Quantity!
October 23, 2023 1:52 PM Subscribe
What's a fun and inexpensive thing to get a kid a LOT of? Specifics welcome!
Best answer: Googly eyes (assuming kid is old enough for them to not be a choking hazard)
posted by cgg at 2:00 PM on October 23, 2023 [13 favorites]
posted by cgg at 2:00 PM on October 23, 2023 [13 favorites]
Best answer: Costco business center has a BUCKET of doublebubble gum for around ten bucks.
posted by artdrectr at 2:07 PM on October 23, 2023
posted by artdrectr at 2:07 PM on October 23, 2023
Best answer: You can get a 50 pack of tiny glow in the dark ducks for about 5 bucks.
posted by phunniemee at 2:11 PM on October 23, 2023 [10 favorites]
posted by phunniemee at 2:11 PM on October 23, 2023 [10 favorites]
Plastic spiders!
posted by Pickman's Next Top Model at 2:16 PM on October 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Pickman's Next Top Model at 2:16 PM on October 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
Best answer: knock-off pokemon figures.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 2:23 PM on October 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 2:23 PM on October 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
Best answer: When I was a kid I would have felt great joy over an assortment of little rubber/plastic animals. Toy stores used to have big bins of them, and I loved going through them. It was always hard to pick just one-- indeed, this may be the root of my lifelong decision anxiety-- but getting a *lot* of them would eliminate this problem!
When I was a little older I liked making animals out of modeling clay. So, maybe a lot of little blocks of plasticine in different colours?
Or, (if the kid is old enough) Legos? Easily acquired second hand for environmental friendliness.
posted by Pallas Athena at 2:23 PM on October 23, 2023 [10 favorites]
When I was a little older I liked making animals out of modeling clay. So, maybe a lot of little blocks of plasticine in different colours?
Or, (if the kid is old enough) Legos? Easily acquired second hand for environmental friendliness.
posted by Pallas Athena at 2:23 PM on October 23, 2023 [10 favorites]
Here's a shop with cheap bulk toys for ideas
posted by greta simone at 2:24 PM on October 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by greta simone at 2:24 PM on October 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
Ketchup packets.
posted by lucasks at 2:33 PM on October 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by lucasks at 2:33 PM on October 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
Best answer: 1000 pennies weighs a hefty 2.5kg = 5.5 lb and costs $10. It's about half the cost of 1,000 M&Ms. And they're fungible!
Pro-tip: wash 'em in vinegar for super shiny.
posted by BobTheScientist at 2:46 PM on October 23, 2023 [3 favorites]
Pro-tip: wash 'em in vinegar for super shiny.
posted by BobTheScientist at 2:46 PM on October 23, 2023 [3 favorites]
Best answer: I guess it depends on what you mean by “a lot” but one of my better gifts-to-a-kid was basically a big box full of brownie/cake/cookie mixes and tubs of fun frosting, tubes of icing, and decorative elements like candy eyeballs. Kiddo was turning five and going through a baking phase, and he really got a kick out of pulling box after box after box of mix out of a larger box—Funfetti, double fudge brownie, strawberry cake, etc. I probably grabbed one of every mix off the shelf for that one, and it was a lot of fun.
posted by Suedeltica at 2:49 PM on October 23, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by Suedeltica at 2:49 PM on October 23, 2023 [6 favorites]
There's some good general ideas up above, but it's also good to actually ask the kid themselves!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 2:59 PM on October 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 2:59 PM on October 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Seconding marbles.
Tumbled stones
Erasers
Colored pencils
Paper cups (I was obsessed with throwing things as a kid, and when my mother wouldn’t let me out of the house with a 103° temp., I spent hour after hour stacking waxed Dixie cups in a pyramid, and throwing a Dixie cup with the bottom punched out —so that it would sail 30 ft. across the room when thrown like a football — at the pyramid and trying to knock them all down.)
posted by jamjam at 3:05 PM on October 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
Tumbled stones
Erasers
Colored pencils
Paper cups (I was obsessed with throwing things as a kid, and when my mother wouldn’t let me out of the house with a 103° temp., I spent hour after hour stacking waxed Dixie cups in a pyramid, and throwing a Dixie cup with the bottom punched out —so that it would sail 30 ft. across the room when thrown like a football — at the pyramid and trying to knock them all down.)
posted by jamjam at 3:05 PM on October 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Also came here to say tiny plastic animals (or tiny miniatures of anything, really. Itty bitty fake food is also fun)
posted by space snail at 3:08 PM on October 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by space snail at 3:08 PM on October 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
Best answer: I once gave my nephew $100 in crisp new $1 bills. He thought he was the richest kid in the world.
posted by Kangaroo at 3:20 PM on October 23, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by Kangaroo at 3:20 PM on October 23, 2023 [6 favorites]
Best answer: Several pounds of silly putty
(it is muuuch cheaper from Walmart)
posted by porpoise at 3:46 PM on October 23, 2023
(it is muuuch cheaper from Walmart)
posted by porpoise at 3:46 PM on October 23, 2023
Best answer: I always liked popping the bubbles in bubble wrap when I was a kid - I still remember a Christmas that my parents bought a big roll of bubble wrap and wrapped it up and put it under the tree for me.
posted by Daily Alice at 4:23 PM on October 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Daily Alice at 4:23 PM on October 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
Best answer: Silly Putty is manufactured by DuPont, and available in 50 pound bricks, if you've got enough people who want enough of it.
Early in the pandemic, we bought something like 5,000 superballs. They still provide endless hours of fun in our household, and many of them have gone home with friends.
posted by toxic at 4:26 PM on October 23, 2023
Early in the pandemic, we bought something like 5,000 superballs. They still provide endless hours of fun in our household, and many of them have gone home with friends.
posted by toxic at 4:26 PM on October 23, 2023
Best answer: Little green army men, or aliens or farm animals if you want to leave guns out of it.
posted by vrakatar at 5:11 PM on October 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by vrakatar at 5:11 PM on October 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
Oriental Trading Company will have lots of inspiration.
posted by feistycakes at 5:19 PM on October 23, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by feistycakes at 5:19 PM on October 23, 2023 [3 favorites]
Oddly, and only sometimes, but PC fans. Look around and you can find them quite cheap.
I built a massive air-moving room divider out of operating fans for $100 plus the power supply I already had. It was really strange and white-noisy.
posted by aramaic at 5:38 PM on October 23, 2023
I built a massive air-moving room divider out of operating fans for $100 plus the power supply I already had. It was really strange and white-noisy.
posted by aramaic at 5:38 PM on October 23, 2023
Best answer: Ping pong balls! For real. When my daughter was little I bought her a big bucket of balls. I still find some under furniture. We would run around the house throwing them at each other. They don't hurt, they don't knock vases over. They are cheap.
Oh my god unexpectedly getting a bucket of ping pong balls dumped on your head from un upstairs balcony is very, very fun.
PING PONG BALLS!
posted by bondcliff at 6:58 PM on October 23, 2023 [5 favorites]
Oh my god unexpectedly getting a bucket of ping pong balls dumped on your head from un upstairs balcony is very, very fun.
PING PONG BALLS!
posted by bondcliff at 6:58 PM on October 23, 2023 [5 favorites]
American Science and Surplus has some appealing stuff. Bulk Legos.
posted by Iris Gambol at 10:12 PM on October 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Iris Gambol at 10:12 PM on October 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
Seconding Oriental Trading Company, it's the best place to get 144 of something.
posted by mmoncur at 3:59 AM on October 24, 2023
posted by mmoncur at 3:59 AM on October 24, 2023
If you secretly hate the child's parent, give them a Nerf gun and a box of 500 FREAKING NERF DARTS. (ask me how I know)
posted by daisystomper at 9:49 AM on October 24, 2023
posted by daisystomper at 9:49 AM on October 24, 2023
If you secretly hate the parent, you're browsing the "classroom supplies" areas of Art Creativity, Amazon, Oriental Trading, and the like, for bulk-buy cymbals, whistles, flutes, castanets, tambourines...
Costco sells some classroom art supplies in bulk.
posted by Iris Gambol at 1:26 PM on October 24, 2023
Costco sells some classroom art supplies in bulk.
posted by Iris Gambol at 1:26 PM on October 24, 2023
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posted by praemunire at 1:53 PM on October 23, 2023 [8 favorites]