A-Z List of Best Toys for a 12 month old boy

Are you searching for that perfect gift for a 12-month-old boy?

Although there are some popular presents among little boys, your boy may have a slightly different taste. Because of this, we created this A-Z list for the best toys out there on the market for a 12 month old boy.

This list will provide you with our top recommendations for toys that suit your boy’s personality, likes and dislikes.

Animals
Building blocks
Cars
Digging
Energetic
Food & cooking
Gear & tools
Houses
Instruments
Jungle Gym
Kicking & throwing
Learning to walk & crawl
Music
Noise
Outdoors
Painting
Quintessential
Rocking
Slide
Trains
Unique
Vehicles
Water
Xmas
Yard
Zero- can’t think of anything!

Animals

If your 12 month old boy loves animals, we suggest the Melissa & Doug Take-Along Folding Wild Safari Play Mat. We love this play mat because it is colorful and comes with 9 animals including a hippo and elephant that rattles, a tiger and zebra that has crinkly sounds and a giraffe that squeaks. Soft and great for developing hand control, you can use these toys as musical instruments too.

In addition, we suggest that you could get your boy an annual membership to the local zoo. Most zoos have special events and activities for its members. Can’t go wrong!

Building blocks

Boys love building blocks. Building blocks not only promote creativity and imagination but also hand-eye coordination and balance. If your 12 month old is already starting to show interest in stacking things around the house, make sure that you get him the Hape Solid Beech Wood Stacking Blocks.

These blocks are colorful, made of quality beech wood and long-lasting. Unlike other building blocks, these also come with numbers and alphabets on them so that you can use them as an educational tool too. Great value in our opinion.

Cars

If your 12-month-old boy is into cars, with the Moderno Kids Luxury Mercedes GL63 Convertible Ride-On Push-Car and Rocking Chair, he will have the coolest set of wheels on the block!

This car is a luxury Mercedes and comes with a padded leather seat, music buttons, steering wheel incorporated with an MP3 player with audio input, and tail lights. Heck, maybe this ride is even nicer than the adults!

Best of all, it’s a ride-on car, push-car and rocking chair- all in one! Bonus!

Be sure to check out if there are car shows in your area. Often, these shows have antique cars on display and your boy may love them!

Digging

Without a doubt, great places to dig include your garden and your local sandy beach.

However, if you want to protect the plants and the landscaping of your garden or don’t live close enough to a beach to go on a regular basis, get your boy a Step2 Naturally Playful Sandbox. At least you know what he will be digging in and you can keep the sand he is digging in clean. This sandbox comes with a cover too so that it can keep pets out and stay dry during bad weather.

When your boy eventually gets bored of the sandbox (or grows up), this sandbox is versatile enough that you can re-use it as many other things. For example, fill the sandbox with water and it can be a baby pool or fill it with plastic balls to use as a ball pit. Or keep it for yourself to soak your feet in after a hard day’s work of gardening or use it as a planter box!

Energetic

Most moms with energetic young boys find that they have to take their boys out of the house everyday to play so that they can burn up some energy. Popular spots include the local park or library.

However, it can be exhausting for you to have to make a trip out everyday so it makes sense to invest in something that your 12 month old boy can use at home to burn up extra energy. Having a toy that will keep your 12 month old occupied for a while will also be handy if you are unable to go out for whatever reason (think, illness or car being fixed).

To this end, we highly recommend that you get My First Trampoline for your own home. This trampoline will allow your boy to bounce to his heart’s content in whatever weather, rain or sun!

This trampoline is a great entry-level trampoline as it is less larger than most other trampolines but still has the same safety features. For one, it has netting to protect your boy from falling out. It is designed without dangerous elastic bands and all metal parts are covered in foam or plastic. The jump mat and spring pad protector are made with UV-resistant materials to last longer in the sun. The steel frame is made of galvanized steel tubes to prevent rusting too.

It takes a maximum weight of 100 lbs which means that you can use it for several children.

Perfect for energetic 12-month-olds!

Food & cooking

If you or your 12 month old boy loves cooking and food (or you are a fan of cooking reality shows), you will love this KidKraft Uptown Espresso Kitchen. We do! The designers of this toy have tried to make this toy kitchen as close to a real adult kitchen as possible.

This kitchen has a stovetop with 4 burners, a sink, refrigerator, microwave, freezer, oven and dishwasher with doors that open and shut. The stovetop knobs turn and click and the kitchen sink tap turns too. The oven and microwave have see-through windows.

There is a chalkboard on the freezer door for your little boy to write his shopping list, or anything else he wants! A phone is attached to the side of the kitchen in case your 12 month old wants to talk on the phone while cooking. The fridge even has an ice cube dispenser. Just like the real ones, right?

Be warned that it does take a while to put this whole thing together as it is a pretty complex toy so don’t wait till last minute before it is meant to be gifted to start putting this together.

Gears & tools

Is your 12-month-old a budding Tim Allen of Home Improvement? If so, get him the WolVol Musical Learning Workbench Toy.

It comes with pretend tools like a screwdriver, hammer, electric drill, chainsaw and bench clamp. They even sound like real tools. To keep your 12 month old boy engaged, these tools play music as well as light up. After your 12 month old has finished playing, he can hang these tools back onto his own personal workbench.

It also comes with a shape sorter and when your little boy inserts the correct shapes into the hole, the toy names the shape out loud.

Houses

You can’t blame anyone for wanting their own house.

If your 12 month old likes playing in house-like structures, then we recommend the Step2 Wonderball Fun Playhouse. It comes with a Dutch-style door that opens and closes, balls that your 12 month old can place in certain slots around the house to watch how the balls move and a mailbox, among other things!

Great for play dates and for a cool toy to have inside or outside of your house.

Instruments

If you want to get your 12 month old boy started on musical instruments early, the Hohner 4 Piece Baby Band is a great starting kit.

Winner of 27 Creative Child Magazine Top Toy of the Year award, this set includes a mini rainbow shaker, baby maraca, baby rattle and cage bell. The toys are created to be safe so that your little one can’t poke his eye out and is BPA free so that you don’t have to worry about your little one licking it either.

You can also bring your little one to an outdoor concert and let him shake these instruments along to the music!

Jungle Gyms

What if you have a 12-month-old boy who looks like he could be the next American Ninja, Olympic Gymnast or Navy Seal?

There are jungle gym memberships that you can sign up for but if you want something for your own home, you can get the Panda Indoor Playground by EZPlay. This is small enough that it could fit inside your house or you can leave it outside.

It comes with a swing that has an attached safety bar, a webbed rope ladder, a slide and even gymnastic rings.

It can be folded away for storage and is made from sturdy ash wood.

Kicking & throwing

If you have a 12-month-old boy who loves kicking things around (and perhaps has already destroyed some things around your house), get him some Click N’ Play Plastic Pit Balls. They are small and light enough so that they won’t easily do much damage around the house (or to others). They are a great size for small hands too.

These balls can also be used to fill ball pits, empty boxes for play, inflatable pools with or without water in them, and bath tubs as a bath toy.

Learning to walk & crawl

If your 12 month old is still learning to walk or crawl, we highly recommend the HABA Walk Along Tool Cart.

This HABA Walk Along Tool Cart is not only one of the most stable learning-to-walk push strollers on the market, but it is also made of high quality, environmentally-friendly materials. Another bonus is that it comes with cool, long-lasting home improvement tools that your 12-month-old boy will love playing with.

To see other reviews of the most popular learning-to-walk push strollers on the market.

Music

The Baoli 24 Keys Keyboard Kids Toy Piano with Microphone is a perfect gift for a little boy who loves music and singing.

It looks like a mini version of a grand piano but it is a lot more fun! It plays a piece of music when a key is pressed and there is even a microphone for your little one (or you) to sing-along!

It is short enough so that your little one can use it while seated safely on the floor.

Noise

You may have a 12 month old boy who loves banging stuff to see how they sound. Instead of seeing him destroy things around your house, give him the VTech KidiBeats Kids Drum Set.

It was created to for kids who love noise and banging.

Outdoors

The Playz Pop Up Children Play Tent with 2 Crawl Tunnels & 2 Tents comes with not only one but two tents and two tunnels! This means that it is an amazing toy if your 12 month old wants to have friends over. You can mix and match these to create an obstacle course or convert it into a pretend hideout, cave, castle, fort, camping tent etc.

You can also separate these structures to keep one in the front yard, one in the backyard or one indoors.

There is a carry bag too to make this easily transportable.

Painting

Although we would love to recommend paint sets, 12-month-olds are still young enough for there to be a risk of them eating the paints.

So instead, we are recommending something that will produce almost the same effect as painting- a Kidsthrill Doodle Magnetic Drawing Board. With this board, your boy can learn to draw and eventually write.

This board comes with a stylus that is attached with a string to the board to reduce the risk of the stylus pen being a choking hazard. It also comes with 3 stamps.

Quintessential

If there is one gift that EVERY 12 month old boy should have, we believe that it is LEGO! LEGO is a trademark gift for young boys and has been known to promote hand-eye coordination, engineering and building skills, creativity and imagination and problem-solving skills (for example, how would you build a mansion with only 20 red blocks?)

For a set that has a decent amount of basic bricks so that your 12 month old is not limited by what he can build, we recommend the LEGO 6176 DUPLO Basic Bricks Deluxe (80 Pieces).

Colorful, versatile and made of non-toxic materials, every 12-month-old boy should have at least one set of LEGO bricks to play with!

Rocking

Depending on your child, he may or may not yet be able to hold himself up by himself in a rocking toy. We like this Qaba Kids Plush Rocking Horse-Style Giraffe Theme Chair because it comes with a safety belt. Many other rocking toys don’t have an equivalent safety belt which makes this toy perfect for a 12 month old boy.

Slides

Kids love slides! Some local parks have amazing playgrounds. If you happen to live close to one, your 12 month old boy is lucky indeed! But what if you don’t, or it was raining or you did not feel that the playground was a safe place to leave your 12 month old boy without close supervision?

Have your own mini slide for your 12 month old boy to play in the safety and comfort of your own home! The Step2 Play Fun Climber Ball for Toddlers is the perfect slide for his age. Unlike other bigger slides, this slide is small and of course, lower to the ground. It also comes with 10 multicolored balls that he can place into a maze on the side of the slide. There is also a crawl space underneath the slide. So much fun!

Trains

Our test baby loves this Melissa & Doug Stacking Train! It looks simple but you can tell that a lot of thought has gone into creating this toy. It’s fun and also creative at the same time. Heck, even adults love it!

It has an engine, caboose, and two train cars with different colored shapes and blocks. You can change how the train looks by changing the arrangement of the pieces or if you are a stickler for how things should be, you can help your 12 month old learn to piece the set together properly. Your 12 month old will also improve his hand-eye coordination with these as you need to be accurate when placing the shapes into the pegs.

It is made of high quality and long-lasting wood so you don’t have to worry about these getting damaged anytime soon!

Unique

Perhaps you want to get your 12 month old boy a truly unique gift, something that he will remember forever and will be special to him. We have found you the perfect toy- a Personalized Wooden Child’s Name Puzzle Stool.

The stool is made of wood and the seat of the stool can be engraved with letters that pop out like a puzzle! You can personalize it to spell your child’s name, nickname or have it just say something special. Crafted in Missouri, we think that this is such a unique, ultra cool gift!

Your 12-month-old will love playing with the letters and if you choose his name for the puzzle, he will learn how to recognize his name in no time!

Vehicles

If your 12 month old is into all types of vehicles or anything with wheels (not just cars), we recommend the Yeonhatoys’ Pull Back Vehicles which is a 12 pack assorted set of construction vehicles, race cars and trucks.

These vehicles have parts that move like real vehicles. The only caution we would add is that if you have a particularly big child who still puts things in his mouth, you should first double check to make sure that this will not become a choking hazard. These toys are 2.5 inches in length and in our opinion, seems too big to swallow but it never hurts to be 100% sure.

In addition, there are a lot of places that you could take your 12 month old to visit to see real vehicles. Think of your local train station, bus station or fire station. Most fire stations welcome such visits from young kids and some even give out free stickers!

Water

If you have a water baby, get him the Codream Mommy and Kiddie Inflatable Baby Float with Removable Sun Canopy. It’s a fun and safer way to swim together with your little boy. The float is designed with an extra curved space to make it easy for an adult to stay together with your boy at all times, even in deeper waters or if the adult can’t swim very well.

It also has a canopy to protect your boy’s skin from overly hot rays. Made from environmentally-friendly materials, it is a nice gift to make swimming experiences more enjoyable.

Xmas

If you or your 12-month-old boy really love Christmas and wished that it was all year round, then we think that the Melissa & Doug Holiday Christmas Tree Wooden Chunky Puzzle will be a suitable gift.

It’s a holiday-themed puzzle with lots of colors and shaped like a Christmas tree. Santa Clause, presents and reindeers adorn this puzzle so that you won’t forget about Christmas!

Yard

At 12 months, it’s probably not a good idea to give your little boy real yard tools but if you are keen to get him started on learning how to garden or grow his own vegetables, plants and fruits, you could use the Little Tikes Garden Table to start him on his journey.

This toy has a rake, shovel, flowers, a basin to hold water with a drain plug and even a real working watering can. Perfect for your little helper!

Zero- can’t think of anything!

In the end, if you can’t think of anything or find anything to gift to your 12 month old boy, there is always the option of bringing him into a toy shop and asking him to choose his own gift. Chances are, he will know what he likes!

If you know of anyone with a boy who is impossible to shop for, please share this with them! They will thank you!

Didn’t find what you were looking for? If you would like more ideas, please see our post on Best Toys for a 1 Year Old.