Fatherly’s toys of the year aren’t shiny, new, untested playthings — they’re what our kids came back to over and over again all year long.
Here at Fatherly, we’ve spent countless hours discussing, arguing, and thinking about what makes a toy great. We’ve tried to come up with universal rules — they shouldn’t be loud and annoying; they shouldn’t make a huge mess! — only to happen upon one counterexample after another. The only real thing we can agree on, and maybe the only thing that actually matters, is that a great toy is one a kid plays with over and over. So, this year, instead of offering up a catalog of shiny new toys fresh off the production line, we instead decided to write about the toys that are most present in our kids’ lives. From light sabers to bikes, magnetic blocks to giant inflatable unicorn sprinklers, here are the toys that have proven themselves to our writers this year (and beyond).