My toddlers ignored all the fancy, organically produced, fair traded stuff that my family gave them. They preferred to play with empty plastic bottles, the twenty years old three legged stuffed dog that a neighbour had found in her closet and a funny shaped stick.
They still want all the fancy expensive stuff but get bored by it quickly. For example, we have three water pistols that they only use to wet the cat or each other in the house. But they never want to take them to the swimming pool. My brother and I never had such things. We played with old plastic bottles.
A couple of days ago my eldest got all excited as she realised that she could turn an empty sunscreen bottle into a water pistol. What a brilliant toy! „But you have three of them at home!“ I said. „Mommy, please, I want this one, don’t throw it away!“
A day later they discovered a real treasure: an old suitcase in a creek behind our house. And it had a bag of potato chips in it! They played for an hour with their new toy and even dragged it to the leaf pile where other „treasures“ from that creek were hidden: empty cans, a broken drawer and a single shoe. At least they didn‘t eat the potato chips, as I would have expected. But on her way home the youngest found a french fry in the street. It would have been such a waste not to eat it!
P.S. Just like the creek, the bath is also an endless source of inspiration. You can check how my kids used it here, here and here.