Last year, the kids got a ton of gifts. Many of them came in cardboard boxes. Yes, if you’re a parent (and perhaps if you’re not) then you know exactly where I’m headed – the dreaded wire tie.
See, they make this really nice display packaging for the store so that you can see the toy before you buy it, but because they fear that you’re going to walk off with the toy by just yanking it out of the display, they tie it to the box with these crazy tight strips of wire. The box is often reinforced with a small piece of holed plastic that the wire passes through and is tied behind. The actual tie is often so tight, and the wire so wound around the toy that by the time you’ve removed the first wire you just want to die. And then there are three more to remove. But now, there is hope…
I opened a toy my mom had gotten Riley for his birthday. A Fisher-Price Transportation System GeoAir High-Flyin’ Airport is in and of itself is a pretty cool toy, but the wire ties… Heaven.
Rather than using an electric drill to tighten the wire ties into little unbreakable knots, the wire is tied around the little stems on the side like the cleats on a boat, but without the hitch. The end result is that you can just grab a single end and unwind the whole thing in an easy, no-effort figure-eight motion. It’s great!
Thanks to Fisher-Price for considering the parents with their toys too. This is a vast improvement.
