What toys would you recommend for a nearly-2yo?

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I think I need to invest in a few new toys and games for my 20mo DS. He seems bored by the blocks, stacking/sorting toys and 2-piece puzzles and I'd like to get some more advanced things that he will hopefully find challenging as well as fun.

Firm favourites include a wooden train, duplo, tea set and play food, plastic diggers etc so we've got plenty of that kind of thing but I'm finding it hard to find any puzzles/construction toys that aren't either too simple or way too complicated.

Any ideas? I also don't want to bankrupt myself...

At that age, DS liked happyland toys (elc) and wooden puzzles like this one. Tbh though, he was nearly 3 before puzzles and construction type things occupied him for more than a few minutes. He loves jigsaws now.

Does your DS have lots of trains on his train set? DS loved (and still does now at nearly 4) linking together lots and lots of trains with magnets. He had a garage from elc with chunky cars with magnets too and liked linking the cars all together and pushing them around.

DS moved onto larger puzzles at that point - like this four in a box set and this bus jigsaw. Obviously he needed lots of help with them though.

A bit random, but do you have an iPad? There's a good jigsaw App on there where you can choose how many pieces the jigsaw is made up from - 2, 4, 6 etc.

We also started playing little games, like Red Dog, Blue Dog and Who Knows Whose Nose?. There's also the ubiquitous Shopping List.

Be warned, they are deathly dull but DS loves the one-on-one attention he gets when we play and it is good for learning about turn-taking, etc.

What about something to do outside / in the garden? Like childrens croquet - at www.littledelivery.com

I'll second the happyland toys from elc. Just brought the twins old stuff down from loft for dd (20mths) and she loves them. Also loves the megablocks (big lego type stuff). Enjoys playing with the big toy kitchen at her grans too.