Toys for Brainy Tots

It's way too easy to build up a bunch of junk in your kid's toy trunk. But if you invest in the right stuff, your youngsters will enjoy playthings that they can grow up with, not out of.

1. The Perplexus
Cooler-looking and more addictive than an Xbox, the Perplexus is a colorful 3-D maze encased in a clear plastic sphere. The mission? Rotate that sphere to move a small metal ball through a series of obstacles (picking up some serious spatial and problem-solving skills along the way). Best part? No red ring of death. $25

2. Mr. RootBeer Home Brewing Kit
Home-brewing beer? Awesome. Giving junior a taste? Illegal! That's where Mr. Rootbeer comes in. Using ingredients common to domestic beer barons (yep, yeast is included), it's a great toy to help jump-start an appreciation for hand-crafted microbrews. $27

3. Fuel cell 10 car and experiment kit
This build-it-yourself fuel-cell car will prepare your children for the day when pitch-hearted oil Once-lers suck the last drop of crude from the earth. It runs on water—electrolysis provides the gas that pushes this buggy along. $170

4. Gordian's Knot
Alexander the Great "solved" the original knot with a swipe of his xiphos. But as tykes untangle this puzzle, they'll be stimulating the abstract-thought and pattern-recognition portions of their brains. Don't worry—a solution manual is included, so no cutting necessary. $12