Pitch: Players (age 6+) snap globes and pegs together to form models molecules, mansions and more.
Payoff: Toys that make kids invent your own creations, rather than ape instructions, are enormously valuable in developing ingenuity, says Allison Gaines Pell, head of New York City’s Blue School, which experiments with new educational technology. The teachers there love toys like Creator, she adds, because they “do not have specific end points but rather are invitations for thought.”
Price: $59.00 for a 246-part set; available here.