Present ideas for 5yr old (hard to please) boy

[pinkbluepinkblue]

He likes superheros, lego, football so obviously some starting points there. But, what I really want to find (& never have with ds so far!) is something that he really engages in & spends hours playing with. He isn't into play Mobil type stuff, not very into matchbox cars etc either.

Ideally something he can play with/do on his own rather than always needing an adult to play with him.

Ideas? Cost not important for now - can be main present kind of prices, or stocking fillers - just give me some ideas please!!!!!

Marvel mashers
Imaginext batcave
Lego superheroes or duplo heroes
Thomas take and play

I'm having the same problem with my 3.5 year old, nothing holds his attention for very long without me playing with him. Apart from wooden track and trains but he's already got lots of that!

Switch and go dinosaurs or the one step transformers look quite good. My DS1 really loved transformers and he never really bothered with toys but those were always a hit.

DS is 6 now, and it's only over the last year that he'll take himself off to his room and play happily on his own for a while.

He enjoys listening to audio books on cd - sometimes just lying on his bed or sometimes while playing. He's got a decent amount of dressing up stuff so that always features a lot while he's playing.

Re: lego - does he enjoy playing with sets once they're built? Perhaps a new range of lego? The arctic stuff is good, and not too tricky for a five year old to manage on their own.

Imaginext batman or castle range?
Doctor who toys/figures?
Jigsaws?
Moshi monsters? DS plays for hours with them. Does your DS like collecting stuff? You can get character encyclopedia books to go with them
Star Wars dressing up stuff and toys? The Disney store have a big new range.
Lego costume accessories - DS has some lego chima outfits.

We did have to make a conscious effort to encourage him to find ways to entertain himself though.

I have an identical sounding 5 yr old boy (right down to the same interests) and had a big success with his recent birthday present, we got him this tool kit www.amazon.co.uk/Red-Toolbox-Tool-Set-Pieces/dp/B004QMXXHA/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1414425630&sr=8-6&keywords=Red+toolbox with a 'grown up' toolbox to fit it all in, together with a real workbench (B&Qs cheapest was about a third of the price of scaled down childrens versions, so we got that and he just stands on a box!). Then just a box full of bits of wood off cuts and assorted nails etc.

The tools are really quite nice quality, not plastic but just scaled down versions of proper ones. He plays with it all for hours, making weird creations that I then feel obliged to store.

Does he have a Nintendo DS? You could get him the DS with the Lego Marvel Superheroes game on it. That was the only kind of thing DS would do alone at that age. He's also been better at playing alone recently, he just turned 6.

Dressing up stuff goes down well if you don't want to go the screen route.

If cost really not important then an ipad. But really my nearly 5yo wouldn't play with anything for a long time on his own, he needs interaction.

I've asked relatives to get him guess who for his birthday as I think it's a bit educational & fun. He loves lego & superheroes too. Another suggestion is a superman or whatever dressing up outfit but honestly he's obsessed with the ipad-MY IPAD! Also if you can afford it' it makes less mess than loads of toys :)

Lego juniors is really good-a bit less fiddly

DS does love playing on iPad too, and is pretty good at adhering to time limits. Lots of fun educational apps available and he listens to story CDs, podcasts etc. too. Great for travel on holiday too!

Hexbugs - mine spends hours setting up different tracks and watching them move around - it's strangely addictive!

Ooh hexbugs is a good call!

Scalextric

Hotwheels track

My dc have loved these creative blocks from Aldi from Thursday, just under £9 for I think about 200 blocks. They are like kapla blocks but signifcantly cheaper. They combine them with dominos and jenga blocks to create houses, cities, pyramids etc. They are still played with most days and have made it back onto this year's lists too because they want more to expand their empires, which is almost unheard of.

Thanks all. Any more suggestions keep them coming!

For xmas (& b.day, as he is 5 early Jan), I have bought: Scalextric set, hot wheels set (just a loop the loop from what I can tell, but if he likes it we could add to it at some point), hexbug track, Teksta (sp?) dog, 2 small sets of Junior lego, various Ninja Turtle toys plus a few stocking fillers. May buy some superhero lego too.

Already have quite a bit of dress-up, super hero mashers, we have an ipday and 2 iphones in the house so don't really want to get him his own ipad. He has a LeapPad2 so I might investigate a game or app for that.

Off to check out some of the ideas on this thread now, if you think of anything else let me know! We genuinely don't buy him much rest of the year so always go a bit mad for b,day and xmas.

ipday = ipad!

I should add that some of those presents will actually be paid for given to him by other family members & not just myself and dp. Reading it back it sounds as though we are millionaires (sadly we are not).

Imaginext bat cave or castle.
Lego.
Has he got at rain set yet ? My Dts love theirs and play with it all the time.
What teenage mutant ninja turtle stuff did you get ?
My 2 love them, I don't know why, the modern version is utter bollox and no where near as good as the one in my day

Scalextric has been a pain for us - cars need adjusting, along with the track.

Our best buys have been Knex (7plus box of 705 pieces) - slow to start with, but now madly into building the models himself. Also lego technic basic models. Also lego mixels - good stocking filler.

A box of junk modelling stuff - sellotape, scissors and stuff we usually recycle (box's / lids / tubes). He spends a good time recreating stuff he has watched on TV (wacky races vehicles, robots off Super 4 program).

Wheres my water app - puzzle game.

Audio books - naturebooks series seem to be a hit.

I was going to say Kapla, hex bugs and hot wheels but everyone's beaten me to it!

Also my 5 year old isn't too good at playing for ages by himself and definitely prefers the interaction.

So, I've been no help at all

Have got him the turtle zip wire thing & the turtle van, don't know if these will be a hit or not. He had a bat cave last yr but it's never been touched (although I don't actually know if I got him the one he wanted, I discovered later that there was at least 2 different ones).

He has the imaginext castle but this only gets played with when other kids come round or when dh plays with it with him, he isn't interested on his own with it at all. We obviously do interact with our little boy by the way, just hoping to find some stuff that he can do/play with on his own or with an adult - bit of both!

Sorry, what's a rain set? Am intrigued!

nothing exciting, I'm afraid. Just atrainset with typos

FFS, a train set. Why can't I type ?

Can really recommend the magna tiles - my 5yo DS sounds exactly like yours and it's the only thing he plays with for more than 5 minutes. Not cheap but it's literally worth double it's (heavy) weight in gold!