Similar ideas to polly pockets - 2.5year old boy

[Caspianberg]

I’m looking for something like this for my toddler at Christmas, probably add to stocking.

I basically want a small play set that we can take with us when popping to friends without children , or at a restaurant or on the train. He draws or uses stickers but doesn’t last long.

Have just ordered him the Narwhal pollly pocket which I don’t think is too ‘girly’. But we aren’t that bothered if it is.

Im sure I remember having like the Lion king mini polly pocket type set, and my brother having a marvel thing?

Any ideas would be lovely. Ideally £10-20 bracket, but could go more if it would keep him still on a plane or restaurant 20-30 mins. Needs to be small enough to go in hand luggage handbag or toddler size rucksack

When my eldest was that age he loved cars and wanted to be on the floor pushing them around everywhere.

We printed pictures of roads, zebra crossings, roundabouts, houses etc and then laminated them.

Then I’d bring out a box with a couple of cars, couple of small dinosaurs and the roads kit.

He’d make all these elaborate little town maps, drive the cars around on them, dinosaurs would attack the cars etc etc. The box would become a house/castle/prison etc.

So that did help, but honestly it never worked for more than ten minutes at a time, a lot of small kids (maybe especially boys?) just don’t do well with sitting still so you need to build in breaks for them to move around.

So glad I saw your thread because I agree the Disney one is an awesome travel toy!!

Mine loved this

www.google.co.uk/shopping/product/6556191359350602335?q=tonka+tinys+car+crush&client=safari&bih=292&biw=724&cs=0&hl=en-GB&tbs=vw:g&prmd=sivn&prds=eto:12866048047828654237_0,cdl:1,prmr:1,cs:1

He definitely doesn’t do well sitting. But I can’t let him run about on a plane or in a hospital or restaurant so hoping a large pile of little things, each gaining us 10mins extra will help.

We have a laminater so I might so a few a4 size mats for him to play with cats or animals on. Excellent idea. I’m sure we have a metal tin somewhere to store some and magnets.

Have added lots of these ideas to his wish list for family to look at for Xmas ideas now.

He’s currently ‘helping’ dh with Allen keys and screwdrivers assemble a cupboard. So toys aren’t on the top of the list in general

If he likes helping out with tools, we had some small kit cars that were put together with a screwdriver - a bit like chunky plastic meccano! See amzn.eu/d/iVtBxU8

At 2.5 my ds was obsessed with mini figures. We used to buy the blind bags and he loved taking them apart and putting them back together in different combinations.

The Disney Store do super littles sets themed around various films.
Toys in tins.
Lego books with play sets inside.
Magnetic books.
Polly pocket.

The Lego sets are a little fiddly perhaps for 2.5yr old.
when flying long hall with similar age child - wrapped up things in tin foil, or a small tub of play dog with little things ‘buried’ so some of the time was taken through finding/ revealing them.

if he likes Allen keys etc, what about a little padlock with some keys?

We had a couple of the Disney animators play sets and they are a good size to carry around and the pieces are not so small that they get lost. The Apple to Pears sets in a tin worked well.

At that age we mainly carried a little pouch of random small animals/dinosaurs etc. that we could swap around depending on what they were into that week.

I wonder about geomag if he is okay with small things?

This is an off brand less expensive equivalent:

BANBBY 145pcs Magnetic Toys Upgraded 2.28 inches Building Sticks Set for Kids Magnet Game (10 Colors)

amzn.eu/d/8Ucj2qa

I wonder about geomag if he is okay with small things?

no.

it’s not about being ok with small things. Swallow a Barbie shoe or four and nothing will happen. Swallow two of those tiny magnets and you’re looking at bowel necrosis, scepticaemia and other issues. The magnets attract across tissue and anything trapped in between will die.

please don’t give these to a toddler.

Good point well made! I should have thought of that.

Thanks. He has the larger square shaped magformers. I wouldn’t let any age child have geomags, I have heard so many horror stories about accidentally swallowing of the small magnets

I dont know if it's too big for what you want but we like Maileg! They do some smaller ones which my little ones loves carrying around with her :)

I have a DS the same age and took a few of each of these on a recent holiday for flights and meals out etc. I also always have a handful of stickle bricks in my bag which are hands down his favourite thing.

Ikea used to do a set of finger puppets that I kept in a small zipped bag in my handbag. They generally did need others to play along with them but they provided hours of entertainment

Fisher Price Little People??

I also recommend busy books. They're great! A book, a play mat and figures in one! Very cheap too. MY DS had loads of different ones when he was little.
Thomas and Lightyear ones here

Why the gender binary? If he likes polly pocket then let it be polly pocket.

My son used to love Thomas Take N Play train sets. The tidmouth sheds one is really good, you can put the trains inside it, the track folds up and there's a handle to carry it. It is bigger than Polly pocket sets though.

Why bother to comment when you haven’t read the thread, or at least the original poster’s replies? She already said that she has ordered one polly pocket, is happy to get more if he likes them, but wondered if anybody could suggest alternatives.

There’s some great ideas here. You can get longer out of less by managing the toys carefully.
i made up my own small box with smaller bags in. Maybe a colouring book and pencils, a drawing pad, some dinosaurs and an A3 sized dinosaur landscape folded or drawn on fabric, a couple of cars or farm animals and a mat like the dinosaur landscape. Maybe a couple of play mobile figures, Stickers, magnetic or fuzzy felt scene. (I raided the pocket money aisle of early learning centre and the B and M style shops) I kept them all for journeys so the items were not the familiar everyday things although they were familiar activities.
These were handed out one at a time over the journey as I saw the previous one was loosing interest. (I’d make a big fuss over excitedly putting one away in the bag and wondering what would be next (alternating things on paper with the figures and on a long journey add in a game of snap or memory that you play with him every so often)
I regularly managed Edinburgh to Brighton and a stay with childfree friends with two under five with that sort of kit. (And no screens)

Update : Ds managed about 3.5 hours in a restaurant yesterday afternoon for an event. As well as being entertained by general happenings and friends (and jam pancakes!), he liked the magformers, the little polly pocket, crayons/stickers and a bluey 'wheres' wally type thing the most.

An old pochahontas polly pocket is on its way from a bootfair via grandparents.

I had some from Disney I think mine was the lion king but it was like this sort of this thing

I had a Beauty and the Beast one.

Teeny weeny families were similar as well, little animal families in a house shaped like a sewing machine/teapot etc. Those are expensive on eBay now!

Do things like puppy/pony in my pocket still exist? We'd gallop horses up and didn't and over jumps for ages.