27 Gifts and Toys for 9-Year-Old Boys

This Smartivity mechanical robot hand gives a boy fascinated by how machines move a hand he works himself.

He can hold it up beside his own palm and compare how each finger moves. Later, he can see whether it manages to lift a pencil or a paper cup off his desk.

"Go long!" is the call he shouts most at recess, and a Vortex Aero Howler lets him be the one throwing the deep pass.

Its tail is built for distance and it whistles in the air, so whoever is sprinting out across the park can hear it coming.

CrunchLabs is Mark Rober's brand, so a fan of his videos gets a machine from a name he already knows.

The Crunchinator is all about crushing everyday objects: he picks one, flattens it and checks how it gave way, then goes looking for something tougher to try next.

Courses he designs himself are his favorite project, and this GraviTrax Skytrax set gives him fresh parts for the next build.

He maps a route on paper first, and the finished track shows whether his plan gets the ball to the end.

A boy who doodles roller coasters in the margins of his homework can turn those sketches into track he builds himself.

This Thames & Kosmos kit gives that habit a real shape, so he can check which ideas hold up. On his bedroom floor, he can take a layout apart and put together a steeper version of his favorite drop.

Couch-cushion forts fall down by morning, but a Minecraft world on his Switch keeps every wall right where he put it.

Towers can climb higher than any sofa allows, caves can run underneath, and the whole build is waiting for him the next day.

If your gift goes to a kid who props up books as ramps, this National Geographic kit swaps them for real track.

He invents his own contraptions now, and loose pieces let him rework a drop the moment it stalls. His fastest layout stays standing on the bedroom floor until a new idea pulls it apart.

When the boy you're buying for doodles towers on napkins, Magna-Tiles microMAGS turn those sketches into something he can hold.

Magnetic pieces grab each other as he goes, so a lopsided design gets reshaped rather than torn down.

Fujifilm Instax Mini 13 lets a kid who borrows a parent's phone for every photo hold his own shots in hand.

It prints on instax mini film, so add a pack to the gift. He wants gear of his own, and paper prints are something to trade with classmates the same day.

Until the family says yes to a dog, a Tamagotchi Original gives him a pet that counts on him alone.

Feeding it and cleaning up after it are his jobs from the first morning, and this Tama Picnic version is small enough to ride along in a jacket pocket all day.

The PowerA LucidSound LS500 headset lets an avid gamer keep playing once his younger siblings are asleep.

The game plays in his ears instead of through the TV, so the house stays quiet while he finishes a level. Before you order, check that it works with the console or computer he already plays on.

Waiting rooms and restaurant tables are where this travel edition of Ubongo earns its spot in his bag.

Each challenge asks him to fit odd-shaped tiles into a puzzle board with no gaps left over, a quiet brain-teaser he works out on his own.

On a family game night, the kid with the calmest fingers in the house gets to be the surgeon everyone crowds around.

He prefers contests of nerve to luck, and Hasbro Gaming Operation turns on how still his own fingers stay. The board sits on the table, waiting for the next player to lean in close.

The boy who answers every dare with "watch this" wants a contest he can hold, and Hasbro Gaming Bop It! hands him one.

Every barked instruction needs ears and fingers working together, the split-second speed he chases against friends at recess.

A nine-year-old curious about how food changes gets The Complete Cookbook for Young Scientists to cook from.

The publisher rates it for ages 8 to 12, so the recipes fit his level. On a Saturday, he can cook lunch with a grown-up at the stove.

Who Was Albert Einstein? gives a nine-year-old with endless science questions the true story of a famous thinker.

The publisher rates it for ages 8 to 12, so he can read it on his own. After school, he can read a chapter and pick out a fact to share.

The Stonekeeper by Kazu Kibuishi gives a comics-loving young reader a graphic novel he can read alone.

He can finish it on a rainy afternoon at home. If it clicks, later volumes can join it on his shelf.

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster gives a young reader fond of puns and riddles a classic novel.

It fits a boy quick to spot jokes hidden in words. Later he can come back to it and catch the ones he missed.

Coding mistakes are easy to spot when they send a robot the wrong way across the rug.

With Botley, he plans a string of moves, runs them and fixes whichever step went wrong. It suits a beginner, while one who already writes programs on a computer may find it too simple.

Behind the large viewing window of this giant Uncle Milton habitat, he can watch the colony dig new tunnels.

The ants come later, ordered with the voucher in the box. Ants work while he is at school, so there is usually a new passage to find when he gets home.

When his robot battles need a fresh opponent, the Transformers Constructicon Scavenger joins the lineup on his bedroom floor.

He wants collector pieces now, ones worth posing mid-fight and keeping out on display. Between matches, the figure holds its stance at the edge of the battlefield.

Extra large, with a posable tongue and a wired tail he can bend into shape, this Hammond Collection Spinosaurus from Jurassic Park III is a big step up from a basic dinosaur toy.

A floor battle can freeze mid-roar exactly the way he sets it, and the chunky toddler dinosaurs finally get a break.

Invented monsters crowd the notebook of a young artist who designs creature cards, and Crayola Clicks markers let him ink them all.

He makes up powers and names for every creature, so hand-drawn cards let him build a deck nobody else owns. The pens ride in his pencil pouch, ready whenever a new monster needs finishing touches.

Pokémon collectors know every marking on the creatures in their binder, and this Klutz kit puts that sharp eye to use as he recreates Pokémon characters by hand in a stained-glass style.

Tape a finished one to his bedroom window and see how it looks with the light behind it.

The Air Hogs Zero Gravity truck hands a speed-loving boy a remote-control racer for indoor laps.

He lays out a slipper course down the hallway and takes each turn at full speed. Unlike a car pushed by hand, this one answers to his thumbs on the remote, so the driving is all his.