[HN Gopher] Toys with the highest play-time and lowest clean-up-...
___________________________________________________________________
Toys with the highest play-time and lowest clean-up-time
Author : surprisetalk
Score : 238 points
Date : 2025-12-18 17:14 UTC (7 days ago)
(HTM) web link (joannabregan.substack.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (joannabregan.substack.com)
| TheCleric wrote:
| It would have been helpful if I had seen this BEFORE Christmas.
| lol
| cosmicgadget wrote:
| On the bright side, you have 365 days advance notice!
| bmacho wrote:
| tl;dr:
|
| - play-time and clean-up-time are 2 dimensions of toys, and you
| can use these dimensions when you are considering to buy a toy
|
| - author likes magnetic building toys (???)
|
| - amazon ref links to buy those magnetic building toys
| happytoexplain wrote:
| I'm not following the implication/purpose of this post.
| bmacho wrote:
| I don't get it? Isn't this how "tl;dr" posts work?
|
| I've read it, I've found it a waste of time, so I gave a
| warning/summary so people coming after me know what to
| expect?
|
| Am I doing it wrong?
| grim_io wrote:
| What are you warning us about?
|
| I found the post informative.
| BeetleB wrote:
| It was a short enough post that it didn't really warrant a
| tl;dr.
|
| Also, sadly these days many people assume such summaries
| are written by an LLM, and HN users seem to really dislike
| them.
| dotancohen wrote:
| It looks like the author examined every toy inspired by Lego,
| other than Lego itself.
|
| For me the big problem with Lego was not clean up time. For me
| the big problem with Lego was stepping on them barefoot. How do
| these other toys compare?
| phantasmish wrote:
| Big problem with modern LEGO for me is that so many modern sets
| are almost all teensy-tiny pieces, so they look good on the box
| --the adult-aimed ones have always been like this since they
| started targeting that market, but now it's like 95% of all
| their sets; also, they seem to hate exposed nubs, which is
| silly if the set is for play.
|
| Larger (like tall 6x2) bricks are uncommon outside buckets, and
| a lot of larger pieces like dedicated wall-sections or big
| vehicle nose-bits or car undercarriages are now rare.
|
| The result is that my old sets are a mix of everything from
| large contoured structural plates down to tiny pieces, but my
| kids' bins of legos are like 98% tiny pieces. They use them
| less than I did, I think because it's hard to sort through the
| loose pieces when they're mostly very small, and with less
| variety there aren't as many large pieces to use as jumping-off
| points to start a build, and making, say, a house-height wall
| or the front of a space ship is slower than when we had more
| bricks that could kinda short-hand those pieces and let you
| skip the middle, if you will, to focus on both the big-picture
| and fine details. I doubt I'd have liked Lego so much if mine
| had looked like theirs.
| johanvts wrote:
| Buy the 'classic' line, the big boxes are great value also.
| phantasmish wrote:
| Yeah, I've noticed the classic line showing up on shelves
| and they seem a ton better, but I don't recall seeing them
| several years ago when we were doing lots of Lego-buying.
| Really limited selection and mostly big, expensive sets
| too, not many mid-sized ones. But glad to see them
| releasing sets that seem more focused on play than sitting
| on a shelf.
| thenoblesunfish wrote:
| This article is aimed at younger kids, before normal Lego is
| appropriate. I like Duplo more than magnatiles - slightly
| harder to clean up I suppose, but that's because they hold
| together better than magnatiles, which create quite fragile
| structures.
| jerkstate wrote:
| Unfortunately, LEGO has decided that they want to make mostly
| high-margin co-branded sets with Nintendo, Pokemon,
| Minecraft, Star Wars, Monster Jam, F1, etc rather than cool
| engineering sets with a lot of flexible pieces that can be
| built into lots of different things. Luckily Chinese vendors
| like Uncle Brick and Mould King have stepped in to offer huge
| sets of Technics compatible parts, including simple motors
| that LEGO simply does not make anymore, for not much money.
| It's really too bad that Lego abandoned that market. I would
| certainly pay a premium for the original stuff but a lot of
| what I would like is just not available. Now, I still buy a
| lot of the branded LEGO stuff, but the Chinese stuff has also
| entered the rotation for the older kids who are interested in
| engineering.
| abanana wrote:
| In the late 1990s, Lego went the other way with those big
| single-purpose pieces, and were heavily criticised
| (particularly by older Lego fans) for "juniorisation" - over-
| simplifying sets so you just couldn't build anything
| different with the pieces. You can't build buildings out of
| big vehicle parts.
|
| Sounds like it's gone too far the other way now and they're
| still not managing to find a middle ground? But it does
| depend partly on what age of kids we're talking about.
| makeitdouble wrote:
| We didn't see any of the toys in the article , but had a lot of
| other magnetic and combinable toys. The big advantage over Lego
| was building sizeable things with fewer blocks.
|
| Duplo blocs come close, but they are pricey (hard to gift
| second hand toys) and you can only stack them when the other
| toys interlock in more interesting ways. For small kids,
| building an articulating shape the size of their arm with 4 or
| 5 blocs is really magical.
| veryfancy wrote:
| Our problem with modern lego is that the sets are so cool and
| complex that the kids don't want to take them apart after
| they're built.
|
| The 11yo wants few new sets now because he doesn't know where
| he would put them, and declines to swap out his assembled sets.
| crowbahr wrote:
| You can get brick sets that are just a bunch of bricks - look
| up Creative Brick Box or Creative Vehicle Box
|
| Feels just like Grandma's ole box o bricks
| bigstrat2003 wrote:
| That's something I've run into myself. I just recently
| finished the Enterprise Lego set, and it was fun to build...
| but I doubt if I will ever take it apart and rebuild it.
| There were 30 bags in that set, and I don't much fancy the
| prospect of trying to sift through all the pieces at once
| rebuilding the thing.
| dotancohen wrote:
| Finish a set? Lego Enterprise? Don't want to build anything
| else with it?
|
| I see that the Lego I remember and the Lego of today are
| two vastly different things.
| zem wrote:
| when I was a kid I wanted some of the specialised sets simply
| because they had exciting new pieces like windshields, gears,
| dish antennas, etc. I don't think I ever made the actual
| thing the set was intended for, I just wanted to add new
| pieces to my lego bin.
| speedgoose wrote:
| Skill issue. You should try to not step on Lego bricks.
| dotancohen wrote:
| Yes, and I've perfected that skill against sidewalk cracks,
| ants, and bubble gum for quite some time.
| sallveburrpi wrote:
| You heard of Duplo? It's like Lego but big.
| bombcar wrote:
| Those Minecraft blocks or the cheap Chinese knockoffs are
| sharper than a blade and a real pain.
| phantasmish wrote:
| Can confirm that Magnatiles, specifically, were maybe the best
| value for the dollar we ever got out of toys for our kids. Idk if
| the quality has held up but our kids abused the hell out of the
| things and it took them years to finally break just a couple of
| them (the largest ones are the most vulnerable). They have
| incredible range, good for babies but still seeing use as a
| supporting toy up to their tweens. Kinda pricey but if the
| quality is still as good as it was years ago (can't say, the ~3
| sets we bought over a couple years held up so well we never
| bought any more) they're easily worth it.
|
| We have tons of Lego too but these were far better play-value for
| the dollar. Not even close. Can't say if the knockoff brands are
| as good.
|
| (Can't vouch for any of the rest of these but those giant
| magnetic tiles look potentially like a much better investment
| than dedicated e.g. kitchen playsets, way more versatile)
| sokoloff wrote:
| This was the first toy I expected to see on the list. Can agree
| that, though they are somewhat expensive, our kids played with
| them frequently for the better part of a decade and then we
| passed them along to cousins who completed the decade of play
| and then some.
|
| We got some fabric bins to store them in, which made cleanup a
| 2 minute affair if adults helped or 5 minutes if the kids did
| it alone.
|
| Highly recommend.
| jakeydus wrote:
| I never thought of playing make believe as just being the dm
| for kids but that's really fun.
| showerst wrote:
| FWIW I bought some 2 years ago and the quality is still very
| high.
| germinalphrase wrote:
| We have bought a bunch of them secondhand. They arrive already
| scratched up, but who cares.
| yread wrote:
| I would be worried that they break, the magnets fall out and
| the kids stick it in some orifice
| dcre wrote:
| The brand-name ones are surprisingly durable. Can't speak to
| the cheaper knockoffs.
| modeless wrote:
| I think this is worth worrying about, especially with
| knockoff magnatiles. The magnets are small enough to swallow.
| If a child swallows two they could die, for the same reason
| that "buckyball" magnet toys were banned: the magnets can
| snap together with intestinal tissue in between and perforate
| the intestinal wall.
| sanj wrote:
| Can I suggest putting a strand of Christmas lights inside the
| completed structure? They get a little diffused and look really
| cool.
|
| For bonus points, get pics of your kids' faces lit by only that
| light.
|
| Boom: next year's card.
| rsync wrote:
| We just aged out of this as our youngest child is now 11, but I
| can affirm that magnatiles are fantastic and fun - and that is
| coming from someone who _lionizes_ legos and considers them the
| ne plus ultra of toys for children.
|
| That being said ...
|
| We got a lot of mileage - many good years of use from male and
| female children - out of "Snap Circuits":
|
| https://elenco.com/
|
| A very, very cool building ecosystem with easy to build and
| understand recipes - we built a working FM radio, for instance.
| Not at all fussy or fragile.
|
| My children are not particularly "STEMy" but they all enjoyed
| breaking out the "circuit kit".
| Macha wrote:
| I can confirm as someone that had these or a very similar kit
| as a kid that they were enjoyable and the knowledge proved
| useful when I started working with real circuits in high
| school and college.
| 7thaccount wrote:
| Magnatiles are great for adults who want to play with their
| kids too.
|
| The most fun my kid had was playing make believe games with me.
| Like I'd say "you're lost in a forest and you see a cabin up
| ahead and a trail that goes past it. What do you do"? And we'd
| go from there. Zero dollar cost and unlimited hours of fun
| until they grow up enough and don't want to play anymore.
| Aurornis wrote:
| > Idk if the quality has held up
|
| I can vouch for the quality of modern magnatiles
|
| The problem now is that there are a zillion knock-offs sold
| everywhere, both retail shops and online. We don't buy them,
| but the kids get them as gifts. They all have something
| different, from the magnet positioning to the outer dimensions,
| presumably to try to dodge some patents. These become the weak
| point in bigger builds or throw off the dimensions in ways that
| add up and cause early collapse.
|
| I've been quietly removing the gifted knock offs and replacing
| them with real ones because it makes the experience less
| frustrating.
|
| We're starting to have the same problem with LEGO now
| r0m4n0 wrote:
| This year the family favorite everyone was fighting to play
| including the adults was the new litebrite touch
| https://amzn.to/3MROaJs
|
| Really satisfying to click the buttons and see the super bright
| lights as a young kid. The games like mirror were easy yet
| technical which had us all competing for high scores. Definitely
| well thought out
|
| Everyone appreciated it didn't involve cleanup of any little
| plastic pieces like the original litebright
| derwiki wrote:
| Also makes it usable for a smaller child! Great rec, thank you
| tsoukase wrote:
| For small(ish) kids there is a certain correlation between play-
| and clean-up-time. If there was a toy which deviated, it would
| become blockbuster and there are hardly any such. Electronic
| screens are popular as nannies because of this.
|
| Personally I choose all types in rotation. One toy of high
| duration is Play-Doh but afterwards needs a cleaning machine.
| avereveard wrote:
| Electronics are popualar also because there's a higher
| proportion of only child and parents have only so much time to
| dedicate to child play
| tsoukase wrote:
| True, not only for single child but for many with different
| sex, large age difference or simply careless parents.
| mrob wrote:
| The set of toys I spent the most time playing with was a big bag
| of wooden blocks my grandfather gave me when I was very small.
| They are well designed, with a good selection of different
| shapes, e.g. it has cylinders and arches and thin planks as well
| as cuboids. They got a lot of use because they're so flexible in
| combining with other toys, e.g. you can build roads and garages
| for toy cars, or obstacle courses for rolling marbles. The edges
| and corners are rounded and the wood tough enough that clean-up
| was just dropping them back into the bag.
|
| I've since given them to a nephew and I'm happy to see he gets
| just as much entertainment out of them as I did. Plain wooden
| blocks can represent almost anything. There are no batteries or
| moving parts to fail. Mine got a little bit of surface wear but
| they still work just as well as they did when they were new and
| small children don't care about perfect appearance. I wouldn't be
| surprised if they end up getting passed down to another
| generation and continue to provide the same entertainment. I
| highly recommend this kind of simple toy for young children.
| itishappy wrote:
| 100% agree. Box of blocks cannot be beat. My sister and I used
| the hell out of ours: we built towers, cantilevers, mazes, Rube
| Goldberg devices, houses for rodents, vehicles, elaborate
| locks, catapults, you name it. They're still in the same
| condition as day 1, ready for our children.
|
| Bonus: You can roll a lot more down those long rubber
| racetracks than just cars.
|
| Bonus 2: Why did these go away?
| https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/chubs-baby-wipes-stac...
| vunderba wrote:
| Same. We had a kids' play table (low to the ground and
| rectangular) that we'd prop up with a few blocks under one end
| to give it a slight incline. We'd spend hours covering the
| surface with blocks in different positions to simulate a
| pinball table.
|
| Then we'd take a large marble and use two long triangular
| blocks as flippers to "play" on it.
|
| Tilting was _NOT_ advised.
| andyjohnson0 wrote:
| > I highly recommend this kind of simple toy for young
| children.
|
| As a parent I very much agree. And for grown-up children too.
|
| On my desk I have a small tin containing small wooden blocks
| and planks, arches, etc. I get lots of play value from them -
| when my thinking is blocked, or if I just want to fool around
| and not think at all. I'm in my mid fifties.
|
| And over at my climbing club's off-grid climbing hut we have a
| big box of over-sized, home made jenga blocks. Pretty-much
| everyone plays with them: not only jenga, but also just
| building structures or giant domino runs or whatever.
|
| We all need to play sometimes.
| kleinishere wrote:
| Encountered these miniature wood marble runs in Switzerland.
| Still on my "wish list." Sounds like you may enjoy them, too.
|
| https://cuboro.ch/en/
| rawgabbit wrote:
| Very cool. I live in the US though. How can I order it?
| jjulius wrote:
| Looks like their site links to a good number of US stores
| that sell them, many mom/pop. While there may not be a
| store close enough to you, perhaps there's one that would
| ship to you.
| fragmede wrote:
| https://a.co/d/24vvgsO
| gdhkgdhkvff wrote:
| Sticking to the magnetile theme of the OP, my kids and I
| have spent the most time and most occasions playing with
| the mangetile marble run kits. It works so well.
| yial wrote:
| As an adult, I bought on impulse a set of wooden dominos
| intended for domino runs. It included a few other props. It
| was on clearance for almost nothing because the box was
| damaged.
|
| With friends and family on occasion (individuals ranging in
| age from 27-70) , multiple hours have passed setting up and
| playing with this domino set.
|
| I really believe that play is vitally important at all ages.
| MrBuddyCasino wrote:
| Plus, wooden blocks look a lot nicer than plastic stuff. I try
| to avoid plastic items because they inevitably ruin a room's
| aesthetic.
| gattr wrote:
| I had such blocks as well. For a recent take on this, I can
| recommend Kapla, typically come in a large (a couple 100s) box
| of skinny rectangular cuboids. I had fun doing, ahem,
| preliminary testing, before gifting them to my niece.
| marcinignac wrote:
| I got set for my son after noticing he loves stacking Jenga
| blocks and generic Kapla gets 10x more usage than Lego.
|
| Can it be that the moment Lego moved from mostly bricks to
| custom single use shapes for every kit the joy of combining
| them died? My kids build car, Dino, Harry Potter set once and
| then gather dust. Bridges, castles, towers and roads from
| Kapla get rebuild every day.
| nuancebydefault wrote:
| When I was young there were fewer types of shapes but a lot
| of new sets contained a lot of such specialized shapes. I
| rather played with the lego i found in the attic.
| ssl-3 wrote:
| Wooden blocks were great.
|
| At one point way back then, my dad made something in the
| workshop that improved them tremendously: Wooden boards.
|
| These were small, thin, very flat boards of oak -- about 3/16"
| thick and 3/4" wide. Their lengths varied in 2" increments, and
| the length of each board was written on it.
|
| With boards added in, the blocks got a lot more interesting.
| Fastening was still limited to gravity, but things like
| cantilevers started happening.
| yial wrote:
| I have a love of wooden blocks.
|
| I've seen some sets that are blocks with random flat surfaces
| but still balanced.
|
| However, I notice that many antique block sets seem far
| superior to newer sets.
|
| (I'm sure someone must make an amazing new set, I see some
| suggestions in the comments).
|
| Having made some wooden block sets from scratch, what I am
| always amazed about with a good set is balance / size of
| pieces, coupled with variety and quantity. The balance being a
| vitally important part that seems to be overlooked in "bad"
| sets.
| mjlee wrote:
| Magna tiles are my favourite of my kid's toys.
|
| Bonus adult points - how do they work? How is it the tiles always
| stick to each other no matter the orientation? Easy once you
| know, but it took me (and friends with physics degrees) a little
| thinking to get.
| mingus88 wrote:
| Also, did you see the huge tiles? Wow! I had no idea but my
| kids would love building forts and rooms
| mjlee wrote:
| I know! I definitely need those. For the kids, of course.
| jstummbillig wrote:
| Right
| ivanjermakov wrote:
| Question from a not-parent: why not teach kids to clean up for
| themselves?
| makeitdouble wrote:
| You can teach a 4~5 yo kid to clean up. Below that it probably
| comes down to personality/level of awareness, and it's probably
| a lost cause for 2 year olds and below.
|
| Then you'll want an adult to deal with the body fluids and
| other nasty stuffs.
|
| PS; what I mean by "teach a 4-5 yo kid" is really spending a
| lot of time with them rehearsing cleaning and drilling it down.
| It pays dividends, but you'll be spending months and months, if
| not years, doing the cleaning with them at a slower pace than
| if you did it just yourself.
| cosmicgadget wrote:
| Low cleanup time is even more important for kids doing it than
| grownups.
| Waterluvian wrote:
| > The worst toy is one with many pieces that my kids dump on the
| ground and then play with for only 2 minutes.
|
| One of my favourite toys was Mouse Trap. I never once actually
| played the game. Building it and setting it off once or twice was
| plenty.
|
| I agree with some of the sentiment of this blog but I also think
| it's discarding a perfectly valid side to toys and play.
| stouset wrote:
| I think so many 90s kids had this same experience. The Rube
| Goldberg trap was so much fun to build and play with, nobody
| bothered to even try and learn the game itself!
| vunderba wrote:
| Trivial Pursuit was like this too. Our family would chill in
| the den just randomly asking each other questions from the
| cards. I'm not sure we _ever_ actually played it using the
| board game part.
| mvid wrote:
| As an uncle, is there an opposite version of this list?
| mft_ wrote:
| If in doubt, buy a musical instrument.
|
| Or paint. Or glitter.
| paulryanrogers wrote:
| Warning: once glitter enters your home it will never leave.
| You may have to move.
| doubled112 wrote:
| Some glitter comes anyway. My wife figure skated. It's been
| years, more than a decade, and several moves. Still find it
| from time to time.
| bhaak wrote:
| Kinectic sand is the modern subtle version of glitter.
| vunderba wrote:
| Yes. It's starts and ends with Perfection.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfection_(board_game)
| rjsw wrote:
| If you don't like your siblings, how about a drum kit?
| petesergeant wrote:
| that dispenses Thai energy drinks
| makeitdouble wrote:
| Pokemon cards.
|
| Even kids who can't read yet will somewhat play with them
| outside of the rules. Except they're fragile, easy to lose,
| will bring fights and other troubles as they grow up, and cost
| a ton more money if they really get hooked.
| mcphage wrote:
| Don't forget noisy. Have you considered an Otamatone?
| pavel_lishin wrote:
| The ideal "fuck you, parents" present must be noisy, and yet
| must require no batteries. Drums & cymbals are a good choice,
| as is a vuvuzela or an Aztec death whistle.
| bdangubic wrote:
| the absolute best fuck you present is no present at all,
| there is _nothing_ parents like more than kids that have
| nothing to do
| tasuki wrote:
| As a parent: no. We have way more toys than necessary,
| and yet keep getting more from all sides. All the parents
| I know have the same situation.
| pavel_lishin wrote:
| There are five stuffed tigers on the floor of our living
| room right now, liberated from their packages.
|
| There are 37 more in the child's bedroom.
| bdangubic wrote:
| I am 51 and have never (nor will ever) buy a toy for a
| human - pets only
| oblio wrote:
| I'm confused. Are you bragging that you never gifted a
| toy in 51 years?
| bdangubic wrote:
| aha, I am. and everyone should strive to be like me
| oblio wrote:
| I guess on what you define as a toy. Is a Lego Technics
| set a toy? Is a model plane that requires assembly a toy?
| Is a drone a toy?
|
| Also... if you ever meet a family with a baby or a
| toddler, I guess you'd gift them clothes?
| pavel_lishin wrote:
| Do you want to expand on that?
| bdangubic wrote:
| for kids, only money for college/investment fund. nothing
| else, ever
| bigstrat2003 wrote:
| A vuvuzela is mean. I'm not even related to you (I think),
| and I want to disown you for that suggestion.
| jerkstate wrote:
| Anything that makes noise; squeaky toys, fart sound generators,
| lazer guns, etc
| cosmicgadget wrote:
| Any sort of goo or slime.
| zamadatix wrote:
| Am I not loading all of this article? It basically stops for me
| after saying "magnet toys top the list" with 3 examples of such
| (well, really 2) for me, with no real investigation into other
| toys or exploration of why the variants like the Minecraft magnet
| toy scored much worse in cleanup (I assume it's due to the piece
| size?). Anything about toys other than magnet blocks?
|
| Another type of toy I've seen fit this bill has been
| wooden/plastic train tracks (the solid larger pieces type, not
| flimsy model type, and simple sturdy trains to go on them). It
| still has the element of customization and playing with what you
| build but cleanup is "scoop the large pieces into a bucket" (and
| stepping on them usually isn't painful!)
| honeycrispy wrote:
| They're a parent. They probably don't have enough time to write
| a comprehensive article if this article isn't paying the bills.
| zamadatix wrote:
| The confusion was less on the author and more on the
| submission reaching the top of the front page - it wouldn't
| have been the first time the issue was my ad blocker or
| something. Thanks for confirming!
| derwiki wrote:
| Parents looking for a quick break on Christmas morning
| crowbahr wrote:
| Minecraft: weak magnets
| geerlingguy wrote:
| For a younger kid, a ball is often a good option.
|
| This Christmas, after putting aside the push car, some books, and
| a few other little toys from the grandparents, my 1 year old has
| spent the past 30 minutes chasing a large beach ball one of his
| siblings brought up from the basement.
|
| I can second the recommendation for magnet tiles, though;
| everyone in the family seems to enjoy the satisfaction of them
| clicking together, and finding new ways to build random stuff.
| The toddler just makes stacks of magnet tiles, which is fine for
| his development. The 8-12 year olds enjoy building relatively
| complex structures. Then watching the 1 year old act like
| Godzilla an destroy it.
| thechao wrote:
| Blocks is the top comment (for me); and yours is number two.
| Timeless classic. Another one could be plasticine clay. These
| toys afford play, they don't direct, restrict, or guide play.
| Other good toys like this: box, stick, the woods, paper
| (especially a big roll of butcher paper), and things to draw
| with (I find a black, red, blue, yellow and green sufficient).
| 7402 wrote:
| I recently needed to make a mockup of something, so I got
| some plasticine from Amazon, since I remembered playing with
| the stuff when I was a kid. However what I received was quite
| stiff and left an unpleasant oily smell on my hands that I
| had to scrub off with a lot of effort. Is there a particular
| brand of plasticine that you have had a good experience with?
| oblio wrote:
| Why not Playdoh?
| kankerlijer wrote:
| For all the toys my kids received until they hit 3+, they
| probably got the most enjoyment out of cardboard boxes.
| sallveburrpi wrote:
| As a former child my favourites were Playmobile, Lego, Duplo,
| wooden blocks and those little matchbox cars.
|
| For cleaning we just dumped everything into a big box.
| Repeatability is endless
| tirant wrote:
| I also loved Playmobil. But they were so much better in the
| 80s, early 90s, when all the figures were exactly the same,
| except by the colors, so it meant they were all flexible to be
| dressed up as anything you wanted.
|
| Nowadays each playmobil doll is extremely personalized which
| removes the flexibility to dress them as anything and limits
| the imagination and originality. Such a pity. No wonder
| Playmobil almost went bankrupt recently.
| jnwatson wrote:
| The best toy my sister and I got is a now long-discontinued
| product called Omagles. They were brightly colored tubes and
| panels you connected with plastic clips. They were strong enough
| to stand and climb on. They even had wheels we could make
| vehicles out of.
|
| They were so good I bought a used one for my own kid who had a
| great time with them.
|
| After some Googling, I see that the rights to Omagles were bought
| and are now sold under the brand Tubelox.
| evmar wrote:
| Exact same for me! Just ten minutes ago my son opened his Xmas
| present, his first box of TubeLox. My expectations and hopes
| are high but he is currently distracted by the flashier
| presents.
| Cerium wrote:
| There is also Quadro Toys. I have a couple of the large sets
| and have built a series of houses, climbing toys, and now a
| "castle" with a slide for my daughter.
| jdalgetty wrote:
| Magna tiles are easy to clean up in the they stick to each other
| sense, but I still find them all over the house.
| Tade0 wrote:
| > Maybe I feel the satisfaction of clicking them together as I
| clean them up. Cleaning becomes a little like playing.
|
| My preschooler daughter got Magna Tiles for Christmas and she's
| cleaning them up herself, which is a first for her.
|
| I'm surprised the Minecraft blocks feel less strong - Magna Tiles
| seem to be using standard AlNiCo magnets and I expected, given
| the price, that the Minecraft ones would be using neodymium
| magnets, but apparently they're not and this weakness comes from
| magnets being only at the corners.
| bombcar wrote:
| The Minecraft blocks have some strength but not much so you can
| easily take them apart. But they are very sharp. Way worse than
| Lego to step on.
| SV_BubbleTime wrote:
| This should be a graded metric.
| efnx wrote:
| Hot take - Along these lines video games score incredibly well.
|
| Arguably not a "toy", but it's interesting to think about.
| breve wrote:
| I tell my kids to imagine they have the toys they want.
|
| It's good for their development and the clean-up-time can't be
| beat.
| aqme28 wrote:
| That's what the magnatiles are for. The toy they really want is
| a rocket ship, so instead we give them a cheap little tool to
| imagine it with.
| jerkstate wrote:
| We have some magnet tiles that have tubes and ramps for building
| marble mazes with - they are probably the most popular toy in the
| house. The thing about magnet tiles is there are several brands
| but they're incompatible so it's best to buy multiple sets from a
| single brand.
| cnees wrote:
| I can't recommend enough ordering a $10 collapsible ball pen. My
| son understood even at age 2 that some toys needed to be played
| with in his play pen, and it means I can let him play with toys
| with hundreds of pieces and then scoop them all up at once.
| jstummbillig wrote:
| I really wish people would declare ages when talking about kid
| toys. Anywho, any banger toy recommendation for a 1yo?
| bombcar wrote:
| Literally something to bang, like a toy hammer.
|
| Or take them to a library that has toys, see what they play
| with, and then go buy that.
| evan_ wrote:
| These little wooden shaker eggs went over quite well with my
| 18mo nephew:
|
| https://www.amazon.com/HABA-Musical-Eggs-Acoustic-Germany/dp...
|
| He's also enjoying the Mega Bloks someone got him though he's
| mostly just sticking them together and throwing them.
| NiloCK wrote:
| Another overlooked characteristic of a toy, especially a toy that
| takes up space, is "doneness".
|
| Lots of free-play toys that my own kids use (4 and 7) can
| unconditionally be defended as _still in use_. They haven 't been
| touched in an hour, but an ask to put it away is met with "I'm
| still playing with that". So: nothing gets put away until a
| parent pulls authority and overrules the kid's declaration that
| the game is still going. Understandably, the kids find this
| unfair and sort of demeaning.
|
| A board game is different in so far as it has an ending. The kids
| never try to weasel out of putting Hungy Hungry Hippo or chess
| pieces or whatever back into a box.
| fwipsy wrote:
| There were only two toys I never got tired of -- legos, and
| computers. Both encourage open-ended creativity. (I had older
| lego house sets which were quite flexible. Modern lego pieces
| seem more specialized.) Unfortunately, so many pieces took
| several minutes to clean up, so I would just leave them spread
| out across my bedroom floor for months at a time. These days when
| I want to play with legos I put a bedsheet down first.
|
| Also, I read another article from the author and subscribed just
| based on how concisely she expresses her ideas. She just gets her
| point across, then quits. I love it.
| mettamage wrote:
| To me, game consoles were toys. Maybe they are a lot more now but
| the SNES and N64 felt like toys. The pc felt like a toy too.
|
| I am very likely to be a father in the future. I am happy I have
| all my old consoles because it helps a bit with introducing kids
| to technology without them having access to all of it.
|
| Soccer outside was fun too, there was a field nearby our house.
| SV_BubbleTime wrote:
| Ah. So they are federated with minimal compatibility issues.
| There may be a lesson here.
| fidrelity wrote:
| When I read the title the first thing that came to my mind were
| Magna Tiles. Glad they made it on the list.
|
| It's the only toy in the house that lasted the test of time from
| she 4-8 (and counting). Also I love tidying up Magna tiles, even
| that is fun!
|
| My oldest kid got a small sample of Clixco and was surprisingly
| entertained even with a limited set of possibilities they
| offered. They're great fidget toys as well.
| SV_BubbleTime wrote:
| I annoy my wife by sorting magnet tiles away color type AND
| color. I do it as fast as possible with mock sorting
| algorithms. She shoves them back into the box.
| metaketa wrote:
| Tiptoi
| galkk wrote:
| Your mileage may vary...
|
| As soon as I got first Minecraft block to my 5yo, the magnatiles
| were almost forgotten. And she never played Minecraft in her
| life, but saw the movie and some YouTube vids. The fact that the
| tiles have an image and purpose is a huge benefit, because she
| creates better stories with them.
|
| But I got it only after i got kiddo to cleanup her toys from the
| floor regularly.
| gervwyk wrote:
| I'm surprised no one mentions Knex. By far my childhood favorite,
| and for me, far more creative opportunity when comparing to
| something like lego.
| chhxdjsj wrote:
| Has anyone had experienced with the giant magnet tiles? This
| article seems like suspicious affiliate marketing which places
| are beloved product that everybody has beside one that looks kind
| of similar.
| SV_BubbleTime wrote:
| First I'm seeing them, but that means very little. Every
| preschool we used had the normal magnet tiles though so I'm
| familiar with the concept.
|
| Fair to question this. Most things are fake and... lame.
| somat wrote:
| I vote the cardboard box, especially if it is a large appliance
| box, Unfortunately you can't really give someone a large
| cardboard box, but oh boy are they fun.
| rolisz wrote:
| I can't convince my wife to let my kids keep the big cardboard
| box, even though they love it!
| konart wrote:
| > I score my toys across 3 dimensions
|
| What about kid's development? The whole point (okay, not while
| but the biggest) of a game is learning something.
| pverheggen wrote:
| The toy with the most longevity from my childhood were those
| cardboard bricks. Could be used for anything from forts, towers,
| hamster mazes, throwable weapons...
|
| Not the quickest toy to clean up, but still fun since it's a
| building activity of its own, stacking them against a wall or
| something.
| xg15 wrote:
| A phone would get perfect score in all of OP's metrics, so I feel
| there is some stuff missing to identify really good toys.
| mttch wrote:
| After my daughter turned 4, the 'toy' with the most play time and
| lowest clean up time was a good pad of blank paper and colouring
| pencils. The bonus is that it takes up little room and is
| therefore highly portable. Furthermore, if you forget it, you can
| replace it easily and cheaply!
| rolisz wrote:
| Ehrm, I beg to differ. My 4 year old daughter has recently also
| started loving to draw. But, she pretty much refuses to let go
| of her masterpieces, at least we conviced her to store them in
| a shoebox, so they're not spread all over the house. And the
| pencils... Well, I've been picking up an awful lot of pencils
| from all over the house.
|
| So I'm not sure I agree with the "lowest clean up time", even
| though I'm really glad she's picked this up as a "hobby".
| stocksinsmocks wrote:
| I feel like this list says a lot more about what the author wants
| her kids to be interested in than a real survey of the whole toy
| market. There are a few stuffed animals that get tons of love,
| and the magnet blocks were a hit for a couple months but then
| they got old. This is going to trigger a deluge of unsolicited
| admonition, but the television and the Nintendo switch have by
| far the highest entertainment value per dollar spent.
| threethirtytwo wrote:
| smartphone. but everyone here is psychologically against this
| even though it's true.
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