You Pay For It

My son loves Thomas the Train. We know the songs, we sing the songs. He has a few of the trains given as gifts and some hand me down tracks that we play with constantly. I do not understand the fascination and do not believe I ever will, but oh well, if it keeps him occupied...chug away little boy.
Anyway...Gavin's buddy Arthur has tons of Thomas Trains and Gavin loves to go over and play, specifically because Arthur owns "Cranky". Cranky is a crane that stands about 8 inches high, has a little gray face and an arm that lowers a string to pick up cargo from the trains. Doesn't seem super exciting to me, but Gavin LOVES this crane. Shawn and I decided that, being the loving parents we are, we'd look into getting if for him for his birthday. They want $50 for this crane at toys R us. That's approximately $6.25 an inch. It's ridiculous!!! The "Talking Cranky" was $80! What!?! Thirty bucks more to be annoyed constantly with an automated voice? I do not understand. And, being the frugal parents we are, we didn't get Cranky.
Gavin's aunt and uncle gave Gavin $20 for his birthday and we decided we would go look at the Thomas Trains and maybe subsidize buying a Cranky for Gavin. Down the isle we went, when mommy spotted the Toys R Us brand of trains and accessories, which much to my joy, fit in with the Thomas tracks. We had been told about these trains and what do you know...they have TWO cranes here...one for $12 and one for $14. I held them up happily to Gavin and asked him if he wanted two cranes or one Cranky. Quick math...he took the two.
The kids get loaded back in the car, we come in, open the first box and what do you know...the top half of the crane is completely broken off the bottom. ARGH! To stop the tears, I quickly open the other crane and fortunately it is is fine working form (but you can tell is not exactly quality craftsmanship either). I was praising God that we had bought two, so at least I could convince Gavin to wait until tomorrow to enter the realm of Toys R Us, yet again!
Apparently, you do get what you pay for, even when it comes to little wooden kids toys. But if this be the case and I do end up going back and buying Cranky, for $50 that eight inch crane better be able to lift a whole lot more than a one inch wooden block!