my nearly 2yr old has a little plastic bike with three wheels and a trailer that attaches to the back, he rides it every day. Im planning on getting him a carpet car mat (it has roads and pictures on it)for his b/day you can get them from most toy shops. My older boys loved it and it makes there room look better with the mat and he can drive his cars on it.

Most toy stores and toy departments in general stores stock the toys on the shelves in age categories. eg: newborn to 6 months, 6 - 12 months, 1-2 years, etc.

Whenever I'm looking at buying a toy I browse the age appropriate sections of stores until something gets my attention. There is always new stuff coming out on the market and many of the really good ones that the kids love heaps don't actually make it into the catalogues.

When in doubt for little ones like that, Megablocks are always good, they're large, bulky, age appropriate for 12 months and up, and the variety of things available is good enough that you can buy a different set to add to the collection for each birthday, christmas, etc; for years to come. My boys had a Megablocks dump truck set once. The truck is long gone but we still have the 400+ blocks that were collected over the years in a very large storage box, and my 9 year old still plays with them sometimes! Boys never quit building things.

My 2 year old grandson's favourite toy seems to be his airport.I think its a Fisher price toy.Came in a fairly large box and is about 50cm each way.Its lovely and bright with soft plastic that clicks together.Came with a few toys,like an areoplane and a helicopter,flags and little people.You can buy more Little people(Coles,not real expensive) and I am sure there are other toys to match.Also hard board books are great and you can pick them up cheap and when theyre wrecked,chuck them out.All sorts of vehicles in them,not necessarily stories,

Have fun deciding waht and dont get too carried away.Keep it simple.