What is the toy your child has that has proved best value for money

mum1plus1

Lego for my son whos now 15 but played with it till he was at least nine on a regular basis. For my daughter its the ELC happy land rosebud cottage which she has played with almost everyday since her birthday in may. Not cheap but good for imaginative play and portable!:)

LJM

my girls its paper/sellotape/glue and any other crafty stuff they love it and are lost without it we even have to take it on holidays

minimoneysaver

Whammy and Lego. I think her absolute favourite, even over her DS is my iphone though. It isn't too bad as most of the kids games are free :-)

BeenieCat

My son (well, more me!) began collecting Disney Cars diecast cars when he was 3, he's 7 now and still plays with them regularly. Most of them cost £3 each but some were hard to find so i paid over the odds on eBay, he has about 50 of them so not particularly cheap but i'm really glad we collected them

borderlakland

Sandpit was always a hit when mine were smaller, paint and anything else crafty like playdough i made dd2 some fresh playdough a few weeks ago and all 4 kids inc ds1(16) were ingrossed for ages:p
"propper" toys that were always favoured were the plastic kitchen and food (often either in the sand pit, or using the playdough)
then the all time favourites of duplo, lego and knex.
the other longtime favourite(still is) is anything to do with water wether its a paddling pool, the bath, or just buckets on the patio with dolls, teasets, jugs bottles etc. add a few bubbles and you get hours of free entertainment

luxor4t

I had two boys & one girl in five years, these toys kept everybody interested:
Fisher Price baby toys (eg a stacking rings, a screw together clown, telephone on wheels, etc)
Duplo
Brio (we still have a huge box in the attic for future grand children!)
Playmobile (at first I thought it was too 'faddy' & expensive - but worth every penny)
Lego

Most came via car boot sales, school fetes etc & I didn't buy toys that needed batteries!

pandora205

We had quite a collection of Duplo and Brio too, which were always popular. Another favourite was those plastic animals that ELC do.
They made useful stocking fillers are Christmas and for birthdays. We built up quite a range and they were used in sets, sometimes in the bath or in the sandpit. We still have a large box of them (and my children are grown up) that we are saving for the next generation.

lauren_1

Large cardboard box and poster paints/pens, a patio and chalks, Play food, dressing up outfits, my make-up:mad:,

I find my kids play for longer with items that do not inhibit imaginative play, the more simple to toy the more uses that can be found.

Also papier mache.....

elektra-2007

ours has to be playmobil and the trampoline.
Trampoline is used everyday even in the winter, before school and after.
Playmobile is so versitile we have several big boxes, my lad loves the detail and small stuff that comes in the playmobil sets. He spends hours playing with it. Ive brought loads of expensive toys that relate to films ect, they only last a few weeks. If I could take back time id make more use of toy libaries and carboots.

ailuro2

DD was almost OLD when she got her DS, she got it for her 8th birthday, the other kids in her class had all had them forever... she has had tons and tons of fun with it, so it's really been worth the money we spent on it.

Baby Annabel was a good buy too, she still sometimes palys with her, but at nearly 12yo it's not so often now.

Pencils, sellotape and paper are her most used playthings though. £2 for a big packet of paper from Tesco, it lasts her ages. Pencils, sellotape, glue etc. are all cheap too - they can make puppets, games, dolly accessories - tons of stuff!