Toniebox 1 Audio Player Starter Set with Playtime Puppy - Listen, Learn, and Play with One Huggable Little Box - Red

Why it's worth it

The Toniebox plays stories when a child sets a character figure on top and stops when they lift it off. It's a squishy foam cube with no buttons to find, and the starter set includes the box, charging base and a Playtime Puppy Tonie.

Put a figure on the box, and it plays. Take it off, and it stops. Common Sense Media gave the Toniebox a 5 out of 5 learning rating for ages 2 and up and singled out exactly this — a single-action interface suits kids who can't reliably work a touchscreen. If your child is 14 months old and you want them to start their own music, this is the most reliable choice here.

The figures do a lot of emotional work that a card can't. Kids treat Tonies as toys first and media second — they get carried to bed, lined up on shelves, taken in the car. There are more than 500 licensed characters, including the ones your toddler already knows from daycare. Boxine passed 5 million boxes sold globally by the end of 2024, which is why the character selection keeps growing.

From our review of 8 toddler learning companions and interactive books, by Genevieve Dubois, Home & Living Expert

What we like

• +Put a figure on the box, and it plays
• +The figures do a lot of emotional work that a card can't
• +The build is toddler-proof in a way the others aren't

What to know

• –You need 2.4 GHz WiFi for the initial setup and again every time you introduce a new Tonie, which downloads its content the…
• –Owners fairly consistently report the battery falls short of the claimed run time, and there's no power button — you let it idle…
• –At about 2.8 pounds it's roughly four times the weight of the Yoto Mini