Any list of the best toys is going to be subjective and mine is no different. As far as I am concerned, any toy that my son loves playing with is one of the best boys toys. I must admit, it makes me extra happy when the toys he loves are ones that I love! All the toys that I discuss are available on Amazon. Personally I order online for convenience and for presents. When my son has money to spend himself I much prefer to take him to our local Toys R Us so he can look round the whole shop and pick out something for himself.
So what are the best boys toys?
It depends how old your son is as to what will be most suitable. Some of the toys that I am happy for my son to play with include LEGO, his Thomas the Tank Engine train set, Bakugan and NERF guns. Some of these toys are more peaceful than others. I am not one of those parents who feels that it is inappropriate to buy little boys toy guns. Some people argue that this pretend violence may lead to issues in later life. My own opinion is that they are simply toys and there are far more important things I must do as a father than keep my son away from NERF guns. To be honest, I think they are great fun too!
There are so many different LEGO sets these days including DUPLO, MindStorms, Toy Story, Star Wars, Lego City, Prince of Persia, Pirates and many more. I remember when I was young I had quite a lot of LEGO Knights. To me the combination of Star Wars and LEGO seems kind of strange. I collected both separately as a child. In effect, even though we may each have personal preferences as to what the best sets are, really any that your child enjoys playing with is a good one. LEGO is a great toy to encourage children’s powers of creativity and imagination. The fact that it has been around for years indicates that children and parents alike think this toy is good.
Train sets are another type of toy that have been around for years. The one that my son plays with is Thomas the Tank Engine. Almost every toy that he has in this range is really good quality. There is only one, the Quarry Mine Tunnel, that I am not 100% happy with. It is an up and down section of track and when I connect it with the regular bits of Thomas track, it does not sit flush. So as my son is driving his engines round, I just need to keep an eye on that section and sort it out occasionally. I think that this is one of the best train sets for little boys because the characters and the sets themselves tie in nicely with the Thomas and Friends TV show. It is great to have the train set out and have Thomas on the TV at the same time for a double dose!
Bakugan are a newer toy and probably will not have the longevity of the two discussed above. However even though they are more of a fad toy, I think they are really good. If you have not seen them yet, they are kind of like Transformers except you do not have to change them yourself. They simply spring open when they come into contact with a metallic surface. These are cheap toys to buy. Kids can play with them separately or can play the Bakugan game. This game is good for a couple of reasons. It is fun, in and of itself. At the same time it is also educational. This is because the gameplay involves elementary school level mental arithmetic. The best thing about this is that your son will not feel like he is doing his sums. He will simply feel like he is playing the Bakugan game, which is great because it means he will be doing math and having fun.
I also mentioned NERF guns earlier. For me, these are one of the best children’s toys. If you do not believe in buying toy guns for your kids then this is fine. However there are plenty of parents out there who think that playing with toy guns is fine. And these ones are some of the best you can get. NERF blasters shoot foam darts. It can hurt of you get shot point blank range so care must obviously be taken. The most fun can be had if both you and your son have a gun. You can buy a cheap NERF gun like the N-Strike Maverick. This is a good entry level gun that is easy to use.
This is my brief list of some of the best boys toys. If you have other toys and games that you love playing with your boy(s), leave a comment, I would love to hear about them.