A mother is livid after Santa promised her son a toy that would blow the Christmas budget. British woman Linda Belnik visited Santa's grotto at a Westfield mall in West London with her three children, when Father Christmas apparently told seven-year-old son Joshua that he would get the gift of his dreams: a Star Wars Death Star Lego set. This Star Wars toy costs £400 (NZ$715). "I was stood there cringing. I couldn't believe he'd promised such an expensive toy," Belnik told Metro UK, "Santas usually tell kids they'll see what they can do, not promise anything." To make matters worse, Belnik had already told her son that he wouldn't be getting the toy and now she is devastated about being put in such an "awkward position". "It's even more upsetting as he now truly believes he is," she says. "He's walking around saying Santa said he will get the toy." "As a parent, I had made the decision he would not be getting the set as it costs so much. It's put me in a really awkward position," Belnik continued.
"Santa has no idea what anyone's financial situation is. It is wrong he's promising toys." Belnik complained to the Westfield shopping centre, but the company insisted that "All grotto staff are trained and follow script guidelines which, under no circumstances, include the promise of specific gifts. "The Santa has over 20 years' experience and has not promised specific gifts to the child." Westfield also offered the Belnik family a free ice-skating package, but Linda says that the gesture is worthless. "It doesn't help explain to my son why he's not got his present on Christmas Day." LEGO Star Wars Build Your Own Adventure LEGO(R) Star Wars(TM) Build your own Adventure combines more than 50 inspirational LEGO ideas for building with enthralling story starters. Get inspired to build, then play out your own adventures using your LEGO bricks. Comes with a rebel pilot minifigure and bricks to build an exclusive Y-wing starfighter model that features in the book. From a podrace on Tatooine to a jailbreak on Bespin each chapter of LEGO Star Wars Build your Own Adventure is packed with inspirational model ideas ideal for all ages and building abilities, with a mix of easy, medium and harder models.
Manufactured by Dorling Kindersley under licence from the LEGO Group. (c) & TM 2016 LUCASFILM LTD.show more Carries EU Toy Safety Directive 'CE' logo.show more Daniel Lipkowitz is an Editor and story developer for the LEGO Group. He writes for LEGO(R) Master Builder Academy and LEGO Club Magazine, creates characters and storylines for new LEGO themes, and writes scripts for animated LEGO movies and videos. He is the author of DK's New York Times bestselling The LEGO Book, The LEGO Ideas Book, and LEGO Batman Visual Dictionary.show more The Warehouse Group Limited The Christmas shopping season has officially begun and the most popular toys of the year are already selling out. This year Hatchimals are top of many wishlists but the fluffy interactive toys have become a hot commodity, selling out across New Zealand and in many outlets worldwide. Philippa Bannerman from toy distributor Planet Fun said the toys had sparked a craze across the country. "A quick Google of Hatchimals immediately reveals a long stream of global news stories describing parents' often futile desperation to secure one," Bannerman said.
"In New Zealand the toy sold out within two weeks, and although there have been subsequent shipments Hatchimals are getting hard to find." A number of other more available toys are also on the market for Christmas including soft toy Ty Beanies, Paw Patrol Roll Patrol Tower, and Shopkins Happy Places Happy House - which Bannerman said was the number one girls toy brand in New Zealand this year. The Warehouse launched its sales season last weekend with Black Friday and Cyber Monday - traditionally US sales days which have long signified the start of Christmas shopping. A spokesperson for the company said its first Cyber Monday had gone well and Red Friday, its version of Black Friday, had seen a huge day of sales for the business. "[We] had a huge day on Friday with queues outside many stores in the lead up to opening," she said. "An example of some of the sales was 9000 board games sold in a single day. It was the fourth Red Friday for us but this was the first year we included our online store as well," she said.
"That proved to be a huge hit with customers." Noel Leeming also reported strong sales for Black Friday with queues of up to 50 people at some city stores. "It goes to show how Black Friday is becoming embedded into New Zealander's psyche," said executive general manager operations Garth Brown. "Kiwi's capitalised on the opportunity to shop our amazing deals and buy for Christmas." Trade Me's Logan Mudge said the company had been researching the site's data, national and international trends, to help predict what was going to be popular for kids this year. "In amongst our top ten most popular toys for this Christmas is a clear resurgence, or reimagining, of some old favourites with retro toys like Sylvanian Families, Furby, Rubik's cubes and scooters all in the mix," Mudge said. Another theme in this year's top ten is animatronic pets. Furby, FurReal Friends and Hatchimals are all popular gifts this year. "Kids seem to be very keen on raising their own toy pet friend this year," Mudge said.
"The five species of Hatchimals are one of the 'it' toys around the world this year with reports they are virtually impossible to get hold of in North America and the UK." Mudge said the message to parents was "don't muck around". Top ten gifts at The Warehouse• Shopkins Happy Places Happy House• Little Live Pets My Dream Puppy• Nerf Rebelle• Bunch o Balloons Launcher with Balloons• LEGO City Volcano Supply Helicopter• Shopkins Chef Club • Zuru Cake Splat Game• NERF Modulus Tri Strike• Bop It Moves Game• Fisher Price Die Cast Top ten gifts according to Trade Me• Hatchimals • Lego Technic• Nerf blasters• Paw Patrol playsets• FurReal Friends• Sylvanian Families• Shopkins: Happy Places• Scooters• Furby Connect• Rubik's cube 2015 top ten gifts according to Trade Me• Lego - 'Star Wars' and 'Friends'• Trampolines• Battery powered ride on cars• Swing sets• Disney Frozen costumes and dolls• Kinetic sand• Quadcopters/mini drones• Wooden Train tables• Sand and water play tables• Pop up tents