15 Best Black Friday Toy Deals (2024): Lego Games and Board Games
For Black Friday this year, I decided to try something different. Instead of wading alone through the sea of questionable toys, devices, and gadgets for sale, I called Mallory Kennedy, a pediatric occupational therapist and owner of Portland, Oregon. Feeling group. Together, we consider the most popular list Black Friday Toy deals from major retailers.
In short, I want to find toys that aren’t crap—toys that help your child develop or won’t become trash in a few days. We tested these by playing with our own children. If our kids don’t like them, I won’t recommend them to you. That’s in addition to the years of continuous testing that the WIRED Gear Team conducts. Our recommendations are also cross-referenced with Our buying guide And gift guide and use a suite of price tracking tools to identify the best deals. Happy holiday shopping!
WIRED’s featured deals
Best Toy Deals
This is probably one of the best toys I’ve ever tested (and one that should be in our next update). The best STEM toys for kids). The Bluetooth-connected portable board has sections that provide a wonderfully matte and heavy feel when playing. It connects to the GoChess app on your phone, which is integrated with Lichess and Chess.com. You can play with others or receive AI-powered suggestions directly and the pieces will light up. My 7 and 9 year old have been playing together for weeks because the AI’s suggestions are much less annoying than Mom’s suggestions.
Other toy deals
Toniebox is best children’s speakers for young children. It’s a durable, soft, Wi-Fi-connected cube. When your child places different “Tonie” shapes on top of the cube, it will play songs and stories associated with the Tonie. Your child will also play with Tonies as toys, and you can also ask grandparents or other family members to record up to 90 minutes of reading to your child or other audio messages.
Yoto is the best Children’s speakers are for (slightly) older childrenand it has a few differences compared to Toniebox. There’s a pixelated clock screen and a bit more mixed content – for example, you can get sleep sounds, kid-friendly radio, and daily podcasts in addition to stories and songs. This version is the small version, even more portable than the larger version we tested.
Instant cameras other toys with higher quality ones because the lenses are plastic, not glass. The camera’s image quality is noticeably worse than other Instax cameras I’ve tried. However, if your child is 5 years old, they will be delighted. The battery lasts an entire afternoon of photography, prints are printed on BPA-free paper, and there are even some built-in games.
This is a small but significant discount on a set of markers that my 9 year old is currently obsessed with. This is water-based ink so it will cause significantly less damage to whatever surface your child is drawing on (I hate that I know this) and it has two ends, with both a fine line tip for drawing lines Intricate strokes and a wider tip to fill everything in. Pigment flows smoothly and evenly. This would be great if hand-drawn holiday cards are in your game plan.
Clay is also a part of us Best STEM toys instructions, but my kids prefer the air-dry version over the polymer version because it’s super soft and light and you don’t have to bake it. It’s not as sturdy or heavy as the polymer version, but it’s just as capable of making tiny dots on mushrooms or stuffy televisions or the like.
Amazon and Walmart are both full of mini kits that promise to entertain kids and teach them skills at the same time. Of the places I called, this was the most successful and it provides hand soap to your reluctant guests for years to come! Melt the soap cubes in a microwave-safe dish and mix them with any perfumes, glitter, or dyes you want. Even if it makes a mess in the sink, it’s still easy to clean because it’s soapy!
Playing music has also been shown to stimulate neurological development (and is also fun). Loog Guitars is currently running a sitewide Black Friday sale with 40% off. My child is currently testing Beatles + Loog electric guitar set and the company even sent the tiny amp! This is cheating a bit because my kids already play piano and violin, but they find Loog’s music instructions fun and easy to follow. (It’s also an excuse to use an iPad, grrr.)
Guardian Bikes currently holds one Black Friday Sale. If your child is studying how to ride a bikeI highly recommend buying one that is lighter than the ones from Target or Walmart. A bike from Guardian or Woom isn’t much more expensive, and it weighs about 10 pounds more. The Guardian also features the patented SureStop braking system, which means the rear wheels will always brake before the front wheels, so your child will never tip over. It works, and I know this because I gave it to a 20-year-old ding-dong guy to test in an empty parking lot, and he couldn’t flip it.
You may have noticed sensory-stimulating toys appearing in your children’s schools and goodie bags; As the name suggests, they help children stimulate one or more of their senses, help them develop motor skills, and generally calm them down. Both Mallory and my children love these toys, which also teach color recognition and counting. However, my kids are 7 and 9 years old and defeated them almost immediately with their giant ham hands. (They had been in Mallory’s office for almost a year).
Construction toys deals
Any construction toy has a stimulating effect creativity and hand-eye coordination. Reviewer Simon Hill tested the Clixo sets with his family and found them to be durable, flexible, washable and colorful. You don’t need a flat surface to build on so you can play with them anywhere. They also entered themed sets There are pieces that glow in the dark.
Magna-Tiles may be expensive (now a bit cheaper) but the return on investment is amazing. We bought our daughter’s first set when she was 2 or 3 years old and loved making little 2D ice cream cones or hats. Now he is 9 years old and still regularly takes out the trash. There are also many different themed sets (is also on sale) if you need more specialized pieces for racing or jungle.
We are Lego fans are recorded here and Lego just announced it multi-year partnership with F1. Can’t wait until January to get your hands on the new Lego City F1 set? Whet your appetite with the Lego Speed Champions sets available now. Give me a miniature model of Oscar Piastri! Give the people what they want!
Lego is having one Black Friday Sale. Although this doesn’t exactly help me get my Marvel-obsessed son Avengers towerMany dishes are cute and seasonal. How cute is this wreath? And how much better is building one than buying one at the store?
Wooden building blocks are always a great idea for young children because they encourage imaginative play and motor skills. This is a large set of 75 pieces that will keep little ones entertained for a very long time. Make sure you choose those that are ASTM certified and made from 100% wood, as these will most likely be chewed by humans or animals.
Game offers
Reviewer Simon Hill noted that it was the simplest game to start with in his game. Best board game accomplish. It was designed by a German psychologist and you can change the maze by pushing one tile up and another tile out after each turn.
Simon notes that the game is more fun than it looks, which is better because it’s mostly about capitalism and corporate expansion and doing mergers and acquisitions. It looks adorable and you won’t know who the winner is until the end, when you cash out your stake. It was a sudden shock to Simon’s children.
As a resident of the Pacific Northwest, I bought this immediately. This is a board game featuring beautiful nature that allows players to place tiles and inhabit different types of habitats. You work to achieve goals like catching a salmon run or pairing up with a bear. This game is aimed at children over 10 years old but younger children can also play if you patiently explain the rules.
I know this happens to us gaming transactions post, but this is the holiday gift I actually promised my kids. Somehow, I completely broke my old Switch (which is less tragic than you might expect, since I still have my first Switch from 2017) and we need to replace it so we can continue. Family Nintendo Night continues. It’s quite rare to see Nintendo offering discounts on its consoles, so you should buy this one if you’re looking too.