Awesome Gifts and Toys for 8 Year Old Boys

Looking for a cool gift for your 8-year old boy? Look no further. Here’s a great list of gifts, games, books, and toys that your 8 year old boys will be happy to receive for Christmas or another holiday such as a birthday. Scroll down to see all the cool ideas.

You Might Also Like:

2022 Toy & Book Gift Guide for Kids

All book recommendations for 8-year olds

Activity Books for Ages 5 – 8

Craft and STEM Activity Kits for Kids

Best Gifts and Toys for 8-Year-Old Boys

3 in 1 Safari Wildlife Tree House
Buy on LEGO.com
Make a biplane, tree house, or catamaran. My kids love these 3 in 1 sets!

Thames & Kosmos Glow in the Dark T Rex Excavation Kit
Excavate your own glow-in-the-dark Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton model. This dangerous prehistoric giant comes to life when you excavate its bones with a hammer and chisel and assemble them into a skeleton. The skeleton lets you reenact prehistoric adventures or surprise your friends with its glowing effect when the lights are off. The kit includes 13 skeleton pieces buried in a plaster block, excavation tools, and a descriptive manual.

Cat Kid Comic Club by Dav Pilkey
Totally hilarious and written by the author of Dog Man! Cat Kid teaches a class for the tadpoles about making comic books…which doesn’t go well until the tadpoles get excited about failure and start writing and drawing. If you like a lot of silliness (including potty humor) with great messages about writing, creativity, and persistence, read this book next.

Master Detective Toolkit Spy Labs
Find and lift fingerprints, write secret messages in disappearing ink, and decipher top-secret codes. A fun deductive reasoning kit for 8 year old boys.

Double Loop Stunt Arena
Buy on LEGO.com
Stage your own stunts in this 598-piece building set with 2 stunt bikes, 7 minifigures, and a stunt area with a snake loop.

Lego Super Mario Adventures
Kids get a chance to build their very own Super Mario Bros. course with this awesome LEGO set that comes with its very own Mario figure!

Puzzlooies Space Cats to the Rescue by Russell Ginns and Jonathan Maier, illustrated by Kristen Terrana-Hollis
Kids will love this fun, interactive, and silly adventure story with lots of illustrations, jokes, and puzzles. They’ll have to read the chapters, solve the puzzles, and pay close attention to the mysterious messages and clues. In this story, an asteroid is about to hit Earth! The problem (besides the asteroid) is that the astronauts who are supposed to defend the Earth have food poisoning. Who can help instead? How about cat-stronauts?

Air Hogs Super Soft Stunt Shot
Kids love this remote-controlled stunt car that does spins, wheelies, rebounds off walls, and more!

Educational Insights Circuit Explorer Space Station STEM Toy
Explore electricity & circuits! Build a Deluxe Base Station with towers, a planetarium with color-changing dome light, a communication station with a rotating radar dish, and more. Also includes astronaut and robot figures for pretend play and stickers for customization.

BrainBolt Memory Game
A light-up memory game from Educational Insights that will challenge your 8 year old boys to remember the light sequence and see how long you can remember it correctly! (For one or two players.)

First Cat in Space by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Shawn Harris
Absurdly hysterical, this is a bizarrely perfect adventure in space! When rats eat a second of the moon, the world’s leaders send their secret weapon– a cat and a stowaway toenail-clipping robot. The two adventurers meet the Queen of Moonopolis who leads them beneath the moon’s surface through the mine tunnels where they have more silly adventures like befriending a whale, camping and eating pizza, becoming pirates, answering a sphynx’s riddle, I could go on…but basically it’s all bizarre and hilarious and wonderful. Then, the spaceship’s computer joins the Rat King’s side with revenge in mind and when the heroes arrive at the Rat King’s they GET CAPTURED. But, don’t worry — somehow they’ll escape. Right?

Beyblade Burst Hypersphere Vortex Battle Set
Kids can’t get enough of the fun of this competitive arena with a Beystadium battle set with 2 launchers and 2 battling tops.

Monday into the Cave of Thieves (Total Mayhem #1) by Ralph Lazar
Wild and quirky, this un-put-downable adventure filled with illustrations is perfect for you if you like good vs. evil adventures where kid power saves the day! Dash Candoo’s Monday is one crazy adventure after another with Devil Cat attacks, a quadcycle pursuit, a math class secret tunnel, stolen perfume, and so much more. I’m a big fan of this exciting, readable new chapter book and look forward to more books in the entertaining new series. (P.S. And it’s funny with zero potty humor!)

T Rex Dionsaur Fossil Exhibition
Build your own museum exhibit with two paleontologists, a T Rex, and more.

Ooze Labs Chemistry Station Science Experiment Kit
This educational chemistry set is perfect for children who love doing their own experiments and want to create something colorful, slimy, or fizzy in their very own lab!

Switch Lite
This handheld version of the Nintendo Switch is the perfect gift when it comes to price and size for any kid looking for an awesome game console!

Playmobil Mars Space Station
Explore Mars with your own research vehicle. 8 year old boys love the removable roof ad movable arm plus lights and sound effects.

LEGO Speed Champions Mopar Dodge

Almanac 2023 National Geographic Kids
With schooling at home and more families homeschooling, the National Geographic Almanac is a must-own resource for families. Practice your nonfiction reading comprehension skills as you learn about animals, space, science, history, geography, and much more. Each page is designed to entertain and educate with stunning layouts and eye-popping photographs.

Playmobil Mission Rocket with Launch Site
Would your kids love to play with this rocket? It includes two astronauts, a transport container, a space capsule, and lights and sounds!

Bouncing Planets
Make five colorful, rubbery balls resembling planets using the included spherical mold and polymer granules.

The Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
One of the most popular book series ever, The Diary of a Wimpy Kid, shares the hilarious story of Greg, in his own words and drawings. Life in middle school is not easy. And Greg is here to prove it! One thing you’ll notice about these books is that kids will read them more than once which is great if you have them all. This boxed set makes a great gift because kids often read these books multiple times over.

Squishy from Head to Toe
Learn anatomy with this dissectable science kit of the human body with a transparent body and skill and lifelike tools.

Pokémon Trading Card Game Battle Academy
Love Pokemon? This game at the Battle Academy will teach you everything Pokemon. This board game gives you 60 cards, a board, damage counters, and a coin plus codes for online play.

National Geographic Mega Fossil Dig Kit
Spend hours using paleontology tools like a chisel and a brush to dig up REAL dinosaur fossils!

Alien Slime Lab
Get messy as you mix up batches of unidentified “alien” slime and conduct tests on them to analyze and investigate their special properties. Real science and playful science fiction come together in this wacky, activity-filled kit! For example, conduct viscosity tests on the slime, dissect it with tweezers and a plastic scalpel, cut out a brain shape, Stamp it with an alien head, and add eyes to your Alien slime! (Non-toxic.)

Kindle Kids Bundle
Perfect for growing readers, this Kindle Kids Edition offers a black and white glare-free display. It includes many popular book series including Harry Potter and more!

LEGO Super Mario Minifigures Surprise Bag
My kids LOVE these — how about yours?

Stomp Rocket
Stop on the rocket and watch it soar 20 stories high!

Zoob Builders Zoob Bot
Build your own robot with motorized wheels and light-up eyes! You’ll get ZOOB pieces, wheels, gears, axles, a motor, tires, and joints that snap, click, and pop together. Create monsters—or vehicles—or monsters that turn into vehicles. The possibilities are as endless as your imagination. We love our ZOOBS and highly recommend this STEM kit.

Aquabeads Star Bead Studio
Kids can make all different kinds of animals, plants, and more with this unique aquabeads craft – the possibilities are endless!

Shifting Stones
We love this fun engaging strategy game that will develop your boys’ visual/spatial skills and long-term planning.

Who Would Win? Whale vs. Giant Squid by Jerry Pallotta, illustrated by Rob Bolster
In this book pitting two ocean carnivores against each other, kids learn facts about the sperm whale and the giant squid then read an imagined story where these two creatures face-off. Can you predict who will win? 3rd grade boys LOVE this series.

LEGO Wrecked Shrimp Boat (Interactive Augmented Reality Playset)
Build their very own nautically-inspired shrimp boat that can split into two for hours of fun. A tablet or mobile phone is required to get the full interactive play experience, but not included. Compatible with selected iOS and Android devices.

Plus Plus Horse
Interlocking cubes fit together to make a horse. Kids love these clever puzzles!

Space Scratch Art Paper for Kids
Use a bamboo stick to make fun drawings that reveal amazing space patterns and colors underneath!

LED 6 Color Bluetooth Speaker
Play your music on this super cool light-up speaker.

Ninja Kid: From Nerd to Ninja by Anh Do
FUNNY / ILLUSTRATED
Nelson is a nerdy and likable main character who wakes up on his 10th birthday with perfect vision and… ninja moves! (How cool is that?) His mum and grandma explain that like his missing fisherman dad before him, Nelson is the LAST ninja in the world — and he’s actually destined to SAVE the world. Action-packed, funny, appealing illustrations, and likable characters, this book has it all. You won’t want to stop with book one either because there’s a bit of a cliffhanger…

Check the Oven
A hilarious game of bluffing where kids develop confidence and solid math skills! Players use strategy, humor, and logic to accumulate cards adding to 12.

Dog Man by Dav Pinkey
Weird. Quirky. Funny. I think all three describe this new graphic novel from the creator of Captain Underpants. In the first story, a police officer and a dog are joined together — the top from the dog, the bottom from the officer to make: Dog Man. Dog Man solves crimes and has adventures, the likes of which will entertain 8-year-old readers for hours.

LEGO 3 in 1 Creator Robot Explorer
The best thing about these 3 in 1 kits is that kids get to build three different things from one set of blocks! This 2019 kit offers directions to make a robot dog, robot bird, and robot explorer. (Sorry, it’s not a real robot. Scroll down for that!)

Glow In The Dark Solar System Poster
Don’t you love this educational space map of the planets and their moons in our solar system?

Kanoodle 3D Puzzle Game for Kids
Kanoodle includes 200 logical thinking puzzles from basic to deviously difficult, there are hundreds of possible combinations, but only one correct answer. Perfect for enhancing problem-solving, critical thinking, and strategic thinking skills.

Gravity Maze
Get your kids hooked on an engaging game requiring problem-solving, thinking, and visual-spatial strategy! The goal of the 1-player Gravity Maze game is to figure out how to build a working marble run using the colored translucent plastic towers. We love and highly recommend this game!

Nintendo Switch
The Nintendo Switch is a fun, compact, and portable gaming system that kids absolutely love. With a bigger screen and detachable joycons, the original switch provides more features that the previously mentioned Switch Lite.

Nerf Sports Dude Perfect Mini Hoop
Do your own trick shots with this cool net!

Wireless Headphones
These aren’t just highly rated, they’re really a good price, too! We also love that they have good sound, LED lights, and volume control.

Playmobil Mars Space Station
My 8 year old was a big Playmobil fan– and loved the looks of this cool space station for astronauts.

Hot Wheels Track Builder Vertical Launch Kit
The innovative vertical track easily sets against a wall with 3M Command Strips so kids can race their cars up the wall. easy to set up and includes all the pieces needed to create 2 thrilling stunts.

I Survived by Lauren Tarshis
Excellent, fast-paced adventures set during significant historical events! Your kids will zip through the adventures while learning about history. The books are always about a young person trying to survive the book’s historically important, life-changing event such as Pompeii, the Titanic, Pearl Harbor, or the Battle of Gettysburg.

K’Nex Swing Ride
Learn more about the science, technology, engineering, and math concepts that contribute to making an amusement park ride. You’ll learn to make a Swing Ride, Ferris Wheel, and Boom Ride with this engaging hands-on building set filled with gears, connectors, rods, a motor, and much more.

Light Up Fidget Spinner
Still a popular, fun gift to give kids!

RushHour Traffic Jam Logic Game
Not only does this game provide hours of strategy and problem solving but it’s FUN to accomplish these tricky puzzles. We are big fans.

Dude Diary
Young writers — check out this interactive journal with awesome prompts that comes with it’s own lock and key! So cool for 8 year old boys.

iPad Pro + Apple Pencil
Both the Pro and the Apple Pencil have been much-used gifts for both my girls. They’re loving the pencil for drawing apps and think the functionality of the Pro is so much better than their old iPads.

SPRK+ Robot from Sphero
Your kids can do so much with Sphero’s new app-enabled robot that inspires not just coding but also learning STEM / STEAM topics in creative ways. SPRK+ from Sphero caught my kids’ attention from the get-go and held it as they began to explore the various learning possibilities with it. Read my full review here.

Maki Stack Family Party Game
Aren’t these wooden sushi pieces the best? Pick a card then race to build a matching stack using the pieces of sushi, soy sauce, and mat. My daughter and I often play this before bedtime and love it. We like that it takes about 10 – 15 minutes and makes us laugh. Play with two people or play in teams of two. In teams, one person wears a blindfold and their partner communicates how to build the stack correctly to them. Great for practicing clear communication! (MY REVIEW HERE.)

Slipper Socks

Kid Made Modern Studio in a Box
We regularly by the Kid Made Modern art supplies just like you’ll find in this incredible kit that is filled with paints, brushes, pencils, markers, four canvas boards, and two quality paper pads. I love that this kit gives kids supplies to allow them open-ended imaginative creation, don’t you?

Bad Kitty by Nick Bruel
In a word: hilarious. Kids think Bad Kitty is very naughty but, oh so funny. These chapter books are addictive to read and fun to reread. Plus, they’re illustrated with only minimal text on every page. What are they about? Bad Kitty –a cat with an attitude — and all her misadventures.

Reading Headlamp
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, headlamps beat book lamps for reading hands down. Because they’re hands-free AND have much better light! (All over the page light, not just in one spot.) Plus, how cool are you when you sit in bed with a headlamp?! These really motivate young readers.

Just Joking Jumbo by National Geographic Kids
Holy Smokes! Your kids will love this book. It’s packed full of awesome jokes and photographs; it’s hefty and impossible not to love. Fun facts added throughout make it extra interesting.

Smash Pong
Draw a challenge card, load, aim, and launch your ball into the target.

Galactic Hot Dogs: Cosmoe’s Wiener Getaway by Max Brallier, illustrated by Rachel Maguire and Nichole Kelley
If you like non-stop action, potty humor, space adventures, zombie aliens, mutant worm wrestling, a misunderstood evil princess, good friends, video games, and a diabolical, hunting-them-down evil queen, then this series is for you. Plus, it has loads of cartoon illustrations throughout and hilarious writing with a kazillion exclamation marks!!!! (If you like this, you’ll want to read book 2, The Weiner Strikes Back.)

The Ultimate Book of Sharks (National Geographic Kids) by Brian Skerry
Gorgeous photographs, eye-catching displays, and tons of informational insets make this book a must-own for shark lovers. Kids will read about different shark species, shark life cycles, myths vs. reality, and shark fossils.

Minecraft Stop Motion Animation
How cool is this? Use a free mobile app to make your own movies. Includes 1 movie stage, 6 different backgrounds, 3 exclusive mini-figures, a device holder, and over 18 other accessories. Great for Minecraft enthusiasts.

Fastrack
Calling all 8 year old boys: get ready for action and fun! Two players shoot all 10 discs through the tiny slot to the opposite side to win while developing fine motor skills and eye-hand coordination.

Wooden Sudoku
A beautiful two-sided Sudoku wooden game board with smooth, wooden titles of numbers and shapes! Use the booklet with 60 challenges for the starting positions. Not only is this a FUN game for one player, but it’s also great for critical thinking, pattern recognition, problem-solving, visual/spatial thinking, and deductive reasoning. (Win-win!)

Laser X Laser Tag Game Kit
This 2-player system lets kids play laser tag at home for hours of active fun!

Kandoodle Jr.
My kids and I think these 1 player logic puzzles are so much fun! Probably because you get the pieces to manipulate and can choose your level from easy to challenging. The game lets you get the hang of the strategy with the easy levels and then you progress to more difficult puzzles. A bonus is this is a great on-the-go activity since it comes in a nifty carrying case.

Ultimate Weird But True! by National Geographic Kids
We just got a review copy in the mail yesterday and my daughter spent the next MILLION YEARS, or perhaps an hour, reading it to me. All the crazy and wild facts. They are pretty interesting. I love that it gets her reading and learning about the STEM topics and world!!

Dr. Eureka!
My kids like this hands-on game so much. The goal is to match the challenge card using 3 test tubes, 6 colored balls, and NO HANDS. The first one done wins the card; the first person to get five cards wins.

Razor A Kick Scooter
Original kick scooter made of sturdy aircraft-grade aluminum with pink highlights – this was one of my kids’ FAVORITE gifts for years! (Many colors available.)

Stomp Rocket
Stop on the launch pad to send the rockets up to 100 feet in the air! No batteries required.

Colorku
Similar to Sudoku but with colorful marbles on a wooden grid. The object of the game is to only have 1 of each color per each row, column, and 3×3 box. My kids enjoy playing these puzzles — and I’m always so amazed at how good they are at these visual logic games. Kids these days, right?!

Rat-a-tat-Cat
The goal is to get your four cards to add up to the lowest score. You’re dealt four cards face down and can only peek at the cards on the edges. Draw and strategize if you will replace your cards or keep them. When you think you have the lowest score, say “rat-a-tat-cat” and everyone must show their cards and add up their scores. Somehow my youngest daughter ALWAYS wins this game. (Might be why she loves it so much!) It’s really fun and only takes around 10 minutes to play one game.

Top Secret Lock & Key Diary
What young writer wouldn’t want to write or draw in this top-secret locking notebook of 200 colorful lined pages?

Pass the Pigs
This is my husband’s favorite game to play with the kids. This Pass the Pigs classic party game consists of 2 pigs you use as dice, pad, 2 pencils and carrying case. Roll them as many times as you dare on your turn to score points. Just don’t role a “pig out” or an “oinker”. The first person to 100 points wins.