$30 gift for 13yo non-athletic, couch potato boy?

[8esther8]

I love him dearly, but the only thing my 13 yo *really* loves is XBox. His big gift is a gaming chair. He used to love Legos, and GI Joes. He's smart, likes putting together model cars ($30. is not enough for one) but basically, Xbox is it. He is not athletic, lol. Are there any "hot" toys that he might like? I'm looking for something *not* related to XBox.

 

[mickeymaker2003]

How about a chemistry set? He can blow stuff up for real....

 

[rebster]

A fantasy or sci fi book? There are a lot of kids one...try Ender's Game...that is required reading in some high schools now (My little sister had to read it in 10th grade), and it is an amazing book. A word of caution...there is some violence in it if you are opposed to that kind of thing...but no "adult content" or anything of that nature. The book is about a child. My husband only loves his XBOX but he loves that book too. There are also books written to go along with certain XBOX games which might be fun...and board games etc connected to them.

 

[PebblesMK]

http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/science/c203/

I saw this at Toys R Us and thought it was a really neat thing. It was 20 dollars there but I see it online for ten dollars. It's something a bit different that isn't your run of the mill toy.

 

[disneedee]

how about a gift certificate to a lazer tag place, movie theatre, bowling alley. gocart place,minature golf?

 

[3boymthr]

I'm so so glad my kids make lists.

On my non-athletic geeky 13 yo's list this year are the following non- gaming items:

First the expensive:
An electric guitar
A bicycle
Pats, Bruins or Celtics Tickets

Non- expensive items:
Bone Series of books (by J. Smith)
a mini-pool table
a calendar with with hot babes - ah those hormones are getting to work
Hickory Farms Meat and Cheese
Eye Clops Night vision Goggles
Some DVDs
A Swiss Army Knife with all the gadgets
An LED flashlight (he's in Boy Scouts)

HTH

ETA - and for his birthday next month he's requested that we go to an indoor Go-kart place. And he's very excited that for half day this week the school is doing an afterschool field trip to the local Monster Golf - which is an indoor mini-golf place.

 

[NHWX]

iTunes money? A new game? Pretty much anything from thinkgeek.com. Chemicals from homesciencetools.com? They have a pretty extensive list. A subscription to Make magazine?

NHWX

 

[Mom_Rides]

My DSS13 loves his XBox. I call him the boy who lives in the basement, because he only comes up to use the bathroom or eat. We did buy him one game that he wanted and we ordered him the XBox monthly magazine subscription. But that's where we drew the line on XBox related stuff (except the PJ pants )

The other gifts we got for him are: A watch (we found a Nike/University of Michigan one online for $30), a Hollister Shirt, Monopoly w/the credit card & a fart machine

My mom bought him an air soft gun, as a lot of his friends are into those. She bought a higher end one but we noticed at Bass Pro and Walmart that they run anywhere from $10-$150.

 

[afeld111781]

I'm so so glad my kids make lists.

On my non-athletic geeky 13 yo's list this year are the following non- gaming items:

First the expensive:
An electric guitar
A bicycle
Pats, Bruins or Celtics Tickets

Non- expensive items:
Bone Series of books (by J. Smith)
a mini-pool table
a calendar with with hot babes - ah those hormones are getting to work Hickory Farms Meat and Cheese
Eye Clops Night vision Goggles
Some DVDs
A Swiss Army Knife with all the gadgets
An LED flashlight (he's in Boy Scouts)

HTH

ETA - and for his birthday next month he's requested that we go to an indoor Go-kart place. And he's very excited that for half day this week the school is doing an afterschool field trip to the local Monster Golf - which is an indoor mini-golf place.

ohhhh my gosh that is too funny...my ds is only 2 and im already dreading that day

 

[buzz5985]

I finally gave in, and stopped buying my DS now 13, gifts I thought he would find interesting. He is an athletic 13 yo (hockey, baseball, lacrosse) that plays xbox live - he sits with his headset talking to all his friends. So unless I want to just throw the money away - like I have done in past years - good examples - buying the Wii, microscope, legos.

So if I had just $30 to spend. Does he have xbox live?? I would get him a 3 month xbox live subscription and if he had that - xbox points to buy maps for the games. At least I know they will be used.

 

[peanut12392]

X-box magazine, or other gaming magazine? X-box points card to download stuff from x-box live? DS 15 also loves the x-box and these are things he likes to get.
Not related to x-box - other magazine or books, cool shirt or hoodie (AE or aeropostale), axe products, itunes or movie gift cards.

 

[Cindy B]

Some 13 year old boys dont like AE or Aeropostale-- mine didn't. My son is now 15, and I got him mostly Xbox stuff, but I did get him nicer gaming headphones that were $40 on Amazon (turtle beach).

You could always go for Microsoft points, Xbox Live membership, gamer magazine, stuff like that.

My son loves PJ pants, so I bought him a few pairs of those as well. I'd like to get him another hoodie, but he's not a fan of mainstream clothes--so we will go somewhere to find that later.

 

[happymommy]

My kids both read Ender's Game - my son read the other series books (the easy ones, not the Speaker for the Dead which is more college level) when he was about 10. He really liked science fiction. He also went through a Steven King phase - so I got him a collection of short stories and novellas that were all made into movies (something like Steven King goes to the movies...) ones that I'd read when I was younger. He liked them. He is into horror movies - ugh that phase!

He's almost 13 (next month) and also into XBox. He also likes shirts and sweatshirts from *********** - but I discovered they are sized small and shrink! He wears about a 14/16 but needs at least 18/20 or XL in them (and he doesn't weigh close to 100 pounds).

Sometimes you can find something cool on woot. I got my DD a camcorder for $20.

 

[MAH4546]

($30. is not enough for one)

$30 can buy two decent model car kits.

Model car kits are dirt cheap. Check Revell brand, which is one of the nicer, more well known ones. You can get a pretty nice Revell kit (or two) for $30.

 

[MSSANDRA]

What about something fun to get him off the couch?? I have one of those except it's the computer chair. He(17) and DGS (3) are geting nurf guns. ALL guys any age love those. We are in the south and those corn toss games are big for teens. Maybe an indoor basket ball hoop.

DS at that age loved flash lights and pocket knives too.

 

[perpetualplanner]

The Hickory Farms Meat and Cheese is something my DS14 would put on his list. All I ever hear is Meat mom Where's the MEAT! You'd think we were starving him but I guess that growth spurt is just a turkey leg away.

 

[finz2left]

cologne from Hollister or A.E. or Aeropostale.

 

[dturner]

I also have a DS13 who's always playing XBOX live.

Books based on his favorite XBOX games. There are a lot of different books based on XBOX games out. This year alone my DS13 has read the Halo books, a couple of different Star Wars series of books, Gears of War also has several books out.

 

[Pixiedust34]

Nerf gun

a good Swiss Army Knife

books (both fiction and non-fiction if he has any specific interests)

board games (??)

DVDs/Blu-Rays? This can be for a movie or a TV series he might enjoy

sports equipment (football, basketball, etc. if he doesn't already have one)

gift certifs for movie theatre, i-tunes, etc.

 

[MichelleinMaine]

Nerf gun!

Also agree with the tickets to ~whatever~. An excuse to get off the Xbox and out of the house once in a while