Does your child obsess over all things dinosaur? Dinosaur toys—check. Dinosaur gifts—check. Dinosaur chicken nuggets—of course!
If you’re shopping for a dino-loving little one, we’ve got some playfully prehistoric dinosaur toys and gift ideas for you to wrap up for your dinosaur lover. (Everything but those delicious dinosaur chicken nuggets!)
Not only will these dinosaur toy recommendations provide a brontosaurus-sized bout of fun for your child, they'll help support your child’s ongoing development by emphasizing important attributes such as motor skills, imaginative play, problem solving, creative expression, and much more.
Parents, hop into our time machine and travel along with us back through prehistory to check out our recommendations for the best dinosaur toys and gift ideas! For a look at our full selection of dinosaur toys, visit this page.
Our top dinosaur toys & gift ideas!
Here's a curated selection of our favorite dinosaur toys, sure to inspire a roaring good time!
Dinosaur Jigsaw Puzzles in a Box
Age: 3+
Why it’s great: Kids can learn about four of prehistory’s greatest giants—a triceratops, an apatosaurus, a stegosaurus, and a Tyrannosaurus Rex—while putting together these puzzles, each stored in their own special compartment.
Sweet detail: These four different dino puzzles make for a great travel toy—the slide-on box lid doubles as a convenient puzzle board!
Skills: Hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, problem solving
Countless Ways to Play: Have kids give each dinosaur a name and personality and tell a story based on each puzzle picture.
Water Wow! Dinosaurs Water-Reveal Pad - On the Go Travel Activity
Age: 3+
Why it’s great: This exciting paint-with-water, spiral-bound coloring book includes four reusable pages and a refillable water pen. Simply use the pen to color in each scene—details and vibrant color appear with every stroke. Then let the page dry to erase the pictures and color it in again and again!
Sweet detail: No-mess painting—just add water to make the colors come to life. Great for travel, too!
Skills: Fine motor skills, early writing/reading, visual discrimination
Countless Ways to Play: This dinosaur-themed book includes four scenes to color, and a search-and-find activity for each scene.
Natural Play: Play, Draw, Create Reusable Drawing & Magnet Kit - Dinosaurs
Age: 3+
Why it’s great: This reusable drawing and magnet activity kit includes a take-along case with rope handles to conveniently store and carry 41 magnets, 5 dry-erase markers with an eraser, a built-in magnetic dry erase board, and a 13-page spiral-bound dry-erase activity book.
Sweet detail: Flip it open for a ready-made play surface, and snap it closed to take creativity on the go!
Skills: Fine motor skills, creative expression, narrative thinking
Countless Ways to Play: Challenge your kids to create graphic stories using the set’s magnets and markers, and share them with friends and family—with 41 magnets to choose from, there’s plenty of prehistory to play with!
Dinosaur Party Play Set
Age: 3+
Why it’s great: This kit includes 9 realistic, felt-covered miniature models of the most popular dinosaurs from prehistory, including Pachycephhlosaurus, Velociraptor, Ankylosaurus, Apatosaurus, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Stegosaurus, Triceratops, and Plesiosaurus—each one in their own sturdy wooden storage tray.
Sweet detail: Information on all the species is included—kids 3 and older will love to play with, learn about, and "bring to life" giants who walked the earth millions of years ago!
Skills: Fine motor skills, imagination, creative expression
Countless Ways to Play: Create a realistic-looking DIY diorama of your favorite Dino’s habitat, and use these Dinosaur Party Play Set models to populate it!
On the Go ColorBlast No-Mess Coloring Pad - Dinosaurs
Age: 3+
Why it’s great: Use the "magic" pen to color in the picture, and see vibrant colors, details, and patterns appear! Each page of the kids' activity book features a lively prehistoric-themed artwork to complete and a seek-and-find activity, too.
Sweet detail: Take the coloring fun on the go with you—this Dinosaur Coloring Pad makes for a great travel toy.
Skills: Promotes fine motor skills, pre-writing skills, and visual discrimination
Countless Ways to Play: Challenge your kids to see how fast they can complete the seek-and-find activities on each page—with enough competitors, you can compete in mini tournaments like March Madness!
Poke-a-Dot - Dinosaurs A to Z Board Book
Why it’s great: Get ready for some DINO-mite fun! Poke the irresistible click-to-count buttons to hear satisfying "clicks" and "pops" as you learn about dinosaurs from A to Z! This sturdy 20-page interactive board book invites kids to pop along as they discover the amazing world of dinosaurs and learn fun facts along the way.
Sweet detail: Patented Pop-a-Tronic technology lets kids discover different popping sounds by poking the dots from the front or the back, with pages raised or flat!
Skills: Language development, counting, fine motor skills
Countless Ways to Play: The Pop-a-Tronic Dots make different clicking and popping sounds depending on how they're poked—so mix it up for your little reader and get poppin’!
Dinosaur Stamp Set
Age: 4+
Why it’s great: Kids will have fun creating countless scenes with the 8 wooden dinosaur stamps, 2-color inkpad, and 5 colored pencils!
Sweet detail: Includes a sturdy wooden box for storage
Skills: Fine motor , creative expression
Countless Ways to Play: Encourage kids to draw a landscape or scene first then use the stamps to add dinos to it.
Dinosaur Figurines
Age: 8+
Why it’s great: These two ready-to-decorate, solid-resin dinosaur figurines are waiting to be painted by a dino lover!
Sweet detail: Includes 6 pots of paint and paintbrush
Skills: Fine motor, creative expression
Countless Ways to Play: Dino-rama: Decorate a shoebox diorama in which to place the figures.
Prehistoric Playground Dinosaur Rug
Age: 3+
Why it’s great: Durably made to look great for countless playtimes to come, this sturdy woven rug with a skid-proof backing features details like a bubbling volcano, waterfall, river, a cool cave, jungle, and grassland to give many options for creative play.
Sweet detail: Comes with four flocked dinosaur figures (T-Rex, Triceratops, Stegosaurus, Apatosaurus)
Skills: Gross motor, creative thinking
Countless Ways to Play: Follow the leader: Move a dinosaur around the rug from one location to another. Have kids watch you and then follow the same route from memory with another dinosaur. Take turns being the leader and the follower as you change the route around the rug.
Wooden Dinosaur Magnets
Age: 2+
Why it’s great: Enrich a child’s imagination with these 20 bright and colorful dinosaur magnets.
Sweet detail: Store magnets away in convenient wooden tray.
Skills: Fine motor, creative thinking
Countless Ways to Play: “I'm thinking of a dinosaur…” Have kids arrange all the dinosaurs on a magnetic surface. Mentally pick one and have kids ask yes or no questions to see if they can guess the one you have in mind.
Land of Dinosaurs Floor Puzzle
Age: 3+
Why it’s great: The dramatic, detailed dinosaurs on this cardboard floor puzzle may be long extinct, but these 48 puzzle pieces will surely last for ages! Four feet long when assembled, this is one puzzle kids will come back to again and again
Sweet detail: Extra-thick puzzle pieces feature an Easy-Clean surface to keep them looking like new.
Skills: Problem solving
Countless Ways to Play: The completed puzzle makes a great backdrop for kids’ dinosaur play figures.
For more toy content from Melissa & Doug, click through the links below:
Shop All Melissa & Doug Dinosaur Toys
Explore Melissa & Doug’s Living Playfully Blog
Use the Melissa & Doug Gift Finder
