Toys are some of the most challenging items to buy. With so many being released every few weeks, massive price discrepancies and the fact that even adults will welcome a toy or toy for the holiday season, we’re here to provide some help.
Our Toy Gift Guide is meant for adults shopping for kids and teens, but we see no reason why anyone of any age won’t enjoy what we’ve assembled, especially as we’ve tested most of them ourselves.
While the Hypertext Gift Guides are always up to date and inclusive of some of the most desirable toys every year, we encourage everyone looking for more options to see Toy Gift Guide editions from 2023 and 2022 for more ideas on what to get.
Before we get into the Toy Gift Guide itself we have to comment that Hypertext receives no commissions or other benefits from the links on this page – they’re all provided to make your shopping easier. Also on that note is the pricing which, for some items, varies. We’ve provided the available price range of current in stock items to give you an idea of what each toy costs and we recommend clicking around to find the cheapest option.
HG Guntank | R349
You may have heard of Gunpla model kits before. These buildable display kits come as pieces on a sprue which need to be cut out (or simply removed by hand) and assembled. For many of them, no glue or paint is required and they offer a great way to build your toys which are a step above LEGO in complexity while still down the ladder of more advanced building systems like Warhammer / 40K.
This Guntank is a fantastic entry point to the Gunplay hobby that’s cheap to pick up, easy enough for anyone to try and assemble (even kids) and it can be finished without irritation.
It’s worth noting that the Guntank is in the slightly more advanced High Grade (HG) series of models. The lowest, easiest models are in the Entry Grade (EG) series, but all of these are out of stock with local supplier Gunpla SA. That being said, having tackled an HG model as beginner ourselves, it’s still easy enough to pull off. Should you have any questions about getting into this hobby or other kits to check out besides the Guntank, contact Gunpla SA today.
By here: Gunpla SA
Pokémon Trading Card Game: Battle Academy 2024 | R699 – 899
For kids, and adults, who want to get into the Pokémon Trading Card Game (TCG), there are few items better than the Battle Academy. With a single purchase this box comes with three beginner decks for the games as well as all the rules and accessories you need to learn to play.
The Battle Academy box is made to be as easy to use as possible and can get you going in minutes with no previous experience with the Pokémon TCG or any TCG at all.
The Battle Academy is great too because, if you or the kids want to take things to the next level, the decks can easily be upgraded with new cards from other Pokémon TCG products or even taken to official Pokémon events.
These events take place all across the world and even here in South Africa where a large local scene exists. The cards from the Battle Academy are fully legal for these events so you can move from a home player to competing against other people in your area.
Use the official event locator to find Pokémon events near you but it’s likely easier to phone your local game and card stores to ask them if they host Pokémon events which you can attend.
Buy here: Nintendo Store | Bob Shop | Level Up Store | Toys r Us
LEGO Fortnite Battle Bus | R1 999
We love LEGO here at Hypertext so it’s a difficult choice at the end of every year to pick just one set to highlight. This set has to be a fun build, it has to offer a lot of value for the high asking price of LEGO, and it has to appeal to the largest amount of people.
This LEGO version of the now iconic Fortnite Battle Bus ticks of all of these boxes. After being added as a permanent mode to Fortnite, physical LEGO sets followed earlier this year. In a weird choice, of the four first sets to welcome this new theme, only the Battle Bus has minifigures. To make up for this, there is a staggering amount of them with nine in this one box.
Nine minifigures in a R1 999 set is great value, with these nine representing the following skins / characters: Battalion Brawler, Adventure Peely, Brite Bomber, Cuddle Team Leader, Cube Assassin, Trespasser Elite, Drift, Meowscles and Raven. Each minifigure also comes with a small accessory to hold.
The Battle Bus itself is made up of 954 pieces and, when complete, it’s rather large at 13 centimetres wide and 28 centimetres long. The bus has enough seating for all nine minifigures and their accessories, so it can all be packed away neatly.
The Fortnite LEGO theme is only available from the six Certified LEGO Stores across South Africa and online from its online storefront Great Yellow Brick. The Battle Bus has proven immensely popular so, if it’s sold out, speak to the expert LEGO employees who can recommend something else.
Buy here: Great Yellow Brick
Mega Construx Machamp | R511 – R680
The second Pokémon item of the 2024 Toy Gift Guide ! Pokémon is still in the middle of its second wave of popularity not seen since the late 90s / early 2000s with fans old and new eager to find something from the franchise under the tree.
Mega Construx continues to do a great job of offering an alternative building bricks option that is still high quality and comes with IPs that everyone loves with Pokémon arguably being the biggest draw.
At the end of 2024 Mega Construx in South Africa is offering quite a few Pokémon to local buyers so, if you know the favourite Pokémon of the person you’re giving a gift too, try find the Mega Construx set that will fit them.
We’ve chosen to highlight this Machamp for a few reasons: it’s extremely accurate to this Pokémon’s look, it’s relatively cheap (you can see quite the price difference above though) and it has a cool piece of functionality. Hidden inside of Machamp is gear system connected to the arms. Turn the gear on its back and the arms will move around to simulate a fight.
For those unsure about Mega Construx Pokémon, see our dedicated article on the subject by clocking here.
Buy here: Toys r Us | Amazon South Africa | Loot | Takealot | Toy Kingdo
Jada Transformers RC Transforming Optimus Prime | R1 999
Over the past few years you may have seen the amazing toys made by Robosen, an advanced robotics company that makes toys which move. The jewel in the company’s crown is a partnership with Hasbro to make Transformers that transform on their own Optimus Prime, Megatron and Grimlock looking like they came from the future.
Unfortunately this comes with future pricing with each costing more than $1 000 on top of not being available in South Africa. Thankfully there is a pseudo-alternative: this radio controlled version of Optimus Prime.
While still expensive at R1 999, it’s a fraction of the price of anything from Robosen. See it in motion here to watch it drive around like a regular RC car but, at the press of a button, it can turn into robot mode while still retaining the ability to drive.
For those who want a more traditional Transformers toy, we have some bad news. Transformers have become less and less common in the country to the point where we’ve now seen no new stock made available to local customers for more than a year now. The last batch of stock seems to have been released before Rise of the Beasts in June 2023. We’ve tried several times to contact Hasbro South Africa to find out what’s going on with no luck.
For now we have to depend on other toy companies to stock cool Transformers toys, with this Jada example joined by the likes of Bumblebee and Optimus Prime sets from LEGO. The LEGO sets can be found almost anywhere LEGO is sold while the Jada option seems only available online through Takealot and in select Toy Kingdom stores from our research. Hopefully the 2025 Toy Gift Guide will have more Hasbo Transformers in it.
Buy here: Takealot
