Toy Insider Hot 20 for 2026: every toy and its price

Someone in your family will ask for a gift list in the next fortnight, and you will have nothing, because it is September and the child in question currently wants a specific stick. The Toy Insider published its 21st annual holiday gift guide today, more than 350 toys deep, and its headline list is the Hot 20. Here is all twenty, sorted by the age on the box, with the price and what each one actually does.

From 18 months

Fisher-Price Little People My Mario Adventure Playset, Mattel, $53.99. A Mario level for toddlers: a question-mark block with a hidden power-up, a sliding turtle shell, a spinning bonus wheel, a Chain Chomp and a warp pipe, with music and game sounds.

Sesame Street Tickle Me Elmo Giggle Max, Just Play, $39.99. The 2026 Elmo laughs, flaps, shakes, says a few phrases and gets the hiccups from laughing too hard. Your toddler will do it forty times.

Cheery Lane House Play Set, Melissa & Doug, $34.99, two and up. Rooms fold out flat and the corners are modular, so the house rearranges instead of staying a house. Two figures and the furniture come with it, and it opens from above, which is the only way a two-year-old plays with a doll's house anyway.

Disney Darlings Magical Birthday Surprises Winnie the Pooh, JAKKS Pacific, $49.99, two and up. An interactive baby doll in a Pooh outfit with a birthday cake; rock her, feed her, wave the wand and Tigger pops out of the cake.

Age three

Bluey's Light & Surprise Heeler House, Moose Toys, $149.99. Two feet tall, five storeys, every room furnished, and the chimney projects spinning stars and moons like Bluey's own night light. The most expensive toy on the list that a three-year-old will understand.

Play-Doh Super Sizzlin' Kitchen Playset, Hasbro, $44.99. A pasta maker, a stove that sizzles on cue and enough moulds for 25 pretend meals. Budget for more Play-Doh by February.

PAW Patrol Megasaurus Vehicle, Spin Master, $64.99. Rocky's recycling truck with a two-foot inflatable dinosaur that pops out when you press the light bar, folds back in and does it again.

Super Mario Yum Yum Yoshi, JAKKS Pacific, $29.99. A 9.5-inch Yoshi whose tongue unrolls to grab a magnetic apple. That is the whole toy, and that is enough.

Three and four

Minnie Mouse 6V Roadster, Dynacraft Wheels, $148, three and up. A pink polka-dot ride-on with a working horn and a seat belt, for the child who has outgrown being pushed.

ChompSaw and Inventor's Club, ChompShop, $249 for the saw, three and up; the club subscription runs $26 to $238.88 and is pitched at eight and up. A kid-safe power tool that cuts cardboard, plus patterns and stickers by post if you subscribe. The dearest thing on the list, and the only one that is a tool.

NeeDoh Collection, Schylling, $4.99 to $29.99, three and up. Squishy fidgets in neon: Dream Drops, Jelly Squish, Fuzz Balls, Knittens. Different sizes and textures, all for squeezing.

furReal Gabby the Grow & Roar Tiger, Just Play, $79.99, four and up. An interactive plush with more than a hundred sound and motion combos. Roar at her and she roars back; she grows to 15 inches and shrinks back to cub size when you press her back.

Four to six

KPop Demon Hunters Singing Fashion Dolls, Mattel, $32.99 each, four and up. Rumi, Mira and Zoey in their "Golden" performance looks, each singing a clip of the song. Expect to be asked for all three.

Primal Hatch Hatching Megalodon, Spin Master, $49.99, four and up. Add water, the egg foams and fizzes and turns red, and a shark jumps out. Resettable, so the reveal happens more than once.

Gui Gui Mega Slime Haul, Moose Toys, $32.99, six and up. Four full-size slimes, a mini pack and more than fifty mix-ins, in a tub big enough to store the results. You know your floors.

Pokémon Trading Card Game 30th Celebration Elite Trainer Box, The Pokémon Company, $49.99, six and up. All-foil cards, a new Futuristic Rare rarity and the return of thirty classic Pokémon for the anniversary.

Eight and up

Disney Lorcana Collection Starter Set, Rapunzel Edition, Ravensburger, $29.99. Four booster packs, a themed portfolio, a foil Rapunzel promo card and a collector's guide. The starting point if there is not yet a binder in the house.

MGA's Miniverse Real Music Record Player, MGA Entertainment, $21.99. A miniature record player that plays miniature records; one comes in the box, a rock remix of Beethoven's Fifth, and the rest are sold separately. Under-$25 toy of the list.

Pokémon Pikachu Puppetronic by RealFX, Jazwares, $79.99. A 16-inch Pikachu with touch and motion sensors; hand movements trigger more than 120 sounds and actions, blinking eyes and moving ears included.

LEGO Star Wars Smart Play: Throne Room Duel & A-Wing, The LEGO Group, $159.99, nine and up. A 962-piece set with the Emperor's throne room and an A-wing, built around LEGO's new Smart Bricks that react to characters and elements in the set.

Which ones we would buy

The NeeDoh, without thinking about it: $4.99, fits in a stocking, and if you pick the wrong texture nobody minds. For a two-year-old, the Cheery Lane house before anything with a battery, and it is the one toy on this list from a brand in the club. The Bluey house is worth its $149.99 only if Bluey is already the household religion. Think hardest about the ChompSaw: it is a genuinely good tool, and it is $249 for a child who may want a stick next week.

The full guide, all 350-plus toys sorted into four age groups, is at thetoyinsider.com. Melissa & Doug is in the club. See the offer →