Best toys for 9-year-olds in 2026, as recommended by parents

Kids of this age love LEGO as it is absorbing and challenging and can be constructed with the help of parents, siblings or friends. 

Harry Potter-themed LEGO sets are regularly found amongst the bestseller lists and with good reason. Regularly recommended by Mumsnet users, not only do they feature iconic scenes from the books and movies, they also offer challenging builds that are fun to create and offer excellent play value once complete.

The LEGO Battle of Hogwarts set is our top pick for 9-year-olds. With six mini figures included, the building can be easily broken apart in battle while children recreate iconic wand duals between Harry and Voldemort. This fantastic set is also compatible with other Harry Potter LEGO sets, allowing children to add to existing sets and expand their collection. 

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Tested by Mumsnet editor Laura Cooke: Exploding Kittens review: chaotic card game is a hit with all ages

The Exploding Kittens Game is our best budget buy as it provides fun for all the family in the form of a portable card game at a great price. It’s award-winning and incredibly has sold more than ten million copies.

We loved that this drawing-based game is super-quick to learn, wacky and fun. Nine-year-olds can have a dark sense of humour, so they’ll enjoy the dramatic name and being covered in 'sad sauce' when they lose!

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Claiming to be the lightest and most portable goal for this age group, the Quickplay Kickster football goal takes less than two minutes to assemble using a preattached flexible pole system that couldn’t be more intuitive to set up. 

Robust and flexible, it makes a great addition to the back garden for football fans - both kids who fancy themselves as future Lions or Lionesses and those who simply enjoy a kick around with their friends and family. Thanks to the convenient carry bag included, it’s also quick and easy to stash away when not in use. 
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Children are beginning to understand and be excited about more complex scientific processes at nine. The KidzLabs Anti-Gravity Maglev Kit taps into that new appetite for discovery in a fun way. We think it's one of the best science toys for a nine-year-old, as well as one of the overall best STEM toys for kids.

Once the durable and high-quality kit is assembled, a doable challenge for this age, they will see a rotating pencil and screw defy gravity by floating in the air and learn all about magnetic levitation technology.

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If your 9-year-old loves brain teasers and puzzles, they’ll really get their mind working with this fun and portable game from Learning Resources. 

With three ways to play including 2D, sliding 2D and an impressive 3D mode, children must find the correct positioning of pieces in their pick of over 300 puzzles - some of which are far more challenging than they appear at the outset.

Whether they’re playing alone or competing with family and friends, this is a fun travel game that’s just as much fun for adults as it is the kids. 

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Roller skates are a childhood classic and a fun way for your child to exercise. These Xootz four-wheeled quad skates are extra safe thanks to the stabilising extra wheels, robust PVC stopper and cushioned ankle support. They are perfect for beginners.

The 608z bearings in the wheels will provide a smooth ride over pavements, in the garden, and indoors and the easy-to-adjust fit is suitable for 9 - 12 in the small boots and 13 - 3 in the medium, so there’s plenty of growing room.

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If your 9-year-old is football-obsessed, chances are they’ll love collecting football cards and trading them with their friends. A great way to store their collection, each of these stylish and portable tins comes with five card packs and two limited edition cards - making a fun way to follow the premier league and kick of the new season in style.

The downside? Their obsession with football cards can soon become extreme and with some cards much harder to find than others, it’s fair to say they may pick up some duplicates along the way. We recommend that you tap into the parents’ WhatsApp groups to check for trades and swaps.

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The Instax Instant Camera is the ideal gift for creative children and budding young photographers. It produces full-colour credit card-sized photos in a flash and is the perfect size for small hands. It also has a selfie lens and automatic exposure to create pictures to treasure every time.

This camera, combined with a pack of Instax film, is a relatively expensive gift. However, your child will still be using it at sleepovers and parties well into their teenage years. It has a hand strap to prevent accidental drops and a comprehensive yet easy-to-understand user manual.

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The Rummikub Game is one of the best learning toys for nine-year-olds who love numbers and trying to outwit their parents. Rummikub is excellent value, as it’s suitable for kids over seven, and two to four people can play it, so that’s siblings and friends or the whole family.

It’s a wonderfully old-fashioned strategy game that will bring your family together and teach your child how to make a plan and execute it. It’s lightweight, excellent for taking on holiday and made from high-quality, long-lasting materials.

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The Zu3D Stop-Motion Animation Kit would make an awesome gift for a nine-year-old who loves movies, as they’ll be able to direct their own short animation. The plasticine modelling needed to create the characters will also appeal to arty kids.

This great value kit includes an impressive quality webcam, innovative software with sound effects, music and artwork, a green screen and modelling clay. However, you can use small toys, LEGO figures and Sylvanian families instead.

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The KumiKreator Friendship Bracelet and Necklace Maker is a classic for any child who loves jewellery, fashion and arts and crafts. Generations of kids have made friendship bracelets for their school friends, and this clever machine allows them to create more intricate designs; from their own imagination or those in the glossy ideas booklet.

The ‘Kreator’ is made from tough plastic, and the coordinating colours of purple, pink, blue and silver will look gorgeous, whatever the combination. The threads are soft and silky and won’t break easily. Watch the video the instruction booklet recommends; it will make the slightly fiddly setup much more straightforward!

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Bop It! is a classic toy that will provide hours of absorbing fun; adults will love it too, as following the ‘patterns’ is very relaxing. To ‘win,’ your child must pull, bop or twist as fast as they can when instructed by the cheerful voice of the toy. It can be played alone or by passing it quickly to friends.

The Bop It! is an excellent toy for developing three senses: hearing, touch and sight. It also promotes hand-eye coordination and concentration and gets the heart beating, especially when playing in a group.

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While they don’t come cheap, a Pokemon Elite Trainer Box is sure to delight Pokemon fans, containing a selection of exclusive and unique Pokemon cards to enhance and expand their collection. Addictive and fun with the tag line ‘gotta catch em all’, the more cards your child has, the more epic battles they can win against friends. 

As well as booster packs, energy cards and a code for the online trading game, this collectors box comes with dividers to keep everything organised inside - helping your 9-year-old lay their hands on their damage-counter dice and specific battle cards exactly when they need them. 

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What do you Meme? Family Edition, is a hilarious board game that is sure to have your 9-year-old (and even your 80-year-old uncle) laughing out loud. Suitable for 3-20 people to play together, players must complete to find the funniest caption to the meme cards presented in each round, with a rotating judge declaring which choice is the most funny.

Each game comes with 65 recognisable, age-appropriate memes from across the web and an easel so that every player gets a good giggle as they make their choice. While the memes can become familiar over time, we love how you can buy the expansion packs to extend the gameplay further. 

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The Fashion Sketchbook is one of the best toys in the world for nine-year-olds who adore fashion and drawing. It comes with figure templates made from high-quality, thick paper, so your youngster can design flamboyant, futuristic or glamourous outfits.

The lovely art book allows your future fashion designer to annotate their creations, and the figures feature a range of body shapes, which sets this apart from traditional fashion design books.

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The Nintendo Switch is an excellent first games console. It’s lightweight, portable and just the right size for smaller hands. Of course, they are expensive, but they are durable, and the features and games will be enjoyed for many years.

We were impressed by the easy-to-use, intuitive controls and simple set-up. The TV Game mode is excellent too; it allows the entire family to participate in fun physical challenges such as dance-offs and Olympic events.

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If your 9-year-old is outgrowing their Kindle Fire or has an iPad on their wishlist, the iPad Mini makes a great first tablet for older children. 

Lightweight and portable, while being perfectly proportioned for smaller hands, the 8.3-inch screen and True Tone display are ideal for everything from gaming to reading, as well as browsing the web and using educational apps. 

While the 64GB storage is not as generous as some, it’s ample for every day use, although you may find they want to upgrade to a full-size model as they grow up. You will also need to factor in the cost of a protective case - as this is a must in order to protect the screen from knocks and bumps. 

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Hexbugs Bugs In The Kitchen Game is fantastic fun for all the family. The tiny robot creatures scuttle around the 3D game board and need catching in the trap. It’s a simple yet exciting game that takes around 30 minutes, just the right length of time for a nine-year-olds attention span. The Hexbug is fun to play with on its own too.

All the components are great quality, as you would expect from a Ravensburger game, and the instructions are easy-to-understand, so your children can play happily without the help of adults. The whole thing also fits neatly back into the box, so missing pieces shouldn’t be an issue.

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