Baby & Toddler Toys
Buy and sell baby and toddler toys in Costa Rica.
A play gym earns its keep for one season of tummy time and then gets folded away behind a wardrobe, which is why toys for babies and toddlers so often change hands still close to new. New and pre-owned ones are listed here, from rattles and silicone teethers to stacking rings, shape sorters and the low ride-ons a child scoots along with both feet on the floor. On the ceramic tiles of most Tico homes, the wheels on a push walker matter more than the tunes it plays, so ask what they are made of before you arrange to see one.
Rattles, stacking rings and push walkers, stage by stage:
they follow what a child’s body can do, not the age printed on the box. Early on it is gripping and chewing: rattles, silicone teethers and the play gym, a padded mat with arches of hanging toys to lie under and swipe at. Sitting up brings stacking cups, shape sorters, activity cubes and toys that float in the bath. The first steps turn everything towards moving, with push walkers, pull-along toys and ride-ons low enough for both feet to stay down. The sit-in walker with a tray is baby gear rather than a toy. Chunky first blocks are listed under building sets and blocks, comforters and soft animals sit with plush toys, and the first doll to feed and rock to sleep is in baby dolls.
Push walkers on a tiled floor:
with smooth plastic wheels they shoot away from a child who has only just let go of the sofa. Look for rubber-rimmed wheels or a dial underneath that stiffens them, and a wide base that does not tip when the child hauls up on the handle. Wooden walkers with a box of blocks at the front are heavier and steadier, and carry on as a cart once walking is sorted. Electronic ones hold attention longer; pick one with a volume switch if you share a wall with neighbours.
Silicone, wood and battery-powered plastic:
each gets cleaned differently, which counts when every toy spends half its life in a mouth. Silicone and plain plastic take hot soapy water, anything with a speaker can only be wiped, and wood is never soaked. Plain toys survive a run of siblings and cousins; the light-and-sound ones win the first week and fall silent first.
Play gyms, jumpers and walkers that convert:
these are the big purchases, and each gets only a few months of real use. A play gym runs up to about ₡45,000 new, while the plastic walkers that turn from activity table into push walker and then ride-on, like the bouncing activity centres, sit around ₡85,000 to ₡90,000. That short working life makes a used one good value: it is outgrown long before it wears out, so price follows how complete and clean it is, not its age. A walker missing its play panel, or with a dead speaker, is a plain push toy and should be priced as one.
Squirting bath toys, old teethers and cracked arch clips:
these are where a pre-owned toy shows its age. Squeeze any bath toy with a hole underneath: water trapped inside grows black mould that no scrubbing reaches, so pass on those and stick to the sealed kind. On a teether, look for splits, deep bite marks and a tacky or cloudy surface on old rubber; any one of them is reason enough to leave it. On a play gym, count the hanging toys against the photo on the box and check the clips where the arches join, which crack first. A cracked rattle or a loose eye on a fabric toy rules it out, and painted wood should have no chips or splinters. Put fresh batteries in whatever sings and listen for crackle.
A complete play gym in one photo, and a walker that comes apart:
the first settles whether anything is missing, the second decides who can collect it. Say how many children used it, whether it comes from a home with pets or smokers and how it was cleaned. For anything that sings, a short video with the sound on proves it works and shows how loud it gets. Small toys move better grouped by stage, rings, a sorter and sealed bath toys in one listing, than one at a time. And say whether the walker comes apart: someone coming in on the bus from Pérez Zeledón can carry a folded play gym but not a walker that only travels assembled, and whoever collects it will want to push it across your tiles before paying.