Which toy or toys are the best buys you ever made?

Lego

Since I lost interest in lego, NERF GUNS! sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much fun! I modded a dart with a thumbtack in the end and practice sniping down ballons :)

Lego and puzzles

I hope this baby-doll will be.

Legos for us, too. We had a big collection of Legos even before our oldest was old enough to play with them, thanks to my mother-in-law saving them for years. We’ve added to it a lot, and now we have a huge tub of Legos. All three of our kids love them, and it’s amazing to see what they build. My husband is great at building things. He’ll have the kids draw pictures of what they want to build, then he helps them put it together. When our kids outgrew the “train table,” we put all the tracks away and turned it into a Lego table.

We also get a lot of use out of board games, like Monopoly and Battleship. Also, my kids never get tired of outside toys like butterfly nets and bug jars, pond nets (for catching frogs!), bubbles, sprinklers, squirt guns, sidewalk chalk, beach toys, and the big wooden playset. The playset was a huge bargain, since the previous owners of this house just left it here. It’s enormous, with four swings and a big slide plus a two-level climbing area. Even my 10 year old still loves to play on it.

NSFW Answer: Several vibrating toys and mink mittens for use with my lady.

@stranger_in_a_strange_land I was just going to say that.

@Dibley I’ll concede joint authorship. :^)

@stranger_in_a_strange_land Thanks.

They were Fisher Price Little People and we bought a huge amount of them at a garage sale for $5 bucks. These were the vintage ones that are too small for little kids mouths. They don’t have arms or legs, but their bottom halves fit into the round seats of all the transportation. We played with them all the time. I hope my parents still have them somewhere.

Lincoln Logs and Tinker Toys, but wooden blocks are still the biggest bang for the buck. I bought a big hardwood set in 1985 for my older kids, who played with them for 10 years, and left them for my younger kids who still occasionally find something to do with them.

Definitely things that the kid manipulates himself. I read an article recently, that I can’t find now, that said toys should be 90% kid. In addition to the excellent suggestions so far, I’d like to say Play Doh (even homemade), puzzles, crayons and coloring books, musical instruments, sports equipment (like a kids’ bowling set, or basketball net, any ball really), dinosaur/people, animal figures, Mr. Potato Head. My son has some flashier games/toys, but these simple ones are the ones he returns to most often.

i used to love the old, real, dangerous Mr Potato Head. I hate the “new” one.

This one
http://www.amazon.com/Infantino-150-3045-Activity-Triangle/dp/B0002Q2OPG/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1263322567&sr=1-7

This one
http://www.amazon.com/Melissa-Doug-567-Geometric-Stacker/dp/B0006IRTU0/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1263322634&sr=1-11

This one
http://www.amazon.com/Infantino-158-208-Activity-Blocks/dp/B001890IPE/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1263322567&sr=1-10

trust me!

@pdworkin But this way you don’t waste any potatoes! And there’s storage in his butt.

Yeah, but the whole point was to poke big pins into the potato!

I think I didn’t read the question properly – these were not toys I made
the best toys I ever made had to do with a lot of water, plastic cups, the sink, etc.
Boxes for forts;, obviously, as well!

When we were in New Zealand I bought a biggish pack of playing cards.. these came in VERY hany when we were travelling as they kept my daughter amused on the planes and in the witing areas best of all they only cost me $2 :) bargin :)

When we were in New Zealand I bought a biggish pack of playing cards.. these came in VERY handy when we were travelling as they kept my daughter amused on the planes and in the witing areas best of all they only cost me $2 :) bargin :)

NSFW- Gloves with little feathers attached to each finger…

Barbies, I have so many amazing memories of my sister and i playing barbies for days on end! The best part was when we came up with a Barbie house design and my Dad surprised us both by building us each one! Man, those we’re the days <3

I remember my old robot Alfie. I used to enjoy that

This may or may not count as a toy, but whatever
Nintedo freaking 64
I think I still have it

@Mike_Hunt : Heck yes!!! I still have the Limited Edition Donkey Kong Clear Green one!!!

1973 Lamborghini Espada (Series 3)...‘73 jaguar xk roadster… ‘87 harley police bike w/ dashboard and floor boards… swing harness that mounts above my bed… ‘54 stearmen biplane with radial engine… toys that brought joy way more than what I paid!

dont freack out about this ok it is a laptop

I’m not too good at picking out toys but my Grandfather had and amazing gift for finding thins that would intrigue me. There are two that stand out “Marvelous Mike” which was a robot driven tractor and strictly mechanical. It would drive until it hit something and back, trun and maneuver until it got past the obstructions. I played with it so much that the treads wore out. I learned how it worked, fixed it, and even repainted it once. That was more than 50 years ago and it is still around and works, but I need new rubber treads.

The second was an Erector Set. That provided endless amusement and probably solidified my desire to go into engineering. My grandson and I now use Lego’s but I still prefer the still Erector Set with a nice strong AC geared motor drive.

My first fishing pole and tackle box. They are over 40 years old but I still have them. Still use the tackle box.