What's the best/worst large toy investment you've made?

[Inspired by Reggio]

I buy all my 'doll/playhouse' things from Value Village - we have real pots and pans and accessories in the kitchen, I use open ended materials as the 'food' like actual empty and washed food containers, we have our collection of lids from Playdoh containers in different colors which are large enough not to be chokers but can be 'cookies, pizza, dinner' etc ... so that it is 'cheap' to replace if ruined by the smaller ones.

Also instead of buying those 'cheap' dress up clothes from Walmart and Scholars I invest in actually 'dress up clothes' from Value Village ... got us some cool communion dresses and Easter dresses for 'princess' and some navy suit jackets for 'police officer / prince / office worker' and so forth. Same with clothes for our dolls - they are actual baby clothes and cloth diapers I have collected from either clients or garage sales and so forth .... way cheaper if you watch for deals!

[Emily3]

I buy all my 'doll/playhouse' things from Value Village - we have real pots and pans and accessories in the kitchen, I use open ended materials as the 'food' like actual empty and washed food containers, we have our collection of lids from Playdoh containers in different colors which are large enough not to be chokers but can be 'cookies, pizza, dinner' etc ... so that it is 'cheap' to replace if ruined by the smaller ones.

Also instead of buying those 'cheap' dress up clothes from Walmart and Scholars I invest in actually 'dress up clothes' from Value Village ... got us some cool communion dresses and Easter dresses for 'princess' and some navy suit jackets for 'police officer / prince / office worker' and so forth. Same with clothes for our dolls - they are actual baby clothes and cloth diapers I have collected from either clients or garage sales and so forth .... way cheaper if you watch for deals!

Great idea!! Also, the Homesense store near me sells off it's leftover Halloween costumes really cheap. Those zip up furry animal ones and my kids all love them! I think they were $5 each!