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The COOLEST Gifts for Boys 8 to 10 Years Old [Includes the Hottest Trends]

I definitely saw it going a different direction: as my then-eight-year-old son ripped open the plaid Christmas paper, my hope for the best chosen Christmas present was fa-la-alling, alright.

He didn’t even try to put on a fake show about how much he not only disliked what I thought was the bomb-dot-com but he kind of shoved it away halfheartedly as he went on to the next “best chosen present”, while that last present was already half-forgotten, traipsing through the lingering wisps of his “what was Santa thinking?” thoughts.

Ok, ok. Perhaps I can be a tad hard on myself, but who wouldn’t be? I mean, we fight the evergrowing holiday crowds while keeping a very focused eye on the online prices, trying to see if one company can beat out the other, and then end all of that Christmas buying madness and dollar-spending frenzy by spending hours – literal hours – wrapping the best presents ever.

I’m sure you can just imagine how I felt. I was pretty down in the dumps about how I got it all wrong. And that’s the year I decided I needed to do more researching on what the best toys for boys would be, along with what the coolest toys for boys are on an annual researching basis.

Coolest Gifts for Boys 8 to 10 Years Old

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It took about 11 months of research this year, but I pulled it off. Today I can spit out the best educational toys for boys, building toys for boys, and favorite toys for boys! (Unfortunately, the trends change every two minutes so back to my research I go. But on the other hand, trends always seem to come back again. So technically, they’re never really gone. 😉 )

Here you go – spit and all of what is today’s toy favorites for little boys 8 to 10 years old!

Kano Harry Potter Coding Kit – Build A Wand, Learn To Code, Make Magic

Golly gee, haven’t you heard? Coding is all the rage these days! And it’s no wonder…we’ve long passed entry into the technologically advanced era, a.k.a. the millennial takeover. With Harry Potter leading the way, it seems, with the Kano Harry Potter Coding Kit.

The building skills your child will gain is crazy with this coding kit. Even a brand new beginner can place this; no coding experience necessary. They teach you everything with their 70 step-by-step, creative challenges, making learning to code more fun than ever.

Your boy will also build their own wand that responds to his movements perfectly. Used on a tablet or smartphone, as he waves the wand it will instantly reflect on the screen. Everything is done through the free Kano app. Once downloaded, your little boy will have access to more than 200 different sounds, along with being able to create with monsters, spells, music, and wizardry things.

The main features – dare I say – is the coding abilities this amazing toy offers. He’ll be causing feathers to fly, multiplying goblets, and making pumpkins glow in no time! Hours of entertainment are what your little boy will find through the Kano World, including games and Remix Art!

LEGO Creator Mighty Dinosaurs 31058 Dinosaur Toy

Another toy that promotes building skills, LEGO has lead the charge in toy sales year after year for good reason. They have tweaked it up a bit and combined awesome building and creative play with ferocious historical animals that boys know, learn, and love to make their LEGO Creator Mighty Dinosaurs.

This LEGO Dinosaur toy can be built into 3 different dinosaurs with the same 1 set of legos: the T-Rex, a pterodactyl, and a triceratops. Your boy can make his dinosaurs with bright orange eyes, large pointy teeth (child-friendly, of course!), huge claws, head and joints, and can even add a buildable ribcage to symbolize the dinosaur’s prey.

All these accessories mentioned are included in this kit, and more! Kids can even make more buildable green dinosaurs out of the legos instead of just these 3 major dinosaurs mentioned. This lego dinosaur set is the wonderful aim for creative play, imagination and amazing building skill and, I believe, serves to be one of the best building toys for boys out there on the market nowadays!

Nerf N Strike Elite Strongarm Toy Blaster with Rotating Barrel, Slam Fire, and 6 Official Nerf Elite Darts for Kids, Teens, & Adults

Nerf guns, Nerf guns, Nerf guns! Every year my son wants a new and improved Nerf gun and, since he loses most of the darts during the year, he wants more Nerf darts to go with his gun. And if he was wanting a Nerf gun with an incredibly quick draw, fast-firing technology that shoots darts up to 90 feet with flip-open rotating dart barrel for easy loading, then I’d make sure he would get the Nerf N Strike Elite Strongarm Toy Blaster!

This extremely special Nerf gun was made to slam fire 6 darts in a rapid blasting wave at targets by pushing the slider back and forth as the trigger is held down. If someone is running from you, you will be able to run and fire at the same time with a high chance of contact for the ultimate attack.

All of the darts included with the gun have been tested and approved for quality and performance, so, you know, that’s a plus. Plus it includes 6 darts that were designed for distance. This extremely fun toy is of the best Nerf N Strike Elite guns!

Hot Wheels Criss Cross Crash Motorized Track Set

Just like with LEGO, Hot Wheels is a hot ticket item pretty much all year long for any given year since the 1960s when it was founded. Always popular with the boys, Hotwheels learned pretty quickly how to stake its claim – by producing Hotwheels tracks even bigger and even better, and this go-round is no different from the emergence of the Hot Wheels Criss Cross Crash Motorized Track Set.

This Hot Wheels Criss Cross Crash set was also a Finalist for the TOTY Toy of the Year Awards 2020!

Selected as one of the top toys for boys on Amazon’s Holiday Toy List, it has got to be one of the best motorized kits out there. It’s great for your child’s curiosity and problem-solving skills too! Your baby boy will have hours and hours of fun with this thing!

It also has challenging intersections, hairpin turns, motorized boosters, and a huge crash zone.

Traveling family like us? No problems there! It uses it’s parking lot for storage. Got to love it when it’s convenient to clean up the mess, right?

I would say get the kid a motorized Hot Wheels crisis cross set and watch the pure enjoyment of your boy’s face as he sees these really fast cars zip on by! He won’t be bored at all with this present and he’ll play for hours!

K’NEX Thrill Rides – Cobweb Curse Roller Coaster Building Set

There is something to be said about rollercoasters and connecting things? Just like there’s something to be said about connecting rollercoasters – as in, building them.

Can you imagine how a young boy’s mind would kick into gear to build a working rollercoaster? Just amazing! And he can now with the K’NEX Thrill Rides Cobweb Curse Roller Coaster Building Set.

This particular Knex is amazing – it has over 470 pieces for your boy to build the coolest rollercoaster toy ever. And it’s not a push toy, either. It comes with a battery-powered motor, so it’s a motorized toy that is fairly easy to put together thanks to the instruction manual that comes with it.

You could probably glean some building insight from this K’NEX Cobweb Curse Roller Coaster review video as well:

If the first manual and this review video isn’t enough for you, have peace of mind knowing an instruction booklet for a second rollercoaster with step-by-step images is available online. Your boy has not one but two possible ways to build a rollercoaster, leaving less room for boredom and more room for building potential creativity!

Considering how affordable this K’nex coaster is, the building possibilities are amazing!

What Didn’t Make The List?

So have all these toys here, are you wondering why I didn’t add an iPad or a Kindle Fire or maybe even a VR headset?

It’s because your kid probably already has one!

No, really, I don’t think that very much matters for the reason why a screen didn’t make the list.

It’s really because, as much as we are ever-present in the tech age, I think it’s just as important as it is rare to step away from the sedentary lifestyle for a little bit and reactivate other areas of the brain.

And although I’m a screen-loving homeschool mama as the mother hollering about less screen time and more green time, I embrace screens as well and turn them into advantageous opportunities, i.e. educationally and limited personal use.

We really love screens while we travel, too.

But I think we, as a society, are in virtual worlds way too much, so if we can limit the interaction on a cyber level by introducing creative, fun ways in reality, all the better (and smarter and less addictive in nature) we become. And our children become.

It’s just sometimes I want to scream: Go climb a tree!

This bit is just my two cents that don’t hold much water except for in our family, but I did want to point out that I didn’t include any kind of smartphone thing in this year’s gift guide for boys 8 to 10 years old.

And not because I’m so abhorrent to screens but, as I mentioned, so many other amazing products made Amazon’s Top 100 Holiday Toy List, and my own, that are worth a shout out!

Besides…an iPad? It goes without saying. 😉

Putting A Bow On It

That’s a wrap!

These toys were selected from Amazon’s Top 100 Holiday Toy List, so I am very sure that you have the best toys for boys aged 8 to 10 all wrapped up in this gift guide.

It obviously isn’t an exhaustive list, but just appreciate the fact that out of all the toys out there that I have researched, I chose these specific ones to write about in order for your decision-making process to be a much easier one.

Seriously, mama, there really is no need to do any more K’NEX rollercoaster comparisons or Hot Wheels track comparisons. This are legit it.

It’s possible to label the majority of these gifts as science toys for boys. And I’m ok with that. Because every little boy loves building things, like race car tracks, choo choo train tracks, rollercoaster tracks, and then utilizing what he built with some form of vehicle that has speed. These cool boy toys will pack that desired punch that your 8 to 10 year old is looking for.

And if you have a daughter to look for, I have just the gift collection for you! Check out that post.

There’s definitely one or more items on this list that suits something for everyone, whether he loves to build things with his hands or with tools, go into epic Nerf gun battles with friends and with foes, or race cars around crazy crazy-eight loops at high speed for the ultimate crash factor.

Richie

I’m the owner and creator of Homeschool & Humor and I’m so glad you’re here! I’m a single mom of 3 kiddos that I love and adore – Daniel (12), Zoey (11), and Scout (4). I’m able to work at home online and homeschool them, so I know how #blessed I am. I praise GOD and worship Him every day all day. He’s the reason for the season of the pleasin’. It’s my hope that you find delight from my words, treasures within my posts, and camaraderie in #MomLife.