Toys and Games

Magnets sealed inside solid ABS with ultrasonic welds rather than glue, so there is no seam to split and nothing to come loose in a mouth. A set bought for a three year old is still a set when they are twelve, and sets bought a decade apart still click together.

• Magnets sealed in welded ABS, no glued seams
• Every set made since 1997 still interlocks
• No batteries and no electronics
• Dishwasher is not needed, soap and water is
• Sold in open stock, so a set grows

A steel bed, hardwood stakes and real rubber tyres on the wagon Radio Flyer has built since 1917. The stakes come off to make a flatbed, the wheels are serviceable, and the thing that usually ends a wagon's life is a plastic axle it does not have.

• Steel bed with hardwood stakes
• Real rubber tyres on a steel axle
• Stakes remove for a flatbed
• No batteries and nothing electronic
• The same wagon since 1917

A brick moulded in 1958 still clutches a brick moulded this morning, which is the longest backward compatibility any product in this house can claim. ABS does not perish, the bricks are washable, and a box of them outlives the child it was bought for.

• Compatible with every LEGO brick since 1958
• ABS, washable, does not perish
• 790 pieces in the box
• No batteries and no electronics
• Spare and replacement bricks sold individually

Sixty unit blocks cut from solid hardwood in the proportions Caroline Pratt set a century ago, where every shape is a simple fraction or multiple of the basic unit, so towers actually meet and bridges actually span. Unfinished wood has no paint to chip and no electronics to die, and a set survives three childhoods and goes to the next family.

• 60 solid hardwood blocks, natural finish
• Standard unit proportions, so the shapes combine
• No paint, no battery, no screen
• Wooden storage tray included

Twenty-one pieces of solid wood in a wooden crate, painted rather than printed, which is why this set is the one that turns up in nurseries twenty years old. There is nothing to break because there are no moving parts.

• Solid wood, painted not printed
• 21 pieces in a wooden crate
• No batteries, no electronics, no moving parts
• Washes with a damp cloth
• Sorts into four wooden trays

Compressed sisal built to tournament specification, which means the fibres close behind the dart instead of taking a hole, so the face wears evenly over years rather than shredding where the treble twenty is. The wiring is the other half: ultra thin, so a dart that would bounce off a round wire slides past it instead.

• Self healing sisal face
• Ultra thin wiring, fewer bounce outs
• Built to tournament specification
• Rotates to spread the wear

Wood rather than the moulded plastic most play kitchens are, with doors on real hinges, dials that turn and a microwave plate that spins because a child turned it rather than because a motor did. Nothing in it needs a battery, so nothing in it stops working.

• Wood construction, not moulded plastic
• Doors and drawers on real hinges
• Ice dispenser works by hand, with two wooden cubes
• Dials turn and the microwave plate spins, mechanically
• No batteries and no electronics
• Assembles with a screwdriver, and comes apart again

A hundred solid wood blocks in nine shapes and four colours for the price of a takeaway, which makes this the cheapest thing on the site that will still be in use in twenty years. Solid wood rather than pressed board, so a chewed corner is a chewed corner rather than a swollen one, and the set is certified to the Forest Stewardship Council standard.

• 100 solid wood blocks, 9 shapes
• Forest Stewardship Council certified
• Storage box with a handle
• The low cost option here

Beech track cut to a profile BRIO has not changed since 1958, so a set from a loft still fits a set bought today. There is nothing in it but wood, a magnet and a wheel, and the wood is FSC certified rather than the ply most competitors use.

• Beech track, unchanged profile since 1958
• Fits every other BRIO set, old or new
• FSC certified wood, not ply
• No batteries and no electronics
• Magnetic couplings, nothing to break

Swiss-made, with three wheels and a lean-to-steer deck rather than a turning handlebar, and every part on it is ordered individually: wheels, bearings, deck, T-bar. A scooter normally dies when a wheel wears flat, which here costs a few dollars.

• Every part sold individually, down to the bearings
• Lean-to-steer, nothing to over-tighten
• Three wheels, no training required
• No batteries and no electronics
• Adjustable T-bar for a growing child

Pressed steel with a moving bed and no electronics, which is the same toy Tonka has sold since the 1960s and the reason people still have their father's. Left outside for a winter it rusts; it does not break.

• Pressed steel body, not plastic
• No batteries and nothing electronic
• Tipping bed on a steel pivot
• The same design since the 1960s
• Takes a child's weight

A steel frame, no pedals, no chain and no brake, so the only things that can wear are the tyres and the grips and both are sold as parts. The seat post and bars extend as the child does, which is how one bike covers eighteen months to five years and then the next child.

• Steel frame, no chain and no brake to seize
• Seat and bars extend as the child grows
• Puncture-free tyres, no tubes
• Grips, seat and wheels sold as parts
• Weighs under seven pounds

The board the Professional Darts Corporation uses, with a staple free construction throughout: no staples at the bullseye and none under the wire, which removes the places where an older board loosens and starts throwing darts back. The wire is thirty percent thinner than round wire, which enlarges every scoring bed slightly.

• Endorsed and used by the PDC
• Staple free, including the bullseye
• Wire 30 percent thinner than round
• Sisal face, self healing