Anything big Lego style thing.

What about an outdoor tree house/climbing wall? or basketball hoop?

does he like tinkering? Mark Rober Crunch Labs could be good. my kid loves them-a new box every month!

Lego Mindstorms

How about something plus lessons - for example skateboard and lessons. Or rock climbing gear plus lessons.

Is there any furniture of his that you want to replace? What about an expensive robot kit?

Build him a treehouse

Does he like animals? I know you said no experience gifts but how about a Baltimore zoo membership with a huge stuffed animal that he likes?
Or science center membership with a few science kits to unwrap?

Remote control helicopter
Ride on car

Anonymous wrote:Ugh I hate when people expect a "WOW" when opening a gift. My kid would go nuts if he opened a $100 bill.

Would he get really excited to open something that detailed a trip? My kids would absolutely love to go somewhere fun for a night (like Great Wolf Lodge) and would probably get excited opening a gift that included a stuffy and a note saying we were going right then.

If not, how about an electric scooter?

FIL doesn't have endurance to do a big thing like great wolf with kid and wants the gift to be full associated with him so he wouldn't want to give us a family weekend there or anything (especially since we can afford those on our own so it wouldn't be something ds doesn't get on occasion anyway). I wish he would consider experiences - DS really really loves them and gets excited about them. And same with $100 bill - I think he'd be as excited by that as by $800 but its not impressive enough for FIL. He was also a no on giving him $100 and putting rest in a college or savings account which DH said was only option given we have our whole household economy for allowance and chores and we aren't going to allow a cash gift of a size that makes all that no longer motivating

Books, clothes, sneakers, scooter, cash for the college fund?

Another vote for ridiculous Lego set like the Death Star or Hogwarts. Or the Lego Robotics stuff.

When the shine wears off, donate it to an aftercare program.

Ugh I hate when people expect a "WOW" when opening a gift. My kid would go nuts if he opened a $100 bill.

Would he get really excited to open something that detailed a trip? My kids would absolutely love to go somewhere fun for a night (like Great Wolf Lodge) and would probably get excited opening a gift that included a stuffy and a note saying we were going right then.

If not, how about an electric scooter?

My kid would love some name brand soccer jerseys or even full kits.

A ridiculous Lego set in a theme he likes.

What about a hoverboard? With a full set of elbow/wrist guards. We have the Razor one and it's really nice, but does go super fast.

Also I've encouraged college fund, taking him somewhere, tickets to something etc.....they want the wow of seeing him open something (and when I suggested a $100 bill instead of $800 they decided that wouldn't be wow enough for them and are back to toys etc).

Grandparents want to give him a big gift (they first wanted to give him $800 cash which we were a hard no to). They don't want to give him an experience and they would never feel like a $40 gift (no matter how much it was exactly what he wanted) was enough.

So I need to give them some big ticket item ($100+) ideas that also won't take up a lot of space. I'm thinking about Lego Spike which he would like but I doubt we will get enough use of out it once the initial excitement wore off. He has a new bike already, has an ipad, we aren't doing video games yet (and he hasn't asked for any), he's fairly academic / analytical and wouldn't care at all about something like a signed baseball.

Ideas? It really just needs to be something that will meet the grandparents ego needs and be generally liked versus being something truly worth the high pricepoint.