What fascinated me was the difference in tone of the various warnings and instructions. For example, it was apparent from both kits these were NOT toys, the clue to this was the inclusion of the words "This is not a toy". I don't have a problem with that, anything that helps someone in the choice of a suitable gift, and the ruling out of an unsuitable one, is OK by me.
However, should I have taken the following statement literally? "Should only be used by children under adult supervision". Well, not having a child in tow, I had to do all the hard work myself.
How about: "This item contains a sharp point". Do you mean a needle?
And: "WARNING Open with care contains a needle with a sharp functional point. You could argue that the word "needle" would be more than enough.
I'm all for people being safe, but we've already ruled out kids using this product unless heavily supervised, if adults don't know needles are sharp, it's time they learnt the hard way! I should add that in the reindeer kit there was no warning about not stabbing your hand with the leg wires when inserting them into the overly squeaky foam "rectangles" (they were NOT rectangles - for starters they were 3D).
The reindeer came with a warning about long thread presenting an entanglement hazard. Please, anyone - what is an "entanglement hazard"? Why did the manufacturers not think to cut the thread up into easy to handle pieces? It would save me from hacking my own hand off in a potential scissor incident.
My biggest gripe with the owl instructions was the inconsistency in the tone:
Great fun for all ages (although 0-6 was crossed out)
A warning on the outside about needles being sharp was talking down to the "adult" in charge, yet the instructions were almost impossible to follow. the pics were unclear and in black and white with pesky hands in the way all the time:
Also, I was told to put lines radiating outwards from the eyes to make them look more authentic - now I've seen many owls and I don't think any had lines radiating outwards from the eyes, and as the owl I'm making is pink, clearly it's not intended as a true representation of a real owl.
My favourite statement though was; "Your eyes should now look like this". I looked in the mirror - clearly I wasn't half as surprised as they expected me to be by this stage.
But all in all I was pleased with my crafty efforts!
All the warnings and instructions made me think back to a recent conversation concerning "Common Sense" - what is it? and can you define it? Most of the warnings are, in my opinion, unneccesary. They should come under the "Common Sense" heading - but then someone has made the decision that, actually, some people out there really do not know that needles have nasty pointy bits. The company is thinking - '"Oh crap, if we don't warn people and someone pricks themself, they are going to sue us!" Are these people robbing us of our common sense? Taking away 'learning the hard way'?
And I shall end this here, before I start ranting about 'health and safety' and start going round in endless circles, causing myself a bigger entanglement hazard than the horrors of the long thread.
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