Toy Insider STEM 10 for 2026: every toy and its price

The science toy is the gift that gets bought by the relative who wants to be useful and opened by a child who wanted the loud thing. The Toy Insider's STEM 10 for 2026 is the list that helps, because it is ten toys that are actually played with. Here they are by age, with prices and what each one does.

Three and up

BRIO Space Station Set, Ravensburger, $139.99, ages 3+. Forty pieces of elevated wooden railway with a space lab on top, an astronaut, a rover and a glow-in-the-dark alien. The magnets in the suit pick up cargo, which is the bit a three-year-old will do for an hour.

Magna-Tiles Treetop Adventure 42-Piece Set, Magna-Tiles, $74.99, ages 3+. Forty-two tiles that build up instead of out: green baseplates, leaf tiles and interlocking platforms for a tree house with a slide and a working trapdoor. The platforms are the new idea; the moose is the reason it gets played with.

Raskars: Dash Starter Set, Qubs, $79.99, ages 4+. Dash is a wooden taxi-driving dog who reads the smart blocks and cards you lay out and turns, stops and picks up fares on his own. Coding without a screen, for four-year-olds who think they are just playing taxis.

Mindframes Click 'n' Create Wearable Construction Set, WobbleWorks, $29.99, ages 5+. A hundred and thirty geometric pieces that snap into glasses, bracelets and 3D shapes, with ten guided builds to start. It is the construction toy for the child who wants to wear the result.

Six to eight

Crayola Goo Deluxe Dissection Playset, Crayola, $24.99, ages 6+. Slime with a lab coat on: a big mat, powder pouches, moulds, a tool stand and thirty mix-ins, and the powder is the kind that comes off the table. The cleanup claim is the whole reason it is on this list.

Barbie Chemistry Activity Lab, Blue Marble, $24.88, ages 8+. Fifteen experiments, glow-in-the-dark chalk and slime among them, with a guide that explains the science after the mess. Barbie is on the box; the chemistry is real.

CrunchLabs by Mark Rober: The Crunchinator, Moose Toys, $34.99, ages 8+. A hand-cranked crusher with three plates and a phone holder, so the child can film the can, the banana and the ping pong ball meeting their end. Mark Rober's name is on it, and so is the science.

Eight and up

SolarFlowers, Thames & Kosmos, $24.95, ages 8+. A motorised flower whose petals open and close on a solar panel, with planetary gears you assemble yourself. Twenty-five dollars for a working lesson in where electricity comes from.

V8 Race Car, Thames & Kosmos, $39.95, ages 10+. A model race car with a four-speed manual gearbox, reverse, suspension and a visible V8. The child builds the whole drivetrain and then understands why the family car does what it does.

Scrib3D Advanced 3D Pen Set, WobbleWorks, $59.99, ages 14+. A 3D printing pen with an LCD for temperature and speed. You draw in the air with warm filament and it sets. The age on the box is fourteen, and the box is right.

Which ones we would buy

The SolarFlowers is the one to buy first: twenty-five dollars, a working motor and a solar panel, and a child who understands why the petals move. The Magna-Tiles set is the right gift if there is already a bin in the house, and it is the one on this list with a member discount. The V8 is for the ten-year-old who takes things apart; buy it for that child and nobody else.

The full list is at thetoyinsider.com. Magna-Tiles is in the club. See the offer →