Meh spinners Halloween
42So my spinners made it in time for the trick or treaters, and they were a HUGE hit with virtually all of them. The older ones seemed to love it the most. So thanks to Meh for letting me be, yet again, the coolest house in the block!
(If you could make finding a cool, non-candy Halloween gift a yearly tradition, I’d love that!)
- 46 comments, 77 replies
- Comment
My front door. Sort of.
Yeah, it’s weird, the kids that came after we ran out of spinners were visibly disappointed by the offer of merely candy, even though most of it was chocolate.
Who knew that pieces of plastic and metal coupled with LEDs and Lithium batteries would help make people popular?!?
@mflassy
/giphy bff
/giphy coolest house on the block
the kids that got spinners were losing their minds. They did not even care about the candy
Same here! We had kids walking back past the house later with their spinners lit up yelling “Thanks! Best house ever!” Way to go meh.
I thought about giving out spinners but it seemed like the fad had passed already so I didn’t buy any. I did give out glow-in-the-dark fangs with a packet of watermelon blood. All the kids took those first even the little princesses. I figured they would choose the candy bracelets. Me being sexist - who’d have thunk it?
I live in one of those ''decaying elegance" neighborhoods where only a couple of the big victorians are being gentrified, some likely being too far gone like the one next door that is leaning with big tarps over much of the back of it… anyway I was told what we’d get at halloween is mostly kids from food stamp families. I wish I had had money to buy more of them (many of them I put aside for the christmas presents for all nieces and nephews). The kids were beyond thrilled. One told his mom that getting one was like christmas, two moms told me that their kids had been begging for them for months… Only one kid chose candy over one. Fortunately for me it started to rain hard shortly after I was out of them.
I’d agree that meh needs to offer - ENOUGH IN ADVANCE THAT WE ALL GET THEM - less than 50 cents each halloween useful bulk items each year.
@Kidsandliz I agree. The final delivery date should be the weekend before Halloween.
@Kidsandliz They’re still up on https://morningsave.com/deals/20-pack-or-50-pack-led-fidget-spinners, and you get 10% off.
@Kidsandliz We have section 8 housing not too far from us and the parents used to bring their kids to our neighborhood by the carload.
No longer. I miss having the kids. We have some really neat big blow up black cats we’d put in the yard, a blow up Tigger popping out of a pumpkin that we’d have in the entry way, some neat Halloween lights and no kids.
A guy across the street used to put up the blow up things for each holiday, he had the neatest carousel for Christmas, it actually went around. Vandals with knives put an end to his decorating. He just quit.
We have so many school carnivals, mall carnivals, trunk or treats anymore that there aren’t any kids. I actually fell asleep on the sofa and the only trick or treaters we got (two) woke me up. lol…
@lisaviolet That’s sad.
@lisaviolet it really makes me so sad to think about people destroying someone else’s hard work like that. i just can’t even fathom doing something so mean.
my parents say the same about the kids - that there really are hardly any anymore. it’s too bad. growing up the neighborhood was pretty diverse in terms of income and it still is that way to some degree. i remember things my mom would do for the kids i played with that i didn’t understand until i was older - like giving me extra money so i could also buy them snacks or treats, and making sure they had coats and gloves in the winter. my mom always gave out tons of candy on halloween and the doorbell rang pretty much nonstop. now they only get a few. the end of an era, i guess.
@OldCatLady But that doesn’t help as Halloween is gone my budget is very limited.
@jerk_nugget My mom used to bake cookies decorated as jack-o-lanterns with candy corn eyes and faces painted with melted chocolate chips. Kids loved them, even the ones that got dropped off from the city to do trick or treating in the suburbs. Now no one would eat a home baked cookie from a stranger. Or maybe even a long time neighbor. Sad. I guess they prefer the safe events like at the mall or church parking lot.
@sammydog01 even back in the 80s i would not have eaten unpackaged food from a stranger. i don’t think people are out there injecting baked goods with poison or anything, but i just wouldn’t take the risk of getting sick eating something from an unknown source. however, from our neighbor/friends/family/coworkers, that’s different. and those cookies sound so cute. and delicious.
@jerk_nugget This was the 60s and 70s. Before the Tylenol thing. She had quit by the 80s.
@sammydog01 oh, haha. i assumed that when you said now, you meant…now
i don’t know what the tylenol thing is, though.
@jerk_nugget Get off my lawn. And here you go. This had a huge effect on trust in America.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Tylenol_murders
@sammydog01 ah yes, okay. it must have lingered in my subconscience thus producing my original “injecting” comment. it was before i was born, though, but not too long before. i had probably been thought of, at least
@lisaviolet That would be a very dangerous neighborhood for me
That’s such a shame. I hate hearing about people with nothing better to do than take the air out of others’ fun (no pun intended).
@jerk_nugget Yea, there are some well intentioned people that don’t know how to cook, or know basic food safety. The worst food poisoning I’ve had was from a company pot-luck Christmas party. There was so much food there (and most of it was great) that it was hard to pin down the evil dish. But it took out about 20-30 of us.
It’s been catered every year since.
@OldCatLady All gone now from morningsave!
@katbyter aww poop I was gonna cop some for Xmas… anyone know of somewhere else I can get the light up ones in bulk?
@midcontrast It looks like they are in stock- did you give it a try?
@sammydog01 Yep
@midcontrast I just ordered then cancelled some. They sometimes have the same thing in different places. Try this link?
https://morningsave.com/deals/20-pack-or-50-pack-led-fidget-spinners-1
@sammydog01 I dunno where you pulled that magical link out of my guy but I thank you for it! Bought one
@midcontrast
/giphy I’m a magician
(It was on the Meh encore page.)
@sammydog01 You’re still freakin me out with your magic. Look at my order #
Agreed 100% - from the first group of little kids who went away shrieking “WE GOT FIDGET SPINNERRRRRSSSSS!!!” right up 'til the end. Only a couple kids chose candy instead, and their reason was they were full-up on spinners at home already. (One boy took the time to describe to me in great detail his prize possession: FOUR arms, and it spun forEVURRR!)
The only problem is now we have a big bowl of candy leftover. I don’t know WHAT we’re gonna do with that…
@rprussell Eat it. Eat it. Eat it.
@medz Oh god. I had just a handful last night and am hating myself this morning. Sugar hangover? Check!
@rprussell Put it in the freezer and save it until next year?
I thought the fad had passed and I’d be stuck with lots of fidget spinners, but nope. Kids were super excited. Word apparently traveled fast in the neighborhood and kids yelled out “That’s the fidget spinner house” while running toward us. I wish I would have bought more because we ran out so quickly.
I didn’t get any trick-or-treaters. But @dave tweeted about his fidget spinner experiment:
@katylava I bet some of those candy bars went after he ran out of spinners. Awesome!
We had a few groups of older kids stop by after we ran out and on their way back down the steps, I heard, "but this was the fidget spinner house!"
We were rock stars last night.
Our next door neighbors handed out full candy bars, too. I think we’ll have to keep our game up next year.
Well, we had a whole two kids. One with her mom, the other with mom and dad.
I gave away five spinners. Parents were “cool!”
@lisaviolet I gave a spinner to a food delivery lady. (on top of a tip) She said her kid would love it.
@medz Usually after Halloween I take our leftovers to the vet’s office.
I just joked to the husband maybe I should do the same with these. I’m sure the docs would love to see all the kids who work there playing with toys all day long. lol
@lisaviolet do dentists still give children toys after a cleaning? i remember mine had what was probably a coffee can covered in cute paper filled with little bits and bobs (like you might get from a capsule machine). i bet kids would love to pick out a fidget spinner.
@jerk_nugget I have no idea. I do like the idea, though.
@jerk_nugget I know when I take a 4 year old to the hematology clinic at the hospital they give out toys, a sticker and a book to each kid after they get their blood drawn.
One little girl just let out a squeak and froze as I dropped a spinner on top of the handful of candy I put in her bucket. Mind blown. Finally she looked up and said thank you before running away screaming. We were definitely the rock star house. They were a hit with every age – parents thought we were dropping $10 on each kid.
Arrived just in time and they were a huge hit! I even had adults asking for one. One lady found out we were giving them away and drove down to our court to get some for her kids.
The best thing was I was told more than once that I just made their kid’s Halloween! I hope we can do this next year.
I’m thinking a lot of the kids were so excited because their parents refused to buy them such stupid crap. Ha! Sorry about that, “good” parents.
One dad as they were walking away and the kid loudly exclaimed “A Fidget Spinner!!!” turned to me and said “You sir, You WIN!” I smiled and in my best Stewie “Victory is MINE!”. But yes @dave think this should be a yearly tradition! All the kids that got them loved them. Not all kids got them, just some (had some of my kids’ friends that were coming by so was holding some back). I could have easily gone through two boxes of them. First year in a new neighborhood, now I know for next year.
did you give it out in retail packaging or out of the box?
@username I took one out of the packaging for demo purposes, but left the rest in the boxes. I was a bit worried we’d see boxes littering the streets this morning, but it didn’t look too bad. (Nicely, by default everyone’s carrying around a bag/bucket to stow trash in.)
@username in the box
I took mine out of the packaging, @username, but only because I had inadvertently left them outside the night before, and the marine layer left its morning wetness…
/giphy oops
I went to sleep before any trick or treaters showed up, but my designated distributor handed out 12 spinners and it didn’t look like much candy was gone from the bowl.
I’m happy to see a lot of you had the same experience I had giving out fidget spinners. The kids went crazy over them.
I’ve been giving out full-sized candy bars for about 10 years now - it’s really not that pricey considering how much it creates a legendary status for your house. This year, I offered the choice - a full-sized candy bar (Hershey’s chocolate), or an LED fidget spinner.
I took a twitter poll asking if more kids would pick chocolate bars or fidget spinners (and if it’d be close or a blowout). The answers were very evenly split:
My guess was that the fidget spinners would do great in the early hours, when younger kids saw the flashing lights and probably hadn’t yet gotten one. But I thought older kids would go for the chocolate bars, presumably either already having a fidget spinner, or deciding they were old and busted at this point.
So, much to my wife’s ridicule, I carefully counted out 99 fidget spinners and 99 chocolate bars, and was prepared to track the changing trends through the night.
Except, there was no change. There was no shift as the evening went on. Almost every kid immediately went for the fidget spinners. As we saw the pile shrink, we started trying to hype up the chocolate bars more, but the kids just laughed. I had anticipated at least that moment of decision-making, debating the pros and cons of chocolate vs spinners, but the only hesitation was in picking out which color of fidget spinner they wanted. One little girl grabbed a fidget spinner, and clutching it said “NO TAKE BACKS!”
The house across the street was having a party for tweens who thought they were now too cool to trick-or-treat, but apparently word leaked in about the spinners and the party emptied out, all in a line to trick-or-treat at our place.
When we gave out the last of the fidget spinners, we still had 86 chocolate bars left. So at that point, 88.4% had chosen fidget spinners over chocolate bars.
99 was about the right amount for our neighborhood. We ran out just before 9pm. There were another 20 or 30 kids after, but they were mostly happy getting a chocolate bar still.
The big question - will fidget spinners be a continuous hit every year, or do we have to find the next trend that we can jump on the tail end of?
@dave I didn’t give them to the little kids because it said age 7 and up. Not sure why. The batteries were inclosed in plastic.
@dave Why does your twitter poll have chocolate listed twice and fidget spinner listed twice? I noticed one says 90% and the other 60% but have no idea why. I can almost understand a bar having 90% chocolate or 60% chocolate but how can you have a 60% fidget spinner?
@cengland0 The choices are “90 percent of the kids will choose the chocolate bar”, “60 percent will choose the chocolate bar”, “90 percent will choose the fidget spinner”, and “60 percent will choose the fidget spinner”.
Does that make more sense?
I don’t think it has to be the ‘next’ thing, @dave… just a cool/interesting/unusual thing. I’ve often given away glo-sticks instead of candy, and kids generally loved them, too.
Basically, anything other than candy, really
(And thanks again!)
@haydesigner @dave and cost to us is about 50 cents each or less.
I bought 50, which I knew was overly ambitious. We get very few trick or treaters. No one showed up, not even my friend who brings her kids. Now I’ve got 50 light up Fidget Spinners I have to figure out what to do with. Oh well. I may use their batteries for some of my electronics that use them…
@savvysapphire Take them to an elementary school and donate them. They can give them as prizes for stuff, or teachers can use them for bribery… or to the children’s ward at a hospital.
@savvysapphire Is there a Ronald McDonald house nearby?
@savvysapphire I bought 50. We had 0 trick treaters. I will now pass them out as office Christmas gifts and then give the rest to my wife’s classroom.
@sammydog01 no Ronald McDonald house nearby. I’ll figure out someplace to donate a bunch too. I’m certainly going to take out a few batteries to use. Give a few to my bosses kids.
@savvysapphire I gave them all out at work. Huge hit.
Just wanted to say Thanks to Meh for offering the fidget spinners and getting them here on time. They were a HUGE hit at our house. We offered either a full size Reese’s or a fidget spinner and probably 9/10 kids took the fidget spinner. One kid lost his mind - “Oh my God! Seriously!?! Seriously?! I can have a fidget spinner?” Me: “Yup. And, they light up!” Kid: speechless
Went through all 50 of them. Kids were cheering it was like Christmas.
Man, all of these stories are making me wish that our apartment got Trick-or-Treaters!
But I’m going to have fun putting these in stockings, giving to homeless children, deconstructing for bike decoration, etc.
my brother got his spinners yesterday(Halloween)
unfortunately our area’s beggars night was last Thursday(10/26). gave one to dad for his Halloween birthday, and i suspect our nephew will get one on his upcoming birthday, and they become stocking stuffers
Yep. Everyone loved them!
We had pretty much the same experience as everyone else. Unlike @dave, I handed out candy in addition to fidget spinners to avoid the torture of a decision.
The problem is, I’d say 1/2 the kids lost their minds picking out a fidget spinner that they completely forgot to take some candy as well. I had to start offering it as “ok, take some candy first… now pick a fidget spinner.”
Good news travels fast and like many here we quickly became “the fidget spinner house”. My only regret was that I didn’t buy more.
Please try to find something like this again for next year. Only offer it a week earlier so we don’t have to worry if they get here on time!
@smilingjack How about today’s “10-Pack: Alcograd Single-Use Breathalyzers”. Make sure the kids aren’t drunk.
@cengland0 I know a few people who might need them for Christmas, but most trick or treat kids are too young. Although…when those older HS and older kids come trick or treating…they might be good!
Wish I had done this.
I remember when the fidget spinners were on sale and I literally said “meh” and didn’t even think about giving them for Halloween. I am sure that was talked about at length in the discussion, but like I said, I just totally dismissed them.
@DrWorm not only in the discussion but also on the home page as an idea on why to buy them.
These are cropped screenshots from reviewing the security footage via the mobile app, so don’t bust my balls over the quality. Each visit went pretty much the same as depicted here.
@medz OMG is that snow?
@sammydog01 Yeah. Ridiculous, I know.
@medz This post made my day.
@medz “Y’all got spinners up in this bitch?”
There’s not much that makes me literally lol. +1 for you.
I ordered 2 50 packs… Figured I could pass em out as stocking stuffers or random gifts if they didn’t go over well. Children screamed when they saw we were handing them out. The word got out and at the end of the night, random cars were stopping in front of the house piling out and trick or treating, only to drive off after hitting our house.
One tired toddler who had a meltdown and was in his wagon sobbing uncontrollably saw his sister’s loot from us and stumbled over to trick or treat. You would have never thought you’d seen such a happy kid covered in tears and snot and running makeup smiling and playing with a fidget spinner.
We didn’t run out but came close, so I had my wife bring out boxes of sunglasses just in case
Please do something like this next Halloween, I will probably buy that in bulk as well…
This was my plan exactly, but of course my spinners did not arrive in time to give them out. I realize Meh DID tell us there was a possibility they wouldn’t get here by Halloween, but it still sucks the kids didn’t get them. Oh well, time to figure out a Plan B!
@PooltoyWolf Same here. I knew it was a gamble, but still had high hopes they would arrive in time. Nope, they showed up Nov. 1. Kind of how most of my gambling ventures turn out.
My plan B is to give a few out to family at Christmas and hang on to the rest for next year. It’ll be Halloween again before we know it.
@pitamuffin I’m watching for cheap batteries in case they’re all dead by next Halloween.
@sammydog01 https://www.thebatterysupplier.com/products/50-pcs-cr2025-bulk-3v-lithium-battery-compatible-with-cr2025-dl2025-ecr2025-lm2025-2025-kcr2025-br2025-kl2025-l2025-e-cr2025-kecr2025-l12-5003lc.html?gclid=CjwKCAjwhOvPBRBxEiwAx2nhLv7JQUoU5VYsZV9QzYkriZkcImI6d9KEMFTBKY_HImJew6F9TlhgnRoCW38QAvD_BwE
@cinoclav
@PooltoyWolf Same for me! So disappointing:(
What will next years crazy be? This was absolutely an amazing item to sell and made it to many homes just in time.
@jml326 I’m thinking about that too. Can anyone speak to battery life?
I had second shift, so I could not participate directly in Halloween festivities.
However, I Meh’d up my front porch with a couple of items (can you spot them?)
Next year, I’m going to add hinges and scratch marks.
Excellent, @PocketBrain! My front doors sported the exact same mat
Mine came Halloween morning, just in time! Kids were loosing their shit! I had a group of kids flagging cars down, yelling. “This house has fidget spinners!” Thanks Meh for Halloween awesomeness!
Yep, I have to join the masses here and report that my house was the hit of the neighborhood. Kids literally screamed to their parents “I GOT A FIDGET SPINNER!!” as they walked down the driveway. I only had 50 (minus a few that my kids took) and they ran out right before the last group of kids came up. Luckily I had some full-size candy bars but this last group of kids did ask about the Fidget Spinners. Clearly word got out!
THANKS, MEH!
And yes, please do something similar next year. It was great to give out something that was fun and wasn’t candy. (I did also give out a bit of candy with each Fidget Spinner.)
They arrived on Halloween, and I ran out of my 54 fidget spinners in half an hour. Had a giant bag of chocolate as backup. Must have had 100 kids come to our place this year. It’s been mentioned before but there was many a kid leaving screaming “THEY HAVE FIDGET SPINNERS” to their parents. Great halloween treats! Thanks Meh!
Received my fidget spinners today so I guess I can hand them out next year … all 200 hundred
. I could donate them to a toy drive for Christmas hummmm.
@Mehador 200 hundred? You bought 20,000? Wow. You ARE the Mehador!
@therealjrn LMAO, no I only order 200 spinners . If I order 20,000 I am sure my postal worker would have something to say about it.
Got mine two days before Candy Day. Only wish I’d bought more!
I got 20 to give to my Cub Scouts this Christmas.
I wish my neighborhood had Trick-or-Treaters, but we never do. I take my kids to a few nearby houses on my street, and I’m always surprised anyone actually has candy to hand out. The large yards with houses 100 feet or more from the road, and most of them are up or down steep hills… it doesn’t entice younguns or their parents to go door-to-door for candy.
My husband is a manager at Home Depot and each year he gives his department heads something small, and if I have something to do with it either odd or different along with a small thing of Lindor Truffles or something similar. I’ve found pens with flashlights small enough for their pockets, bought a really nice multi-tool which isn’t odd or different but was very appreciated and that is all I can remember…I have old age brain…this year they are getting fidget spinners. I think they are going to love them. I think most of us have at least a little bit of kid inside us and this will appeal to that bit. Plus, they just appreciate that he thinks of them each year. I still haven’t gotten mine. I was hoping that some Halloween magic would happen and I’d get them really quickly. I was going to try to create some type of costume out of the ones we didn’t need for Christmas. I was going to attach all the extras to a black shirt and pair of black leggings (very strategically, I know my friends) and light them all up. Could of been cool.
@mehbee It would work for Christmas, add a Santa hat. You could decorate the hat too. We NEED pictures ☻
@speediedelivery I’ll make a note to remind myself. Now I want to really go all out…thanks a lot…lol!
@mehbee Reminders could be arranged…
My Cousin bought 2 boxes of 50 and gave them all away! Best comment of the night was a little girl who was blown away by the treat - she looked up at him with wide eyes and said, “You must be RICH!”
Thankfully my order of 50 arrived on Monday and gave me time to go through and open most of them, swapping parts here and there to make sure all 3 lights would light up and that they spun okay, a few were bum ones but like others I thought I’d get a mixed reaction since this fad is likely over. All the kids seemed to light up as soon as I would light up a spinner and throw it into their (now glowing) bag/container. Lots of happy kids and parents amazed of the bounty, for they likely thought what these spinners cost all summer at the mall!
Glad they got here on time, and the few I have left for my kids and maybe some white elephant gifts at the end of the year.
@dcNate
@medz Poor chipmunk- they don’t even have flashing lights.
Give that man Meh’s number, @medz
/giphy life savings
Give that man Meh’s number, @medz
/giphy life savings
I’m glad that we were all able to spread the spinner love this year. Mine were on my porch when I got home from work. It got to the point where kids were coming up saying they’d heard we had fidget spinners. Now we’ve got mad trick or treat rep on the streets.
Yesterday, I read all the posts about happy children and immediately ordered a 50 pack of spinners. In this rural area where many families live in poverty, the small bundles of donated gifts the little churches give out ARE Christmas. Thanks to dcNate for suggesting they be checked in advance.
@spiralroad check them before the mediocre warranty is up so they can send you replacements in case they are dead. You can swap out the white things (they pop out better one direction than the other) to make working ones from the duds (well except when they don’t spin at all). I had about 15 or so with lights out and a handful that refused to spin. By cannibalizing I got that number down significantly.
@Kidsandliz I’ve ordered a batch for holiday stocking stuffers. This gives me time to do all those checks and maybe get replacements. Thanks for the tips.
@OldCatLady I got all but one of my 50 working- opening up the light capsule and fussing with it made most of them work. OK it took a couple of hours.
@sammydog01 I can do that. Thanks for the info. It’s still random which battery style they have, though.
@OldCatLady Mine had the CR1202 or whatever the non-useful ones were. Only 3 were dead (One at least- I’m not sure if the other 2 are battery or electronics). A lot of the time the problem was the push button- a few clicks fixed them. Or the orientation of the battery or in the white thingy. Find a tiny flat head screwdriver and sit down with an audiobook. I fixed maybe 15 spinners (should have counted).
@sammydog01 @oldcatlady For the record… After further review I had 4 spinners I could not get lights working. I was missing 3 blue center caps and 2 batteries. I had 11 bad lights, I did not test for battery (1220’s for the ones I checked) or board. One battery was dented, 5 battery clips that looked rusty. I had both style of boards included in my 50.
Most of my spinners are off to the classroom for prizes and games. A few will be fun at Christmas.
@sammydog01 That is how many I fixed (well tried to fix, couldn’t fix some of them).
Thanks. Will check them all immediately and hope for a shipment of good ones.
I don’t get many kids for Halloween but the few that did come by we’re excited to receive a fidget spinner. One young girl said “you’re awesome!” I heard another yell out to some other kids that I had fidget spinners and they came up to receive their fidget spinners. Thanks for making this a great Halloween! I hope you can do something like this next year.
My order of fidgit spinners arrived today and most were good. Four or five light pods were moved to other spinners and two batteries were repositioned. Only one circuit board was bad. Forty nine of fifty are working. Guess the one with one dark light circle is mine.SCORE! Thanks MEH!