Best Toys

Is the burgeoning brilliant scientist in your house constantly searching for new projects, riffling through the pantry in search of ingredients and turning over the garden in search of specimens? Do eyes gleam with youthful exuberance at the nifty discovery science toys seen on their programs? It’s time to outfit their playroom with the toys and tools necessary to expand that interest in science! But where does the intrepid parent go to search for the best science toys? There is an almost endless variety of toy stores available online, below are a few of the top stores for finding the best science toys.

Best Online Toy Stores for Science Toys

Discovery Channel Store: A plethora of engaging, educational and affordable discovery science toys designed to bring the world within reach are available online at the Discovery Channel Store. The minds behind Discovery know how difficult it can be to choose between high-tech items and provide Buying Guides designed to help compare the choices in order to choose only the best science toys for your needs. The icing on the cake is their 100% unconditional guarantee!

Scientifics Online: Scientifics Online believes in truth in advertising, offering over the Web a number of the latest and best science toys currently available. For over 50 years Edmund Scientific’s mission has been to bring innovative learning products to as many people as possible. Their collection includes materials suitable and fun for kids and hobbyists all the way up to teachers.

Amazon: What can’t you find at Amazon? That is a good question without an easy answer! One of the earliest successful online stores, Amazon offers an amazing array of items in many categories including some of the best discovery science toys on the market. A convenient check out system and community features makes it simple to discover new products that may interest you.

Top 10 Science Toys

Fresh from Jakks the Eyeclops Bionicam is the next generation of the Bionic Eye. The Bionicam with clip-on battery pack is the perfect tool for the scientist not content to confine their explorations indoors. A color LCD screen serves as a viewfinder of the portable microscope while magnifying the object of your attention 100x, 200x, all the way up to 400x. Pictures snapped on the built-in digital camera can be given the big-screen treatment and viewed on any standard television via the handy included USB thumb drive. Designed to be suitable for use by kids, it is, by no means, too childish for use by parents as well.

Live Butterfly Garden: Budding lepidopterists will go buggy over the Live Butterfly Garden from Insect Lore. The reusable and collapsible habitat makes it possible to view the entire lifespan of a butterfly, or “painted lady” as they are more colorfully known, up close and in the comfort of your own home. The garden’s fine transparent mesh allows even urban dwellers to experience first-hand the miracle of butterfly metamorphosis from within an air-conditioned fifteenth-floor apartment. View first-hand the amazing natural path of this creature’s life, from its beginning as a dormant and securely wrapped larvae through chrysalis and its final emergence and flight as a colorful, delicate fluttering butterfly. The world of the painted ladies is yours to enjoy as well.

Each Live Butterfly Garden set is provided with a mail-in voucher for five butterfly larvae and special food. Food and larvae are both available throughout the year, making it simple to maintain and expand your butterfly menagerie.

Uncle Milton’s Homestar: Who hasn’t wanted a holodeck of their very own with which to make fantastic trips (with no chance of explosive decompression)? Your child’s own room can be turned into the observation deck of a deep space ship with Uncle Milton’s Homestar.

Uncle Milton’s Homestar is a fantastic device that makes it possible to turn any room into a crystal-clear planetarium by projecting high-resolution images of real star fields onto the walls and ceilings. The sophisticated spherical design and adjustable projection angles can display up to 10,000 stars on walls and the ceiling – and without leaving the gummy residue of glow-in-the-dark stickers. This pro-series planetarium comes with two interchangeable hi-res image disks to provide a variety of star field views. Constellations and planets travel regally along their paths by way of a motorized rotation made possible by dual power options of a battery pack and AC adapter. An automatic timer allows for motorized image rotation throughout the night so your small section of the galaxy can mimic the movements of those gas giants far above. Stars shine with the power of ultra-bright white LEDs.

Chemie C3000: Perhaps those mad scientists are always mad due to a lack of decent supplies, not just evil tendencies. You can keep your future scientist engaged and entertained with the Chemie C3000, the ultimate chemistry kit. The kit provides enough experiments with chemical reactions to perform one a day for a full year! There are more than 360 absorbing and exciting experiments presented over a curriculum of 32 sections, to be as precise as befits a scientific explorer. Performing experiments first-hand allows you to really learn the important fundamental principles of chemistry. The professional-quality lab equipment (including safety glasses) was created in Germany for safe experimentation. Due to the parts contained in this kit, is was created for kids over the age of twelve.

While several chemicals are included with this toy, here are just a few: tartaric acid, sodium hydrogen sulfate, calcium hydroxide, ammonium chloride, potassium, copper sulfate, litmus powder, hexamethyleneteramine, luminol preparation, calcium sulfate, iron filings, activated charcoal, sodium thiosulfate, ammonium carbonate, potassium iodide, potassium bromide, potassium permanganate, sulfur, and zinc powder.

Skyscout’s Personal Planetarium: With SkyScout’s Personal Planetarium, it has never been easier to travel the stars without leaving the ground. There is no need to invest the floor space needed for enormous telescopes or years of study lectures and advanced degrees to locate thousands of celestial bodies if you have the SkyScout Personal Planetarium.

The SkyScout is a sleek and streamlined hand-held planetarium that uses GPS technology to locate and identify more than 6,000 stars, constellations and planets. Directional arrows on the graphic LCD display with red LED backlight make locating a specific extraterrestrial body as simple as point and click. SkyTour SD multi-media cards are accepted for interactive tours of the nighttime sky. Powered by two AA batteries (not included) its battery life is up to 10 hours. It even comes with a two year warranty.

The celestial database includes: 6000 stars, 100 variable stars, all 88 constellations, 200 galaxies, 100 nebula, 40 star clusters, 20 satellites, 20 asterisms, 20 comets, 10 asteroids, 25 extra-solar planets, 100 downloadable objects, 50 custom user objects.

Not a huge toy, it’s dimensions are 7.4 x 2.5 x 4.0 inches, so it should fit nicely in your child’s room. Even the display size is nice at 3 x 1 inches. The display resolution is a stunning 240 x 80 with a 0.325-millimeter dot pitch. Both headphones and a USB cable come with this amazing toy.

Rock Tumbler: One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, and with the Rock Tumbler one man’s piece of gravel is another man’s shining gemstone. This high-tech tumbler will entrance kids as it turns rough rocks and gritty minerals into decorative accessories and pieces of art. Place loose rough rocks inside the tumbler (a full ½ lb of rough rocks are included) and close the plastic safety dome to start the process. The included grinding powder will duplicate the natural process of erosion and smooth those rough edges. A gleaming and smooth finish is achieved by using the polishing powder. What emerges at the end of the process is a polished rock perfect for use in hand-made jewelry or a place of honor in a cherished collection. The kit includes a silver-toned collection of metal accessories to get your young jeweler started: two key chains, two necklaces, rings, earrings and glue.

The Rock Tumbler is electrically operated, 120 volt AC adapter with 6 volt output, and comes with detailed instructions. A built-in timer and on / off buttons with light indicators come on each tumbler.

Because of the number of smaller pieces included with this set, it is recommended that you keep it away from smaller children, as it may actually be a choking hazard in some situations.

Discovery Channel Microscope: This microscope is yet another of the fine discovery science toys designed for use by kids without dumbing down the science involved. Fresh from the Discovery Channel this microscope comes with two different settings to better the investigate and wonder at the beauty of the world around us. Five slides are included and ready for viewing, one even including samples of an authentic 900-year old Peruvian mummy!

The eyepiece is capable of rotating 360-degrees, making for a comfortable experience while viewing specimens that can actually be magnified by 400%. Sturdiness suitable for kids is found in the base made from durable die-cast metal and the resilient plastic body.

The microscope even comes with five slides that have already been prepared so your child can get started right away. Each purchase comes with the cross sections of two different insects and two different plants as well as one with Peruvian Mummy Wrap that is 900 years old! Also included are several vials of intriguing specimens and blank slides for the examination of your choice.

This great set also includes all of the tools of great scientists. A set of tweezers, an eye-dropper to help make slides, a beaker capable of helping your child measure liquids, a spoon, and several blank slides so they can examine their own objects, and a handy experiment booklet to help guide your child.

Because there are lots of small parts with this one, the manufacturer suggests this only be used by kids ages eight and up.

EyeClops Night Vision: Night vision isn’t just for cats and science fiction heroes anymore! EyeClops Night Vision allows kids and adults to see clearly more than 20 feet even in the pitch black setting of complete darkness. Actual infra-red night vision technology powers these goggles. You’ll never be lost in a blackout or surprised by a sneaky black-clad ninja with these goggles in your toybox! The cool futuristic styling of the goggles only adds to the fun and makes it even easier to fall into character as a bionic hero, spy or cyborg. A switch allows the user to toggle between night vision views in green or stark black and white.

While designed for kids, these goggles are so cool and fun that the kids may find themselves having to hide them from their parents!

The goggles do require 4 “AA” batteries which are not included with your purchase.

Ant Gel Habitat: The problem with classic ant farms is that darn dirt blocking the best views of the intricate tunneling. Discovery’s Ant Gel Farm solves that problem with space-age technology. The farm is a habitat capable of sustaining itself and is based on a space shuttle experiment from 2003. Instead of sand or dirt the ants tunnel through a clear, safe gel that is created just to meet the dietary needs of ants. The product includes a magnifier that lets you get up close and personal as the ants dig, build and live their lives.

Thanks to the nutritional gel eliminating the need for any other materials, all that’s required from you is to sit back and enjoy the complex systems of tunnels being created. An enclosed coupon for 25 free Harvest Ants gets the colony going.

Like many good science toys on the market today, there are small parts that may mean a choking hazard for smaller kids.

Kids Forensics Lab: Fighting crime takes more than a cape and snazzy belt buckle. These days it also takes an understanding of science – forensic science. The Kids Forensics Lab comes packaged with six mysterious cases meant to help your child learn about the basic principles behind the world of forensic science. The hardware includes a microscope that can make objects appear two hundred times larger, a light table to help examine objects, lab goggles, instructions that come complete with a detective case book, microscope slides that contain evidence for each case, test tubes, tire tread casting samples with clay and everything necessary to create a complete at-home forensics lab. Using the available tools, your child will have no problem discovering where even Carmen Sandiego is hiding!

The case evidence packet in this set comes with samples of fiber, identification stain for the fiber samples, chromatography paper, artificial blood samples, mock samples of ink and synthetic hair samples. It does require 4 AA batteries before you can use it.