Toy hits that have stood the test of time at our house!

[Jenny_A]

I haven't seen one of these threads in awhile and I always enjoy them. Here are several toys that for us have been hits. They continue to be played with daily or frequently, have held up well, and keep the kids occupied. Most of these listed I've had 3 or 4 years now and still get a lot of play:

Fisher Price My First Dollhouse
Lego Duplos (just have a big plastic bin with lots of bricks and people. No specific sets.)
Play Kitchen (4 years now. Just have a plastic FP one but it constantly gets play)
Learning Resources Chocolate Box (red, heart shaped)
Learning Resources Cookie Jar
Learning Resources Cupcakes
Fisher Price Snap N Style dolls with the wardrobe storage piece
Matchbox Cars in a Matchbox cars storage box
Dora Talking House and accessories (kids who cover over LOVE this thing!)

What are some of yours?

[smiles33]

Great idea! For my 2 girls, there are a handful of favorites that they use almost every day. All but the Walker Wagon and Cozy Coupe were purchased for DD1 before DD2 came along. A couple of them are more fun now because the two of them can play together with them:

- Battat Stack and Sort cups (we use them EVERY day in the bathtub)
- Discovery Exclusive Steering Wheel (my cousin handed it down to my girls and DD2 LOVES it)
- Radio Flyer's Walker Wagon (they love pushing one another in this)
- Cozy Coupe (ours is indoors only so they play with it all the time)
- Learning Tower (not a toy but it's so much more fun now that the two of them are both standing on it)

[sansdieu]

Some favorites of my 3-yr-old DD that still get regular play:

* M.D. kits - never gets tired of those
* Lego Duplo, especially the international people set (she likes her other building and constrution sets as well, like citiblocs, but to a considerably lesser degree)
* Puzzles
* Toy "bedding" - e.g. she has a groovy girlz sleeping bag and tent she uses for her teddy bears; etc.
* Paints, markers, crayons
* Toy supermarket cart and stroller
* books, including baby books



She hardly ever plays with:

* Toy kitchen and pots and pans
* Toy food, including that Learning Resource set I paid $20 for. She played with it for a while, now she's so over it - in fact, even if she does decide to feed one of her animals, she demonstratively uses something other than toy food (Legos, bunched-up tissues, anything) and pretends it's food.
* Pretty much anything "pretend" (except M.D. kits) - toy cell phones, cash registers, etc.
* FP trike
* Balance bike - couldn't care less for it
* Electronic alphabet poster

[boolady]

Without a doubt, the FP Loving Family dollhouse gets played with every single day.
Also, I would add:

play kitchen & food
baby dolls w/ cradle, stroller & highchair
dress up clothes
Disney princess figurines with those horrific rubber dresses
any and all art supplies-- paints, markers, do-a-dot markers, crayons, glue, scissors, you name it.

[ShanaMama]

Great thread!
Many of our toys are MIL's finds at yard sales, so I don't even know all the brand names. Toys that get every day use:
M&D sets that I've bought (side note- they all come in great containers but why can't they have covers?! It is so hard to contain them & I find them everywhere.)
Huge dollhouse that is open on one side & has several floors. They have a random collection of small people and furniture that are used with this.
Play kitchen (Little Tykes, also from MIL) & a huge container of random dishes
doll clothes, strollers & cribs- along with our huge assortment of dolls
We also have those ridiculously small Disney princess figurines which they keep all together with some polly pocket knock-offs. They call the whole lot Polly Pockets.


Things that don't get much use:
FP Little People sets (we have the zoo & a dollhouse)
Mega blocks, lego , duplo- I keep these in the basement & pull out on occasion. They much prefer pretend play to building.

[Neatfreak]

Our list (kids are 6.5 and 2 years, both girls)

- Megabloks (the big chunky ones)
- Fisher Price Little People sets (farm, zoo, house, castle, pirate ship)
- My Little Ponies
- Laugh n Learn House
- cheap pretend cell phones and handbags

[sansdieu]

[QUOTE=ShanaMama;2937276]Great thread!
M&D sets that I've bought (side note- they all come in great containers but why can't they have covers?! It is so hard to contain them & I find them everywhere.)

:yeahthat:

They're wooden boxes, couldn't they just do a slide-in cover??

[DrSally]

magnatiles get played with every day. Thinking of buying another 100 piece set if I can find a good deal.

Duplos

craft supplies.

Tag reader gets played with off and on.

Dress up costumes.

Wedgits get played with off and on.

[crl]

DS, age 7, has played with his wood unit blocks and various plastic figures (Little People, Little Einsteins, etc) virtually everyday for a couple of years now.

Catherine

[happymom]

Cozy Coupe (ours is also indoor only as PP mentioned)
Shopping cart
Megablox- not every day, but several times a week
All pretend play items- dolls, stroller, highchairs, etc

[Fairy]

Quattro's ... if only they still made them. Maybe you can find them on eBay. Honestly, they're awesome. At 6yo, DS STILL loves these.

Little People. Even today, he loves his Little People. Not to say his Playmobile doesn't get alot of play, but he does love the LIttle People.

Kitchen and food

Candyland. Still his favorite.

[mnosky1]

7.5 and 2.5 year old girls. These are the mega hits - meaning they have never been but away and both girls still play with them.

Wooden blocks (especially since they all came from garage sales)
Duplos
Little people
Hot wheels
Little princess figures that have rubber dresses like Polly pockets

Also popular
Kitchen and play food
Wooden marble track (?brand - garage sale find)

[MoJo]

My oldest is only 2 1/2, but there are a few things she's had for two years or more that still get daily play:

Fisher Price Seahorse (the one item we bought a duplicate of so baby sister could have one of her own)

"Who Loves Baby?" photo book with pictures of her with six different relatives

"Mr. Brown Can Moo" board book

She has been playing with her purse, keys and cell phone for well over a year and a half, and in general loves anything that's like mine.

The swing in the tree was rated for 1-4 years and has been a hit for two summers now.

Baby Doll has been her favorite since the day her sister was born, and she spends most of her day all day dressing, changing, and nursing baby doll. (She won't wear onesies now, not because she is potty training, but because she can't "feed" baby doll!) If possible, Baby Doll goes wherever she does. She likes to use all of Ha's gear and is constantly securing Baby Doll in the car seat or swing. I think she will miss the gear more than Ha or I will when Ha outgrows it.

Disappointments:
We have a couple of sets of bristle blocks and other young blocks, and she only likes to dump them and put them back. I've never seen her build anything, even when I showed her what to do. And she hates the ball popper.

[SnuggleBuggles]

Through both kids (8 and 2yo)
Step2 kitchen
basic, $30 plastic ride on toy
Geotrax
Legos
Imaginext castle, pirate ship and ocean boat plus the people
Remo drums
Nerf basketball hoop
MegaBloks- including the awesome giant castle blocks I bought as well as a car and ramp set
Hot Wheels/ Matchbox plus the fold up playsets that go with them
board games including Labyrinth (jr. and regular), Apples to Apples Jr., Scene It, Blokus and many more

Beth

[kristac]

Through both kids (8 and 2yo)
Nerf basketball hoop

Beth

Tell me about your nerf hoop- looking to get one for DS1 (6) Which one do you have? Is it hanging on the wall or the door?

[SnuggleBuggles]

Tell me about your nerf hoop- looking to get one for DS1 (6) Which one do you have? Is it hanging on the wall or the door?

It's on the back of a closet door in out family room. Just this $10 one (bought it at Target):
http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3425052

Beth

[Naranjadia]

Trying not to duplicate...

Our boy and girl are almost 4.


Our fridge magnets get a lot of play - both the regular Melissa & Doug letters and the super annoying LeapFrog letters - that thing always gets placed where it will jam into the wall whenever the fridge door is open and we have a constant "The "A" says "aah!" ringing out in the kitchen.

Our Rody horses are popular. Also the shopping carts, which replaced the toy strollers that had been played to shreds.

Train tracks and the Plan toy garage and city center. All can be used together. The kids make a big track every other day. They also like the Plan Doll House, though they drive cars around it, and don't use it as a doll house. :p

Melissa & Doug Pizza and cake sets

All the puzzles.

Craft items - especially the squeezie Crayola finger paints

But when we asked my daughter at Thanksgiving what she wanted to give thanks for, she said "BOOKS!" :love-retry:

[Indianamom2]

FP Learning Home (both kids loved it and played with it when appropriate)
Pop-up play tent (found years ago in the Target kids' garden section)
Pretend Vacuum cleaner
Basic Blocks