Registered Character Gifts Versus Generic Toys
‘Tis the season of gift giving when family and friends wonder what gifts will be most appreciated by a pre-Kindergarten child.
The toys and clothes with the more expensive registered characters get the most advertising and most appealing packaging may cause us to be some what confused about what to buy a young child whose mind is set on something FROZEN, for example.
In this old No No-cents Nanna’s mind there is no right nor is there a wrong answer as to whether or not to buy a 2, 3, 4 or 5 year old boy or girl a gift with art work depicting their favorite cartoon hero or heroine on thier shirt or toy.
- Now,please don’t be disappointed with what seems to be my wishey-washey statement. I tis up to you to choose what to buy.
- I will state 3 important things to consider when choosing any item for a young child.
The 3 Most Important Criteria for Selecting a Pre- K Gift.
- Is the item SAFE and well made for a child of this age?
- Does the price fit your budget?
- Is the item developmentally appropropriate for the child’s current learning needs?
Keep in Mind:
- All children love to fantasize abut a favorite character during play. That is their job at that age.
- There is a time for pretending and there is a time for being gounded in reality. There needs to be a balance.
This old No Non-cents Nanna suggests to select a limited amount of pieces based on the 3 Most Important Criteria I stated above.
My family has mostly girls who love to dress up; me included. I shop the SALES at Kohls for the *night gown type clothes. Your family may be more ruff ‘n tumble so you may choose a super hero tent even if that tent is made from a set of character *sheets.
*Make sure sleep wear is fire retardant. A chper knock-off may not have been produced while adhering to all safety requirments.
What’s my point about buying Registered character toys/ clothes versus generic?
- Limit the amount of registered character you buy. A few items make the pretending more special.
- Home-made items are not only more cost effective, but, allow the child an enhanced learning experience when they help make those items.
- An icon of a character is not necessary on basic building blocks or a butter knife, or spoon, in order for a child to have fun while learning a new skill.
Why buy registered character, at all then?
- In general Disney, for one, produces high quality safe products that you can count on.
- While I shop most often at Dollar Tree for generic products, I am cautious about over seas cheap toys that may or may not have lead in it’s dyes or not be safe for a small child from general hazards such as choking.
What kind of toys do Pre-school kids really need?
Note from No Non-cents Nanna:
Whenever you have a REGISTERED character product the prices will be more expensive for a number of reason that may not be so obvious.
“Registered” means that an icon or character is owned by someone or a company and they have registered and licenced that character. It does cost a bundle of money to produce and get the licencing to get all that paper work done. Someone owns the legal rights to make a profit on their creation. By law no one else should reporduce to profit from that cahrcter, but enjoy using it only.
If you sew and purchase fabric , fo example as I do from a fabric store,you may have noticed that the most popular cartoon character or NFL, for example prints DO cost more AND have a notice that this fabric is only for personal use.
Some crafters choose to ignore this warning as they make a sell NFL or Jasmine and Aladin (example) blankets at craft fairs…. OOPS! Big legal mistake! Huge! .
At some point, this mistake will legally cost those crafters who sell REGISTERED prints or copies of registered chairs on wooden chairs.
When I create my felt products for sale, I strive not to use a registered character, but my own designs. I do have some cut out prints I sell for finger plays that I need to be sure about.
In addition when I pass on lyrics to finger plays thre can possibly be a copyright ownership that “we”are not aware of. If someone does own a copyright on any finger play I pass on, for exmaple, please let me know as I want to stay within the law.
The images used above are my photos of one of my grand children wearing clothes of a registered character.
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