27 Gifts and Toys for 12-Year-Old Boys

The middle schooler who finishes a fantasy series and wants the next book tonight can download it to a Kindle Paperwhite.

In middle school he chooses his own reading, and each new title joins the ones he keeps on the device.

When the boy you are buying for would rather be outside with friends, Kan Jam gives that crew something to aim at.

Friend groups at this stage run on casual rivalry, and this lets every pal take a turn without a coach. The set stays by the back door, ready for whoever shows up next.

Hydraulics power every punch these Thames & Kosmos robots throw, and he assembles that system himself, so he can see exactly what moves each arm.

The engineering pays off once both bots are finished and the first round of boxing begins.

Look for Mission Deep Sea, the edition of The Crew where the whole table plays a trick-taking card game as one team.

Each hand asks him to read his teammates' plans from the cards they lay down.

The orange and gray fabric strap keeps the Timex Weekender casual enough for jeans and a team hoodie, so it can stay on his wrist from morning to lights out.

At the end of a school dance, one look at his wrist tells him how long until his ride shows up.

Beatmaking on a laptop pairs naturally with the M-AUDIO Oxygen Pro Mini 32 for a preteen who builds tracks at his desk.

He has moved past dragging notes around with a mouse, and real keys let him find a riff by ear. His newest loop gets sent to the friend who raps over everything he makes.

Over his bedroom door, this Taylor Toy hamper gives a pickup-game regular a rim for his worn jerseys.

Pickup games fill his free hours, so even putting clothes away becomes a chance to sink one from the bed.

Each of the more than 200 Atari classics on this console comes down to one goal: beat the last high score.

He can grab a wireless joystick, settle into the couch and keep at it until a new record stands.

Razer is a name he has probably seen on the desks of the streamers he watches, so the Basilisk V3 is a mouse he will recognize as soon as the wrapping comes off.

Its ergonomic shape gives his hand a place to rest through a long match, and the lighting can be set to suit the rest of his setup.

The lefty on your list who plays PC games can rest his hand on a Razer keypad built for his side.

Most PC accessories assume a right-handed player, so this Tartarus V2 Left-Handed lets his matches with friends start from his side.

huupe's Mini 1 lands with a preteen who counts every shot he sinks and wants a clear winner when friends shoot around.

His jump shots and console high scores spring from the same urge to win, and this gear answers both. The rim then waits for the friend who swears he has the better form.

Darkness no longer ends the game: Redux glows, so capture the flag can run well past sunset.

Sneaking up on friends and sprinting home untagged is his favorite part of any yard game, and after dark those sneak attacks get much harder to see coming.

Franklin Sports puts ping pong in the kitchen for a middle schooler who answers every loss with a demand for a rematch.

Beating friends at anything with a score drives his downtime, and short points let each visitor rotate in. His running scoreboard on a sticky note ends up taped to the fridge.

Two players face off over KLASK, steering their pieces with magnets in a match that plays like air hockey crossed with foosball.

Quick hands decide every point, so plan on taking a turn yourself, and on finding out how fast a 12-year-old can be.

Patience beats speed in WobbleBall Marble Balance, where each player adds a marble and hopes the whole thing stays up.

It takes one to four players, so he can practice alone on a quiet afternoon, then pass his grandpa a marble when relatives visit.

In Living the Dream, a Tomodachi Life game for the Switch, he can create characters based on his friends and watch them share an island, where they get into situations he never planned.

His running list of inside jokes about the crew gets new material every time he checks in.

Just 108 pieces stand between him and a 3D Porsche 911 R, so this Ravensburger puzzle is a build he can likely finish in a single sitting.

Working in three dimensions also puts a new twist on the flat jigsaws he already knows.

A Bepuzzled Master Sword puzzle fits a boy who lines his bookshelf with Zelda keepsakes and wants one he must earn.

He picks fan gear more carefully now, and this piece has to be solved before it joins the others. Once solved, the teaser rests on that shelf beside his game cases.

This Educational Insights BrainBolt hands a sharp-minded middle schooler a recall contest to settle with his friends over lunch.

Bragging rights among classmates count for plenty now, and every attempt shows plainly whose memory lasts the longest.

A boy who plays to win gets UNO Show 'Em No Mercy, a harsher edition of a classic.

He has played the regular version for years, so this one gives him and his friends tougher rounds to fight through. He can keep the deck in his backpack and deal classmates in at lunch.

Risk turns the floor into a long war between friends, a match for a born schemer who loves outsmarting everyone around him.

Secret deals and sudden betrayals are how his friend group plays everything now, and here those schemes decide who wins. His scrawled tally of every victory ends up tucked inside the box lid.

With the Snap Circuits SC-750 Extreme kit, he snaps parts together into working electronics projects on his own, then pulls them apart and tries a layout he dreamed up.

It is a natural next step after prying open broken remotes to see what sits inside.

If his allowance still rides loose in a pocket, a Timberland Blix Slimfold gives the cash, his school ID and a gift card one slim leather home.

As a men's wallet, it will still look right on him well into high school.

Moving to the music actually changes it with the Just Play RUKUSfx, a mixer that responds to motion while its lights flash along.

No lessons or sheet music are needed, a plus if he taps out rhythms on every desk but has no patience for scales.