Toy reviews, or what will still get played with in 2011

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Following on from my thread about crap waste of money toys, I thought I'd start one about the toys that do get played with in our house once the tree comes down.

Super Mario Bros - gets played all the time.

Chad Valley Fire Station Playset - looks like a big fire engine and opens up to be a minature city. Again, gets played with loads.

What Wii & DS games do get played with? (my kids are 8)

Playmobil
Lego (random bricks not specific sets)
Plasticine/playdough

You could take everything else away from dd's room (well, not her pens/craft stuff, but toys) and I doubt she'd notice.

Fisher Price Animal Train, choo choo thing. Forget the name, but it's the £30 one with engine, trailer, elephant, giraffe and little monkey. Bought 2 Christmases ago and DS (2.5) still plays with it.

Fisher Price ride on lion. Bought last Christmas. DS riding it as we speak.

earwicga, I don't know if they have it for the Wii, but we have a game called Chibirobo for the Gamescube and it is 100% the best game I have ever seen for 7/8 year olds.

You control a small robot, that goes around a house cleaning up and making people happy. Which sounds utterly boring, but is enormously entertaining - DD was given it by her 24 y/o uncle, who also plays it with his friends :)

(Actually, I am pretty certain you can play gamescube games on the Wii anyway, and worth knowing its often available cheap on ebay.)

(Amazon reviews here )

Thanks Takver, that sounds great (and fits in with my plans to get them off their lazy arses and help me cleaning).

I should added that the Wii games need to be 2 player as 1 player games never get played by my children.

One of our best toys is the Quadrilla marble run. To keep interest you can add extras to it like the musical set. My girls are 6 and 3 and have had it a year and I can see it lasting a lot longer.

My ds (7 yrs) loves the Lego games on the wii and ds.

For 4-5 year olds

Bendy Bus
Garage
Build a Beetle
Shopping List (orchard games)
Cash Register (still being played with even though we bought it when DS was 2.

Ta IAP - mine loved the Star Wars one but because they never put it away in the box it got destroyed. And now it's not made anymore sigh

That should of been - One day I will remember that ** bolds things on here.

My ds is 9. Playmobil and Lego are the always-played-with toys. Plus drawing things, and books to read.

And a few beach toys for the summer.

All the other things he has are rarely played with. In fact we have given away a lot of stuff he never used.

Ah my DD loves build a beetle too!

She loves any games too: guess who, uno, this great disney game she got for her bday and as we love games we are happy to always play with her.

She loves her syvanians and polly pockets so those are all year round toys. So far she doesn't have any electrical type games (wii or ds or xbox) and i am holding off as she has such a great imagination for play i want to encourage that for as long as i can - she's 6 so plenty of time for those toys imo.

Bendaroos, both DCs play with this loads.

Ooh good thread idea.

Bricks - my DCs have loads, some recent from ELC and some from when I was a child (possibly also ELC!)

Got megablocks too, but am getting rid of other types of bricks as there is no point having ones that don't all fit. When both DCs are old enough I'll swap it for Lego - that new trio stuff looks cool but I'm sticking to Lego as I know it'll still be around and therefore I can add to it.

I love big brain academy on wii as there is the motivation to improve your score.

Other than that for my DCs I'm sticking to games rather than toys IYSWIM, so we can play together. I prefer simple games like from orchard toys, I hate all those gimmicky plastic games like shhh don't wake dad, uuugh.

Lego and duplo in this house, my 11 year old still loves duplo.
Puzzles.
Play dough.
Paints and crafty bits.
And I must admit the i pad is a big hit with us all, especially dd3 who is only 3

Oh the first bricks I mentioned are the coloured wooden ones. Have got bog standard ones and various special sets with funky patterns and shapes.

Also their wooden train set. What I love about it is that lots of different brands fit together unlike with electric ones. If you get the 'starter kit' type sets from a few different shops you get a wider range of accessories and trains too. I bought TCM/tchibo, Chad valley and ikea ones. Just bought a cheap turntable and buffers for DD's Xmas stocking :) I love the fact it can easily be added to.

Sylvanian Families are a huge hit herewith 8y DD.

Not a toy but an iPod Touch has also been a great buy.

Top thus far (oldest is 8):

Duplo
Lego - sets or bricks - anything Lego!
Polly Pocket (ugh)
Barbie (shudder)
Playmobil
Hot Wheels or similar cars & trucks - the track is garbage, though
Wooden train set
Plain wooden blocks in various shapes/sizes - those are still used in building projects
by the oldest & youngest
Candyland game
Puzzles

Ah yes, forgot to mention wooden train set. Ds had his when he was 2, and then added bits every year for a while. He still gets it out sometimes now.

sorry just came back to this - Chibi robo is one player, so no good for you earwicga

erm... teaset
wooden trains and train set
duplo
dressing up stuff (cheap hats from tesco mainly as they are easy to put on, and cheap)
musical instruments-(supermarket ones go well as stocking fillers)
the gift bags you get for christmas/bookstart
anything that his sister is currently holding.

dd4 ds2

'anything that his sister is currently holding' sums up our house.

train sets (wooden and thomas)
Playmobile
Lego
box of plastic animals (everyday for 3 years)