I had this great idea around November time. I was going to be the World’s Greatest Mother in the Whole Wide World, and buy Sausage a shit load of Play Doh for Christmas. Each year, Hubs and I set ourselves a budget for her gifts (which we inevitably smash when we see some amazing thing that we MUST get her) and we’ll buy her a big gift from each of us, then lots of smaller gifts from both of us. This means we each get to choose a great gift that we think she’ll love. So my contribution to her pile’o’swag was a set of 18 pots of Play Doh, a Play Doh factory (with fully operational conveyor belt *GASP*) and a Play Doh barbeque (which came with this custom dough, supposed to be used for making burgers and hotdogs, which was brown with multicoloured flecks in it…I’ll let you guess what it looked like)*
Anyway, needless to say, the Play Doh was history within a matter of weeks. Between the bits that got smooshed into the carpet, and the umpteen pots that got left with their lid off, very soon, our carefully planned Christmas budget was nothing more than a set of colourful pebbles of varying sizes. And, when the last piece went to its hardened afterlife, I must say I was filled with mixed emotions. I was relieved that I wouldn’t have to pick any more of the stuff out of my rug, but I was also gutted that Sausage had little to show for her gifts from me, other than the now defunct moulds, presses and cutters.
When I saw the advert for Moon Dough, I thought all of my prayers had been answered. It promised to NEVER DRY OUT! It also claimed to be easy to clear away, as it just needs to be pressed back together to store, and is also hypoallergenic. “I gotsta get us some of that”, I thought. So I went to my nearest Argos and handed them an almost bewildering £22.99, for three colours of dough and three moulds. I was so excited to present it to Sausage, to see her face when she unwraps this wonder dough that may last her until her teen years!
Until we got home and actually unwrapped it, that is. Moon Dough is rubbish. I don’t know if we were using it wrong or something, but if you do manage to mould in into any kind of shape, you have to handle it with the touch of a classically trained pianist, otherwise it crumbles to a load of purple dust. And don’t even get me started on what happens when it gets on the carpet. Sufficed to say, I’ve spent an unbelievable amount of time hoovering the bastard stuff up, and we all know how much I hate hoovering.
Just to give you an idea, the picture that accompanies this post is a close-up view of the cylinder on my Dyson. Anything that you can see, that isn’t grey, is Moon Dough. I think we’ll be avoiding any type of child-centric modelling dough for the forseeable future. Or at least until they can come up with one that holds its shape, never dries out and doesn’t stick to carpets.
*I feel I should also add, more for my own amusement than anything else, the barbecue set came with these scissors, designed to round off the ends of tubes of dough, to make them properly hotdog shaped. Unfortunately, what they actually did was craft a perfect penis shape, complete with helmet **, out of Play Doh. I won’t lie, I found the Play Doh which was closest to skin colour and had a whale of a time, moulding dough penises and pissing myself laughing
** I can’t believe I just typed “complete with helmet” on my blog
Is moon dough and kenetic sand the same thing? I was searching for the answer to this and came across this article. So glad because it’s been a crummy no good rotten day and this article made me laugh (thank you!). I am a huge fan of kenetic sand, love that stuff so much. I hate, down right despise, sand so you’d think I would hate kenetic sand but nope, it sticks to itself and is fabulous. I’m oddly tempted to buy some moon dough to see how it is, which isn’t how I’m suppose to feel after reading this lol
my kids have always begged for moon dough – I definitely know what the answer will be now! I thought that photo was a food blender with food in it not your vacuum cleaner and I was reading your post waiting to see how it linked to the colourful recipe you were making in the ‘blender’! We’ve been more fortunate with playdoh and ours has lasted ages (but i am mean and only let them get one colour out at a time normally). Sometimes we just do some simple flour and water play to make a dough just to last one session and then bin it (we don’t even cook it like proper playdoh recipes) and that way they don’t have such a stressy mummy telling them not to mix colours, put lids on properly, clear up all the bits etc. Thank you for sharing – will be keeping away from that moon dough for sure. x
Thanks for taking the hit so that we don’t have to!
Ha, no problem!
This really is brilliant! I’ve been chuckling away to myself whilst at work (shhh!). I can’t stand that moon dough stuff, one outing in our house and back in the cupboard for good….it’s still there 5 years later, probably not hard yet but not maleable into anything recognisable either!
Oh, please, for me; go and get it out and tell me what it looks like now! I’d love to know.
Play doh! I remember it being squashed into the carpet. I bought some moon sand I think it’s called, and that was horrendous stuff!
CJ xx
That last paragraph had me cracking up! Definitely make your own. There are tons of recipes online. Also, if you store it in air tight containers or Ziploc bags in the fridge, it lasts a really long time.
Oh brill, I’ll definitely give it a go, I’ll have to see if I can find some decent food colouring, some of it’s a bit nasty, I think :-/
Penises that never dry out… I can’t believe I just wrote that comment.
I know, it’s a bit surreal isn’t it, lol!
OMG…That was a bit pricey considering its crap! I’d have been gutted. My Mum used to make our play do when we were kids…much cheaper option, lol x
I was thinking of making some, actually. Much cheaper and we can have fun making it, too!
Hahaha love this review, blimey I’m so glad I’m virtually out of the play dough years (it does come back out every Christmas as we have a Christmas set of cutters). Have you ever read the tips for parents on the Play-doh website? The one I love is: “If the PLAY-DOH has started to dry out or if the colours have become messy and mixed, remember: PLAY-DOH is cheap and easy to buy. Nothing beats a fresh tub!” Hmmmm (said in a disgruntled Marge Simpson-like way). I love my linky haha – you’re going to like your backatcha one later today!
No way?! They really say that on their site? Robbing, manipulative mustards! I doubt you will have seen it, but there’s this new Disney world advert on over here at the moment and it shows various families telling their kids that their taking them to Disneyland or Eurodisney, and then the ensuing excitement and hysterics from the kids. The tag line then says “When are you planning to tell YOUR kids that you’re taking them?” Or something along those lines, and i think its horrendous! Talk about manipulating a bit of parental guilt. What about all those who can’t afford to spend a grand on a three day holiday?!
hehehehehe that’s the best review I’ve read in a long time.
I like it when toys are shit. It appeals to my sadistic nature.
I don’t like the £22.99 you had to pay to find out it’s shit though. x
I know, I was shocked when I saw the price, but thought “Oh well, I’m sure it’s worth it”…How wrong I was!