a cache... note the several Happy Meal Toys among them!

Wow, a "Wallace for President" sticker! That goes back a ways!

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careful, there.

 

'coz you know that real soon some people are going to start posting that some cachers aren't able to leave anything but broken and dirty mctoys and then some people will step in and tell you to get a life and not be all bunched up and then some people will make a lot of posts telling you that you should get over trying to control other people.

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careful, there.

 

'coz you know that real soon some people are going to start posting that some cachers aren't able to leave anything but broken and dirty mctoys and then some people will step in and tell you to get a life and not be all bunched up and then some people will make a lot of posts telling you that you should get over trying to control other people.

 

And even worse, there will be posts like that.

 

(and like this! :) )

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Wow, a "Wallace for President" sticker! That goes back a ways!

Yep, got the sticker from a cache at a weekend campout in Louisiana, about 20 of us caching in the dark of a full-moon eclipse!

 

This little man is made of several cache finds... the Wallace/LeMay button was found in a cache in Nashville TN, the rifle, flag and soldier all came from different caches.

 

Any one of those items might be considered worthless by some folk, but something like that twenty-cent toy plastic rifle can be a real find for someone like me.

 

Did I mention that I love interesting swag? :)

 

wallace.jpg

Edited by TheAlabamaRambler
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I fail to see why boosting the bottom line of McDonalds is any better than boosting the bottom line of WalMart. Unless you own MCD and not WMT, of course.

 

walmart is EVIL.

 

AFAIK, McD's does not lower their prices so much that every other restaurant around them goes out of business, in the predatory way walmart does.

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I fail to see why boosting the bottom line of McDonalds is any better than boosting the bottom line of WalMart. Unless you own MCD and not WMT, of course.

 

walmart is EVIL.

 

AFAIK, McD's does not lower their prices so much that every other restaurant around them goes out of business, in the predatory way walmart does.

 

A N D . . . Bingo was his name-oh

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The greatest thing about McToys is that they can be put in caches without boosting the bottom line of WalMart.

I fail to see why boosting the bottom line of McDonalds is any better than boosting the bottom line of WalMart. Unless you own MCD and not WMT, of course.

 

At least you won't die like you will from eating at McDs. I'll choose to support Walmart anytime.........have you seen "Supersize Me"

 

ScubaSonic

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I fail to see why boosting the bottom line of McDonalds is any better than boosting the bottom line of WalMart. Unless you own MCD and not WMT, of course.

 

walmart is EVIL.

 

AFAIK, McD's does not lower their prices so much that every other restaurant around them goes out of business, in the predatory way walmart does.

 

But tell th truth wouldn't we all like to own a Walmart? What isn't predatory these days?

 

ScubaSonic

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I fail to see why boosting the bottom line of McDonalds is any better than boosting the bottom line of WalMart. Unless you own MCD and not WMT, of course.

 

walmart is EVIL.

 

AFAIK, McD's does not lower their prices so much that every other restaurant around them goes out of business, in the predatory way walmart does.

 

not to mention, of course the predatory way walmart goes after its own suppliers.

 

walmart does not roll back prices on its own coffers; it rolls back prices not just on the backs of its employees, but by forcing the suppliers to sell more and more cheaply until THEY have to cut wages of their employees or go out of business.

 

and then when there's nothing left for them to cut, they do go out of business.

 

to shop walmart is to subscribe to the wholesale loss of american jobs and american wages just to save a few pennies.

 

i won't shop there, not for any reason.

 

other large chains don't necessarily smell like roses either, but walmart is a stinking cesspool of parasitic greed.

 

if i have to pay a little more at a less predatory outlet, i will. if it's a walmart exclusive, i don't need it.

 

as far as mcdonald's is concerned, it's possible to eat there from time to time and be just fine. when you go, it's not necessary to order the hugest possible quantity of food.

 

like taco bell: sure, you can order a truckload of food for a relatively small price, but do you really NEED more than one burrito? you can exercise moderation on your own.

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I fail to see why boosting the bottom line of McDonalds is any better than boosting the bottom line of WalMart. Unless you own MCD and not WMT, of course.

walmart is EVIL.

 

AFAIK, McD's does not lower their prices so much that every other restaurant around them goes out of business, in the predatory capitalist competitive way walmart does.

Fixed it for ya!

 

WalMart does what retailers do better than other retailers. That makes them successful, not evil.

 

If you think that McDonalds (or Hardees, or any restaurant be they local or chain) does not act the same way then you are severely misguided. They want to OWN their market. Trust this, McDonalds rejoices when every Burger King or local restaurant fails to compete and goes under! That's what capitalist competition IS.

 

As much as we want to believe in a capitalist society, we don't want to have to live in one.

 

If we are in business we want to OWN our market, we want no competition!

 

If we are the consumer we want competition to keep prices down and choices plentiful.

 

See the basic dichotomy?

 

Even our charities work this way. There is a finite amount of donor contributions available for the American Red Cross and Salvation Army to operate with. They battle constantly for an ever-larger share of those dollars. In the boardroom of the most benevolent charity or most aggressive retailer the topic is getting more dollars by taking them away from the competition.

 

That's not evil, that's business!

 

And yes, in the '30s it was True Value Hardware who was hated for killing mom-and-pop shops across the country, in the 60s it was Sears.

 

If you want to do anything with WalMart at all buy their stock; they are the best at what they do and will be, it appears, for the near future. Especially once they quit fighting and join forces with Google and Amazon Online (You heard it here first!).

Edited by TheAlabamaRambler
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Fixed it for ya!

 

WalMart does what retailers do better than other retailers. That makes them successful, not evil.

 

As much as we want to believe in a capitalist society, we don't want to have to live in one.

 

If we are in business we want to OWN our market, we want no competition!

 

If we are the consumer we want competition to keep prices down and choices plentiful.

 

See the basic dichotomy?

 

I see it, but don't like it.

 

I am the consumer so I would like the prices down and the choices plentiful - that is why it looks evil to me when the business owns my market.

 

The Canadian Tire store down the street from me raised the price of waterproof match containers by 30% after I bought all the ones they had. Luckily, I have the choice of using another retailer who won't ream me. I don't think that someplace where walmart is "successful" would offer me that same choice.

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I am the consumer so I would like the prices down and the choices plentiful - that is why it looks evil to me when the business owns my market.

 

The Canadian Tire store down the street from me raised the price of waterproof match containers by 30% after I bought all the ones they had. Luckily, I have the choice of using another retailer who won't ream me. I don't think that someplace where walmart is "successful" would offer me that same choice.

Sure you will have choices... right up till those waterproof match containers are seen to be a desired and profitable item.

 

Buy enough of them to get the retailer's attention and the price will go up! Let it be seen that you are making a profit selling them and every store in the area will start selling them. Convince folks through sharp advertising that one particular brand of waterproof match container is 'better' than the others and the price of that brand will go up. Let it be known that there is an expected shortage of waterproof match containers (real or not) and the price will go up.

 

Let all that happen and WalMart or someone like them will contract with a family in a shack in China to copy the waterproof match container for pennies and set up a store down the street to capture the market and drive competition out.

 

It's all about competition, and WalMart is good at it!

 

Mom-n-Pop with the hardware store on the corner figured that to stay alive they didn't want all the business, just the profitable business, so they stock their store with the most in-demand and profitable items. WalMart says the heck with that, we want ALL the business so they use their mass buying power to undercut Mom-n-Pop till they fold. They are even willing to lose money on some hardware rather than see it go to Mom-n-Pop. If you are Mom-n-Pop that's pretty dadgum evil-feeling, but you just have to admit that Walmart out-done ya.

Edited by TheAlabamaRambler
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Fixed it for ya!

 

WalMart does what retailers do better than other retailers. That makes them successful, not evil.

 

As much as we want to believe in a capitalist society, we don't want to have to live in one.

 

If we are in business we want to OWN our market, we want no competition!

 

If we are the consumer we want competition to keep prices down and choices plentiful.

 

See the basic dichotomy?

 

I see it, but don't like it.

 

I am the consumer so I would like the prices down and the choices plentiful - that is why it looks evil to me when the business owns my market.

 

The Canadian Tire store down the street from me raised the price of waterproof match containers by 30% after I bought all the ones they had. Luckily, I have the choice of using another retailer who won't ream me. I don't think that someplace where walmart is "successful" would offer me that same choice.

 

Something else not to like with the way Wal*Mart and their like work is this:

 

Freda's market sells 25 kinds of mustard. You prefer Blortman's Extra Deluxe, which is one of them. Freda's keeps it in stock because they do a steady enough trade in it and you don't mind $3.79 for a jar of 4 oz. because of the pleseant aroma, taste and aftertaste of this mustard on your sandwich. When you've been traveling for an extended time you stare into space, dreamily recalling the last time you had a sandwich with Blortman's Extra Deluxe slathered all over it. The first thing you do when you get home is make this sandwich and consume it with gusto. All is right with the world.

 

Megamart comes to town, sells 3 kinds of mustard, Blortman's Extra Deluxe not being any of them. With their high volume and low prices they draw most of Freda's customers away. Hey, some people would rather pay $6.79 for a 32 oz. box of Biffos Cereal rather than $4.79 for a 20 oz. box a Freda's.

 

To stay in business Freda's must slash inventory which doesn't move well enough to pay for its shelf space. Blortman's Extra Deluxe has precisely 3 loyal buyers which, ahem, doesn't cut the mustard, so it goes. Maybe Freda's hangs on, servicing people who don't want to drive all the way out to Megamart and still carrying a few things Megamart doesn't bother with. And maybe Freda's shutters and is gone.

 

Bad, right? Well it gets worse. Blortman's was hanging in there, thanks to specialty markets and markets like Freda's which had wider selections. Their market dwindles and they drop your favourite. Maybe they reinvent themselves with a few phony boutique mustards which will sell in Megamart or specialty shops (where competition for shelf space is keen) or maybe they'll close their doors and follow Freda into retirement.

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Something else not to like with the way Wal*Mart and their like work is this:

 

Freda's market sells 25 kinds of mustard. You prefer Blortman's Extra Deluxe, which is one of them. Freda's keeps it in stock because they do a steady enough trade in it and you don't mind $3.79 for a jar of 4 oz. because of the pleseant aroma, taste and aftertaste of this mustard on your sandwich. When you've been traveling for an extended time you stare into space, dreamily recalling the last time you had a sandwich with Blortman's Extra Deluxe slathered all over it. The first thing you do when you get home is make this sandwich and consume it with gusto. All is right with the world.

 

Megamart comes to town, sells 3 kinds of mustard, Blortman's Extra Deluxe not being any of them. With their high volume and low prices they draw most of Freda's customers away. Hey, some people would rather pay $6.79 for a 32 oz. box of Biffos Cereal rather than $4.79 for a 20 oz. box a Freda's.

 

To stay in business Freda's must slash inventory which doesn't move well enough to pay for its shelf space. Blortman's Extra Deluxe has precisely 3 loyal buyers which, ahem, doesn't cut the mustard, so it goes. Maybe Freda's hangs on, servicing people who don't want to drive all the way out to Megamart and still carrying a few things Megamart doesn't bother with. And maybe Freda's shutters and is gone.

 

Bad, right? Well it gets worse. Blortman's was hanging in there, thanks to specialty markets and markets like Freda's which had wider selections. Their market dwindles and they drop your favourite. Maybe they reinvent themselves with a few phony boutique mustards which will sell in Megamart or specialty shops (where competition for shelf space is keen) or maybe they'll close their doors and follow Freda into retirement.

True. If you can't deliver a market-demand product that a retailer can sell at a profit your business is doomed.

 

How's that WalMart's fault?

 

Folks, we can take this to the Off-Topic Forum or email if you like, but somebody's gonna get their hand slapped for hijacking this thread. My wife keeps my hand sore enough already, I don't need a Moderator slapping it too!

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Fixed it for ya!

 

WalMart does what retailers do better than other retailers. That makes them successful, not evil.

 

As much as we want to believe in a capitalist society, we don't want to have to live in one.

 

If we are in business we want to OWN our market, we want no competition!

 

If we are the consumer we want competition to keep prices down and choices plentiful.

 

See the basic dichotomy?

 

I see it, but don't like it.

 

I am the consumer so I would like the prices down and the choices plentiful - that is why it looks evil to me when the business owns my market.

 

The Canadian Tire store down the street from me raised the price of waterproof match containers by 30% after I bought all the ones they had. Luckily, I have the choice of using another retailer who won't ream me. I don't think that someplace where walmart is "successful" would offer me that same choice.

There are 6 Walmarts within half an hour of here. 8 Target stores. 6 Sears stores and 5 JCPenneys in 30 minutes or less. And hundreds of other shops, stores, and outlets. It doesn't seem like Walmart has squashed everyone else.

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Yeah, so the best stuff is CITO kits or unusual items. The more unusual the better. Some kids may love the McToys, but I'll say this in parting. If nobody takes those McToys and they sit in the cache so long the become grotty then nobody will, unless they are doing some long overdue maintenance.

 

Back on track, 'k? :)

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hijacking this thread

 

Eep. Sorry - my bad.

 

Meanwhile, it is fair to say that I like some of the McD toys - not just for my kids.

 

I need the Monsters Inc dude wearing the lampshade and the guy in the decon suit and I will have all the pieces - including one of the doors that lights up!

 

The mustard post made me hungry - going to eat.

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I have to admit that I love trade items, not because of value or quality but because each one holds a memory of a particular cache experience. When I have a particularly memorable experience at a cache I will trade for something and keep it as a memento.

 

Here are some of the items in my home office that I have traded for, mostly I left an unactivated personal coin for them. All remind me of somewhere that I have been or something fun that happened at or on the way to a cache... note the several Happy Meal Toys among them!

 

And yes, I consider a $10 personal geocoin a good trade for most of it, even though most of it isn't worth a dollar! What's $10 for a lifetime memory?

 

Shelf2.jpg

 

Shelf1.jpg

NICE CAR!!...The green one. Did you find that in a Cache??

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I fail to see why boosting the bottom line of McDonalds is any better than boosting the bottom line of WalMart. Unless you own MCD and not WMT, of course.

 

walmart is EVIL.

 

AFAIK, McD's does not lower their prices so much that every other restaurant around them goes out of business, in the predatory way walmart does.

Let's see if we can keep to the topic??

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you can exercise moderation on your own.

Ok, Now I see how this whole line of discussion is ON TOPIC...I love to get rewarded with a free McToy when I excercise moderation, then I have something cool to drop into a Cache! I just don't eat a lot in the early parts of the day, sometimes I just need something to calm my stomach, but can't handle a whole meal. I'll grab myself a Cheeseburger Happy Meal, and that will get me through til dinner. I love that they come with a free toy. You should see the looks I get when I'm ordering a Happy Meal for myself at a Truckstop, where so many others are ordering a Double QPw/C meal Supersized

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Yeah, so the best stuff is CITO kits or unusual items. The more unusual the better. Some kids may love the McToys, but I'll say this in parting. If nobody takes those McToys and they sit in the cache so long the become grotty then nobody will, unless they are doing some long overdue maintenance.

 

Back on track, 'k? ;)

 

I would aggre with you in as much as I would hate to see ONLY McToys as swag. But as long as they are a small(ish) portion of the swag (<30%), I think they are great.

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NICE CAR!!...The green one. Did you find that in a Cache??

Yes, a Dodge Challenger, it was the FTF prize and I had to have it... went out at 2 a.m. in the rain to an abandoned school across town, the cache was an ammo box attached to a tall dead tree leaning against the building.

 

I'm a huge MOPAR fan and have had 3 Dodge Challengers, a '70 Superbird and a '69 Daytona.

 

It is one of, lemme count, 9 model cars I have found in caches that were worth keeping, including a smaller Challenger.

Edited by TheAlabamaRambler
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