What are your 5 yo DS's favourite toys?

[TheHouseofMirth]

Really at a loss as to what to give DS1 for his birthday. I know he'll get a lot of Ben10/Power Rangers rubbish stuff from ois friends so I'd prefer to get him something a bit more worthy. Am thinking about a marble run and possibly a remote control car.

What have been yur DSs' favourites at this age?

Ooo marble run, marble run!

I'm not 5 but that made me excited so I'd imagine a 5 year old would LUUUUURVE one. I am going to have to remember that idea for my 5 year old DS's next birthday!

I wouldn't get a remote control car as, in my experience, they end up broken fairly quickly and you've wasted £30 on a car that needs pushed by hand that you could have bought for £4.

yes marble run is briliant.
the stuff my ds still plays with are lego and his bike and train set stuff.
Agree RC cars just get broken

flipflopper what kind of marble run do you have? I was wondering about a woooden one - the ELC one looks a bit flimsy to me.

Lego, lego and more lego.

The boys are 6 and nearly 8 now, but 5 was the age that they got into lego.

Scalextric was also a hit.

I thought the ELC marble run was a great big waste of money - quite tricky to erect and keeps falling apart. a wooden one sounds sturdier. my ds likes new (smaller) lego, his city garage, train set, puzzles and his little vtech computer. also outdoors stuff - bike/scooter/sand and water table, football.

Lego! Definitely. Either a set he can build with instructions or a big tub of mixed blocks.

Thanks.

We've already got a hundredweight of Lego belonging to DH that MIL had kept! Plus DH bought him the City freight train set for Christmas.

The plastic marble runs look fiddly to put together and I think that should be part of the fun for DS but the wooden ones don't look as exciting. Will have to investigate further.

I did wonder about a vtech computer. Up until now we have strongly resisted any electronic toys but it does seem a bit silly to maintain that position when he uses a computer at school.

helyg did you have a good experience of Skalextric? I had some when I was little and it never semed to run smoothly or work properly. But that was 30 years ago...

www.amazon.co.uk/Marbutopia-Glow-Dark-Marble-Pieces/dp/B000KDS6RG/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=toys&qid=1276 809277&sr=8-6 this is one similar to ours, its the same make.Its good quality and not flimsy. You might need a couple of sets to make a decent size run.
It is a bit tricky for them to make on their own, oyu will have to do it for them or the marble doesnt run the right way!

We had the my first scalextric and it was quite good, but now broken it was fiddly to set up too and the cars kept stopping all the time.

Mobilo mobilo mobilo. In fact mobilo was a hit for his 4th birthday and has been played with every week since and is now being used to make some quite complicated vehicles. DS2 (3) also loves it as does my nephew 6.

Also lego and the lego games, minotaurus in particular

DS got this remote control car when he was 5 and it is still going strong 2 years later.

I remember a thread on here a while ago that said Quadrilla was the marble run to get. Just googling it and there's loads of different kits and it looks really good.

there was also a thread on here that listed vtech as the toy most hated by parents

we have the plastic marble run and I my boys absolutely love it

playmobil is enduringly popular in this house although the hoover has eaten quite a few pieces

Our scalextric runs fine as long as it is set up properly (usually a job for me or DH!). Although we still have DH's set from the 70s and that still works OK too, bet the new one won't still work in 30 years time!