Meaning and local context
In Manchester, “bobbins” means Poor quality, disappointing, or useless. A strongly associated Manchester criticism.
Example in context
A local example is “That performance was bobbins.” In plain English, that means “That performance was very poor.”
That performance was bobbins.
That performance was very poor.
How to interpret it
The surrounding sentence is important when interpreting “bobbins”. Use the regional sense above when the situation matches the example instead of relying on the word or phrase in isolation.
Tone and caution
It is dismissive rather than neutral. Because this is informal regional language, tone and situation should guide whether you use “bobbins” yourself or simply recognise it when someone else uses it.