What do your 4 year olds love?

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I know it's only July, but DS turns 4 the same week as Christmas, so I need to start thinking about, and buying a few bits now.

So what do your four year old boys love playing with?

At the moment, he loves his wooden trainset, hot wheels cars/ car mat/ garage, Duplo, his toy kitchen/ shop etc. but we already have absolutely loads of these things. We are planning to wait a while progressing to Lego as we also have a baby.

I really don't quite know what the next stage is, so any ideas would be gratefully received. Thank-you

Mine is 5 1/2 now but he did and still absolutely loves his Magformers. He played with them constantly at kindy and since buying him his own set for home, has played with them probably every day since.

Almost every morning you'll walk into his room and he'll have built some new structure with them. Honestly, best money I have ever spent. And they'll last a while too, don't know how old your baby is but I look after a 1 year old boy who loves them but my 7 year old likes playing with them too.

Mine turned four in April and is obsessed with Paw Patrol, and plays all the time with the Paw Patroller and the figures in their vehicles, which he got for Christmas. Also a series of different Thomas the Tank Engine tracks and buildings (Tidmouth Sheds, Cranky the Crane's docks etc) which can be linked together, and are quite handy because they fold up and are light and easy to put away. Also an indoor tent shaped like a campervan which he plays in daily as a den.

His single favourite thing at the moment, though - not really what you're looking for, I know - is that we painted a wall of his room in blackboard paint, and he spends forever drawing enormous complicated things in coloured chalk.

My 4yo likes toy cars, playmobil, make your own card type kits, marble run, lego superheros (try the juniors range). He's starting to find numbers and letters more interesting.

Character wise he likes superheros, power rangers, paw patrol, star wars, how to train your dragon, my little pony.

Transformers here and Star Wars although he has an older brother so that could be the reason!

When DS1 was 4 he loved playmobil and superheroes - particularly batman.

Playmobil is the big winner in our house.

Also dressing up things and a doctor's set (supplimented with a real stethascope and real bandages).

And lego, how could I forget lego?

Thanks everyone, there are some great ideas here. I was already thinking about Magnaformers/ Magnatiles, so I might get them now, as they sound like a safe bet. I think I'll also start watching Playmobil offers. I'm thinking maybe the pirate bits.

Thanks for all the advice of characters. He does like Paw Pateol and superheroes, but I think I'll wait until nearer Christmas to buy bits like that - knowing my luck, if I buy stuff now, he'll complete change who he likes by then.

If train mad, we bought a Tomy tomica train set, it's been ace and one of the best things ever.

We also have magmagic , which is the same as magformers and pretty good!

Magformers great here, have been used almost daily last 3 years.

Brio is still popular here and eldest is 7 soon after Christmas. So some accessories for what you have are great stocking fillers ( new train or similar

Wooden marble run loved here also. Again bought 3 years ago and played with loads. Haba

Hobbycraft do a cardboard pirate ship, its usually on offer for £7.50, its white with pictures to colour in.

What about a pirate costume? Sainsburys will be selling them at half price after halloween.

Oh and TK Maxx do pirate treasure chests.

I have a pirate loving 5yr old.

Great, thank-you. There are so many ideas here that I can really see him enjoying. I can definitely start my shopping now.

Knaff, that trainset looks great, but they appear to have stopped making it . I have just discovered the Playmobil train - does anyone have that, and if so, is it any good?

Art, if you see this, what bits of the Brio trainset are still most appealing to your son? My DM is planning on buying him the roundhouse, but I'm guessing it's time to move away from buying more Thomas things (?). Does your son still like the push-along trains, or is he more into the battery ones now?

Both my sons still use the push along trains. We haven't bought any battery ones yet ( noise would drive me batty). They have no Thomas stuff just generic brio. They like stuff like the cranes, extra track with different features, and similar. They use Lego people or sylvanians with it also. They have never had a 'roundhouse' but don't think it would be popular as they can't actually do anything with it, and they just leave trains on the track so not bothered about lack of train house, also it looks huge!

The Haba building blocks also great. They build large castles, boats or whatever and add people and stuff from diffenent things they have like a duplo man, with schleich dragon.

Thanks art.

My son was 4 in January he loves superheroes so any of the marvel Titan hero series, any superhero dressing up, and batman imaginext. He also loves magnets and plays for hours with geomags and he has gone through phases of adoring guardians of the Galaxy (or groot), paw patrol, lilo and stitch, and his current obsession is Star Wars but they are all things he's been obsessed with for a couple of months before moving on to the next obsession

My little boy got given a large trex dinosaur from my brother for Christmas 2 years ago, just after his 3rd birthday. It was his favourite present and opened up the floodgates for all things dinosaur. My brother got it from toys r us, and it's like a soft foam, so although big and scary looking, he won't hurt himself if he throws it about, unlike some of the harder plastic. I would highly recommend.

My ds was 4 last Christmas. He absolutely loved, and still does, his Batman Imaginext set. He didn't look at anything else on Christmas Day even though he also got a bike!! He even took it to the table for Christmas dinner.

He still plays with it now on a daily basis, it is a bit pricey but is very sturdy.