Trending Toys 2026 in the UAE: The Complete Guide to What Kids Actually Want This Year
The toy trends of 2026 come down to seven categories: sensory and squishy toys, DIY slime, collectibles and blind packs, arts and crafts, licensed characters, outdoor and ride-on toys, and learning toys. Most "top toys" lists are a shelf of unrelated products with a number next to each one. This is not that. Once you can name the seven trends, almost every request your child makes fits into one of them.
Each section below covers what the trend is, who it actually suits, and what to buy in the UAE, refreshed for October 2026 as the cooler months begin.
Contents
- 1. Sensory and squishy toys
- 2. DIY slime
- 3. Collectibles and blind packs
- 4. Arts and crafts
- 5. Licensed IP, from streaming to sport
- 6. Outdoor and ride-ons
- 7. Learning toys
- Common questions
1. Sensory and squishy toys
This is the defining trend of the year, and it is not close.
Sensory toys are the ones that do something in the hand. Squeeze, stretch, squash, spring back. They are quiet, they need no batteries, and they can be used while doing something else, which is the whole point. A child fidgets through homework. A teenager squeezes something during a film. A parent finds one in the car and keeps it.
The category grew because it solves a real problem rather than because it was marketed well. Screens are always available, and a toy that competes with a screen has to be usable at the same time as thinking about something else. Sensory toys are the only category that does that.
What to buy
- Squishmallows Clip-a-longs Clips to a bag. The lowest-risk way in.
- Squishmallows Scented Mystery Bags, 5 inch
- Hello Kitty and Friends Squishmallows, 5 inch
Full range in the Squishmallow collection and the wider soft toys collection.
2. DIY slime
Slime sits inside the sensory trend but it has earned its own section, because the product changed.
What is selling now is not a tub of goo. It is a kit with a process: reveal the slime, boost the texture, decorate it, find the hidden collectible, finish it. Twenty minutes of activity, then something that goes on a shelf. That is a craft set that happens to be made of slime.
The Gui Gui range is the one leading it in the UAE, and Colorland Toys is its only stockist here. The packs run from a pocket-size mini jar to a ten-slime mega kit, with seven named textures across the range.
What to buy
- Testing the water: Mini Single Pack
- The standard gift: Beautify Your Slime Mystery Pack
- A real present: Mega Slime Haul
- The top of the range: Salish Mega Pack
Everything you need to choose is in the complete slime guide.
3. Collectibles and blind packs
Collecting is the oldest trend in toys and it is having one of its bigger years. Three things are driving it.
Trading cards. Pokemon remains the way most children get into collecting, and the entry price is low. A checklane blister pack is one of the cheapest ways into the hobby.
Blind packs. The surprise is the product. Almost every category has adopted it, from Squishmallows mystery bags to LOL Surprise Loves Hello Kitty and Friends.
Character figures. Small, cheap, displayable. Funko Pop Pikachu, or Minix football figures of current club stars.
One warning worth reading before you buy into a blind-pack line. The point of a blind pack is that you cannot choose. A child who wanted one specific character will be disappointed, and buying a second pack to fix that is how one small purchase quietly becomes four. If certainty matters, buy a named product.
4. Arts and crafts
Crafts have quietly had one of the strongest years in the store, and the reason is unglamorous. They are the answer to "it is a long afternoon indoors and I am not putting the iPad on again".
Two things have made the category better than it used to be. Mess-free formats, and all-in-one kits that do not need a trip to a stationery shop first.
What to buy
- Crayola Color Wonder Deluxe Scented Stamper Kit The ink only develops on the special paper, so nothing shows up on a wall or a sofa.
- Crayola Create & Carry 2-in-1 Lap Desk A desk and a case in one, which solves the sofa problem.
- Crayola Color Wonder Mess Free Colouring
- Play-Doh Peppa's Ice Cream Playset. The right answer for under fives who want to do what their older sibling is doing with slime.
More in Crayola, Play-Doh and the full Art & Craft collection.
5. Licensed IP, from streaming to sport
Licensed toys are not new. What has changed is the speed. A show lands, and the merchandise is expected within weeks rather than a year later.
Streaming. The clearest example this year is K-Pop Demon Hunters, where the slime tie-in arrived while the show was still being talked about. Gui Gui K-Pop Demon Hunters Slime has four characters to collect, and the same show now has its own UNO deck.
Sport. Football never really leaves the shelf. With the World Cup over and the club season under way, club player figures and football-themed plush keep it going between tournaments, from Minix club figures to FIFA Squishmallows.
Evergreen characters. Sanrio and Hello Kitty keep pulling, across plush, slime and bags. The Hello Kitty collection runs from small plush and bags up to a full dollhouse playset.
The buying advice for licensed toys is the same every year. Buy the thing that would still be good without the licence. A LEGO set is a LEGO set. A plastic novelty with a face printed on it is a plastic novelty.
6. Outdoor and ride-ons
This one is seasonal in the UAE in a way it is not elsewhere. Outdoor play here has two seasons, and the toy that sits in the garage all summer is not a bad toy, it is a badly timed purchase.
Water is the exception, because water play works in the heat. Pools and water parks are the summer category. From October, as the evenings cool, ride-ons, bikes and trampolines come back out, and that is where we are now.
What to buy
- Bestway Steel Pro UV Splash-in-Shade Play Pool The shade canopy is the reason to pick this one here.
- Bestway Xtrem Air 12ft Trampoline. The outdoor-season main gift.
- Lamborghini Swing Car Works indoors on a smooth floor as well as outside, which helps on the hotter days.
More in Water & Inflatable Fun, Bestway and Bikes, Trikes & Riding Toys. For a full age-by-age list, see our outdoor toys guide.
7. Learning toys
Learning toys are bought all year, but they come into focus at the start of the school year and again before the December break, when grandparents and relatives ask what would be useful.
The useful distinction is between toys that teach a specific skill and toys that are just electronic. A microscope teaches something. A tablet-shaped toy with flashing lights often does not.
What to buy
- LeapFrog 2-in-1 LeapTop Touch
- VTech Little Apps Light-up Tablet
- Discovery Mindblown Kids 4x Binoculars. No screen, and it gets children outside now the weather allows it.
- VTech Gabby's Dollhouse Cat-A-Vator Discovery Book
Full range in Educational Toys, VTech and LeapFrog.
The same seven trends, sorted by age
Trends are useful for understanding the year. They are not useful at the till, because a five year old and a twelve year old are in completely different parts of every one of them. This is the same seven, rearranged for the person actually buying.
Ages 1 to 3
Texture without small parts, and nothing that needs following instructions. Soft plush, dough, water and sand.
Ages 3 to 5
Dough is the whole sensory category at this age, and character plush carries the collecting instinct before collecting properly starts.
- Play-Doh Fundamentals
- Crayola Color Wonder Ariel Colouring Set. Mess-free, because the ink only shows on its own paper.
- Peppa Pig Rainy Day Dress Up
Ages 6 to 8
The crossover year. Slime becomes appropriate, trading cards start to make sense, and craft kits move from colouring to making.
Ages 9 to 12
The core of almost every trend on this page. Multi-step kits, serious collecting, and strong opinions.
- Gui Gui Mega Slime Haul
- Shimmer N Sparkle Salon Style Deluxe Manicure Set
- Cookeez Makery Sweet Treatz Oven Playset
13 and up
Display and wind-down rather than play. Build sets that look good finished, and sensory items used while doing something else.
The trends we are watching
Two things to keep an eye on for the rest of the year. Board games keep growing as a family purchase rather than a children's one, helped by locally themed editions like Monopoly Dubai and Monopoly Abu Dhabi, which come into their own on cooler evenings. And Pokemon remains the main way children get into collecting, which we cover in the Pokemon guide.
Three rules that survive every trend
Trends change. These do not.
1. Buy the thing that would still be good without the licence. A LEGO set is a LEGO set whether or not the child still likes the character in eighteen months. A plastic novelty with a face printed on it is only ever the face.
2. A toy that needs setting up gets used at weekends. A toy that needs a hand gets used daily. This is the single best predictor of whether a purchase was worth it, and it is why the sensory category has been unbeatable for two years.
3. Start small in a new category. A small first purchase tells you within a week whether an interest is real. The expensive version will still be there. This applies to slime, to trading cards, to crafts, to everything.
What a trend is not
A trend tells you what a lot of children are asking for. It does not tell you what your child will still be using at Christmas, and the gap between those two things is where most wasted money goes.
Three tests that work better than any list.
Can they start it alone? A toy that needs an adult to set up gets used when an adult is free, which in most households is twice a week. A toy that can be picked up gets used daily. This single factor explains most of why the sensory category grew and why elaborate playsets sit in cupboards.
Is there a second session? Almost everything is good once. The question is whether there is a reason to come back. Collecting gives a reason. A finished object on a shelf gives a reason. A single novelty does not.
Does it survive the licence? If the show stops, is the toy still good? A LEGO Creator 3-in-1 set is fine either way, because it rebuilds into two other things. Character merchandise with nothing underneath it is not.
Run a trend through those three and it either holds up or it does not. Most of the seven above hold up. Blind packs are the one that depends entirely on the child.
Buying toys in the UAE: what is different here
Three things shape toy buying here that do not apply elsewhere, and all three are seasonal or practical rather than about taste.
The year has two halves. Outdoor toys are a October to April purchase. Between May and September the only outdoor category that works is water, and even that is an early morning and evening activity. Which is why October is the month to buy the trampoline, the bike or the ride-on: it gets the whole cool season.
Heat damages more toys than children do. Slime, dough, anything scented and anything with adhesive suffers in a parked car or on a sunny windowsill. Storage matters more here.
Gifting runs on more than one calendar. Diwali, Halloween, National Day, Christmas and New Year all land between late October and January in a typical UAE household, so the gift list for the cool season is usually longer than parents expect.
Colorland Toys delivers across the UAE, and has 17 stores if you would rather see something before buying it.
If you want the short version of everything above: buy the thing that can be picked up and started without an adult, start small in any category that is new, and ignore anything that is only good because of what is printed on it. Those three cover most of a year's buying.
Where this page goes next
We revisit this guide as the year moves and rewrite the sections that have changed rather than adding a new list on top. If a trend fades, it comes off. If something new earns a section, it gets one.
Common questions
What is the biggest toy trend of 2026?
Sensory and squishy toys, with DIY slime as its fastest-growing branch. Both sell because they work alongside everything else a child is doing rather than competing with a screen for full attention.
What toys are UAE kids asking for right now?
Slime kits, squishies and plush, trading cards and craft sets, with outdoor toys returning as the weather cools. Everything currently moving is in the Trending collection.
How much should I spend on a toy in the UAE?
For a small gift or party bag, AED 30 to AED 50 covers it. For a birthday present that has to feel like one, AED 150 to AED 300 is the usual range. Above AED 400 you are into main-gift territory: a trampoline, a large pool, or a top-end kit.
Are blind packs and mystery bags worth it?
They are, if the child enjoys the reveal. They are not, if the child has a specific character in mind, because you cannot choose. Buy a named product in that case.
When is the best time to buy outdoor toys in the UAE?
October. Outdoor toys get the most use between October and April, so buying at the start of the cool season gets a full season out of a trampoline, bike or ride-on.
Shop everything trending at Colorland Toys or see what has just landed in New Arrivals.