74 Awesome Gifts for 12 Year Old Boys

If there’s a boy who hates drones, we’ve yet to find him. Drones take boys’ love of flying things, remote controls, and electronics to new heights by combining them into the ultimate toy. This drone quadcopter is not only extremely fun to play with, but it is also perfect for budding photographers. It can take HD video and pictures from the sky, which is ideal for kids with lots of different interests. Your athlete can get some cool shots of their skills from a bird’s eye view, or your explorer can get unique aerial photos of their favorite places.

For the gamer kid, it’s hard to keep up with which video games they have and don’t have. But one thing’s for sure: they always want a new game. A gift card might not seem like an especially exciting gift, but the twelve-year-old in your life will be thankful to get one. The Nintendo Switch is the most common console for kids in this age group, so chances are, this card is money well spent. They can go onto Nintendo’s eShop and buy the game they’ve had their eye on, and you can rest easy knowing you didn’t buy them a second copy of a game they’ve already beaten twice.

Do you have a funny, sarcastic kid who spends most of his free time playing video games? Then this gamer t-shirt will not only make him laugh, but it will also speak the truth for him! All it’s missing at the bottom is the “You’re welcome.” This shirt is super soft and perfect for marathon gaming sessions. If you do manage to get your twelve-year-old to pause his game and join his friends in the real world, they’ll all be jealous of his witty and appropriate shirt.

Lego fans are fans for life; there’s just something about the fun challenge of building with tiny blocks that grows with you. At twelve, kids are definitely ready for more of a building challenge. This is like a classic ship in a bottle, only with a twist: it’s made entirely of Legos. They’ll have to build the tiny ship first, and then build the bottle around it. This ship in a bottle is ideal for Lego collectors, and it looks amazing displayed on a shelf or desk. Your twelve-year-old will enjoy putting it together, but the real fun is in showing it off!

There’s a wow-factor that goes along with anything that glows or lights up: Christmas lights, Rudolph’s nose...basketballs. With the simple addition of a LED light, an everyday object becomes something extra fun and exciting. This light up basketball is perfect for shooting hoops at night with its two LED lights giving it a fiery glow. It’s the size of a standard basketball and comes with everything you need to make it glow like the sun. Don’t let the early sunsets in winter keep your twelve-year-old from getting outside and having fun!

Team communication, superior sound quality, and blocking of external noises are just a few reasons why gaming headsets are a must for gamers. If your twelve-year-old is spending a lot of time gaming with friends, then he’ll go nuts for this high-quality gaming headset. This headset works with all gaming platforms, including PCs and laptops, and allows him to talk to and hear his friends with perfect clarity. Comfortable to wear and with perfect sound, these headphones are also ideal for when he’s listening to music on his laptop and doing schoolwork.

You want a toy that makes your twelve-year-old actually put down his various devices and go out and play, and we have the perfect solution. These laser tag guns and vests allow up to four players to run around and actually get in some healthy physical activity. If you have more than four players, you can buy as many sets as you’d like, and they’ll all work together. Get the whole neighborhood in on it for a fun laser-tag themed birthday. Best of all, you can avoid an expensive trip to an entertainment park and arcade to play laser tag.

Is your twelve-year-old tired of all the usual sports games? Or maybe you’re looking for something the whole family can play—indoors or out. Spikeball takes inspiration from volleyball, only you play with a round net and four players. This pro kit comes with everything you need to play, including a handy ball pump to keep the balls at the perfect inflation. The net has sturdier legs that can hold up to heavy use, which is perfect because once your twelve-year-old starts playing, he’ll never want to stop!

Let’s be honest: the chances that the twelve-year-old boy in your life doesn’t have a Nintendo Switch already are pretty slim. But on the off-chance he doesn’t have one or needs an upgrade, this is the perfect gaming console for his age. Nintendo games are more family-friendly and kid-appropriate than the ones for Xbox and PlayStation, and the Switch also has online play options so he can game with his friends. It’s a fantastic combination of a handheld gaming system and console for the TV. Lightweight and portable, he can bring it along on a family trip or to a friend’s house.

Archery never goes out of style, but it gets a kid-friendly update with plastic and foam for safety. No, “You’ll shoot your eye out,” moments here! This bow may be a toy, but it’s got a pretty far range of 100 feet, so your twelve-year-old can brush up on their archery skills. The foam arrows attach to the bow, which makes it even easier to shoot arrow after arrow extremely fast. He can set up targets and pretend he’s Legolas from Lord of the Rings, and his friends will be impressed by his skills.

Young robotics engineers rejoice! This programmable robotic building blocks kit has come to scratch an itch that only curious tinker-happy minds get regularly. This beast of a robotics kit boasts a whopping 300+ individual building pieces – including an infrared sensor, a LED light, and four servo motors.

Programming functions is a cinch with the companion app, compatible with both iOS and Android. With all these parts and programmability, it’ll take a while before your 12-year-old can run out of ideas on what to build with this thing.

More than an ordinary action figure building kit, this amazing set integrates hydraulics and solar power to bring your 12-year-old's creations to life. The 230-piece set includes instructions to arrange them into 12 different models. More creative kids can even rig up their creations and power them with the included solar panels.

This spectacular toy needs no batteries to operate. Aside from the solar panels, it also comes with a mechanical gearbox and a hydraulic transmission. It's a brilliant way to teach your young engineer about solar power and hydraulic power working together.

Got a kid who loves dinosaurs? Does he have a PS4? Fantastic, gift him this game in which you build your dinosaur theme park. Manage everything from restaurants and food stands to security to the main attraction themselves: big ol' dinosaurs.

You can build storm shelters for the dinos, feed them a proper diet, make shelters for the visitors to hide in when the dinosaurs inevitably get loose, and much more. You can even take an active part in containing the dinos when they get out by riding a chopper and shooting them with tranquilizer darts. There's a lot of enjoyment to be had in this game, which any Jurassic World fan will appreciate.

This building set is geared more towards construction vehicle-type models, but it delivers a lot in that area. The set has detailed parts like the crane hook, all motorized by a 6-volt motor. It also features some real metal tools for putting it together.

Aside from construction implements, you can also build things like a chopper and an armored car. The sturdy metal pieces make for some resilient models, which is certainly a plus though it's not as flexible or modular as other build kits.

A step above your average build-it-yourself kits, this STEM building kit will help your kid understand the mechanics of simple machines such as levers. Such a task is a cinch with its well-built parts and complete assembly illustrations.

It features 16 mechanical models such as a weight scale, a crane, and a seesaw. It also features a companion app that displays 3D instruction steps for the building of these models. The assembly instructions also include 21 pages of physics theory, experiments, and quizzes about the machines that can be built with this fantastic STEM learning kit.

Before sending your young daredevil off with his very own GoPro, get him to break in this kids' action cam from Prograce. It doesn't look like much, but this small device packs a 5MP camera – that's a 2592x1944 resolution! This mini action cam will allow him to take crisp footage of his daring exploits, whether it be in skateboarding, diving, parkour, or mountain biking.

No setting is too extreme with its versatility in mounting capability. It also features 30fps 1080p playback on its 1.77” LCD screen, as well as a medley of photo and video modes and even mini-games.

The scientifically inclined preteen will surely appreciate this Gyroscope-based robot build kit. Its comprehensive 24-page full-color instruction manual details assembly steps and experiments designed to teach kids young and old about the wonders of gyroscopic machines.

Though the packaging doesn't advertise it specifically, surely one with sufficient creativity could design his gyroscopic machines from this kit. The challenge of doing so is the icing on top of this scientific skill-building toy.

12-year-olds with an affinity for all things geological would be in for a treat once they’re gifted this crystal growing kit. The kit features seven crystal growth experiments, with detailed instructions to complete them.

Each experiment comes with their display cases so your young geologist can have a colorful ensemble to put on display and admire. If he's getting sick of growing crystals from talc powder, he'll appreciate this experiment kit falling into his hands.

12-year-old expressing an interest in Mechanical Engineering? Give him this solar rover to experiment with. It’s an educational, fun way to explore how solar power can be harnessed to achieve locomotion.

It also teaches young engineers the utility of recycled parts, as you can use a used soda can as a chassis to house the engine. It’s a superb way to teach your 12-year-old how self-propelled vehicles work, and put that theory into good practice.

This unique STEM build kit offers the chance to learn about electronic engineering using modular parts and its very own kid-friendly microprocessor. The modular nature of this kit means that your 12-year-old can build an unlimited amount of gadgets and games from the 48 included parts.

Parts include a battery module, variable resistor module, LED module, among many others, with six baseboards to hold it all in place. There's also a 48-page manual for each of the individual parts, and 31 jumper wires also come packaged. Batteries need to be supplied for this thing though, and it can go through quite a few of them.

Plug-and-play consoles have been a staple of the console industry for quite a while up until the past decade. This modern plug-and-play system from Spmywin seeks to trigger a revival with this sleek home arcade system.

Featuring HD 720p and a whopping 1299 arcade games, this game console brings the retro feel of classic gaming right into your living room. The controls feel as authentic as the joysticks on the real things, too. It also features customizable controls, a favorites list, and USB ports for gamepad support.

Part build-it-yourself toy, part tabletop game, Catapult Wars lends some interactive utility to the DIY toy genre. Your 12-year-old will enjoy building and customizing these projectile-flinging contraptions.

As soon as he’s done with that, he can compete with his friends in toppling one another’s wooden cutout targets. If you want catapult combat to be extra visceral, you can even use these catapults to engage wooden block castles.

A perfect gift for creative mavericks who have outgrown LEGOs. With such a great number of building pieces, there’s no telling what interesting structures and models he can craft. It has a rich collection of hinges, wheels, and other joints to allow for maximum movability. This defeats LEGOs by far and away in that department.

Whatever your 12-year-old boy may fancy, he can build with this versatile kit. It even comes with a strong chest-type box for easy safekeeping.

This clever 3D board game is great fun for two people – perfect for your 12-year-old to bring on camping trips or sleepovers. The object of the game is to “squash” your opponent’s pawns by occupying their spots, like in chess, and pushing them through their socket into the hollow cube. The trump card that every player guns for is to access the king piece, which lets that player flip the cube to squash an entire side at a time.

Having trouble looking for gifts and toys for 12-year-old boys who are hardcore engineers? Give him an actual challenge with this serious engine building kit. This diverges from the conventional "toy" design philosophy and more into an actual modeling kit.

With only around 100 parts, it's a bit less than most build kits – but don't be fooled. It doesn't take away from the complexity of this model engine. The result is a working scale model of a car engine, complete with pistons, a radiator fan, the whole shebang. Young mechanical engineers will be thrilled at this undertaking.

Rocketeers have got to start somewhere. This water rocket kit from 4M is a great place to do so. Blasting off on simple water pressure, this baby can shoot up to 30 feet in the air. Not enough to break through the Troposphere, but it’s fantastic for young rocket scientists to experiment with the mechanics of propulsion. Virtually any medium-sized plastic bottle can be used for this purpose. All you need to add to it is a bicycle pump, which isn’t included in the kit.

Discover the wonderful world of hydraulics using this robotic arm, running entirely on the power of fluids. This robot arm features six axes of movement, a gripper that opens and closes, and rotates 180 degrees. The detailed instructions allow for a quick and sturdy construction. Watch him have a blast grabbing things and letting them go – the hydraulic robot way.

We’re not yet at that point where the best VR headsets come cheaply, but luckily some of the more low-tech ones do. This 3D VR Headset is built to house smartphones to give people that sweet, immersive VR experience on a budget.

Even if it’s not as cool as a Vive or an Oculus Rift, it’s still a neat piece of engineering. Any tech-savvy 12-year-old will certainly appreciate having a look at one of these.

Lifelong dreams start at the teens. If your kid dreams of being a rockstar, start him off early with this Les Paul guitar set. It comes complete with its mini amp, a set of picks, and a guitar strap so he can rock out while jumping up and down on his bed (provided that that behavior is acceptable in your household of course).

Whatever he aspires to be playing like a champ when he’s older, Epiphone’s got him covered with this all-inclusive starter set.

This classic card game about leading your little community of settlers to prosperity hearkens back to a time before the internet and computer games. Games such as this one were often played in a comfy setting, next to a roaring fire as the inclement weather raged on from outside the window.

Even in the digital age, games like Catan would still find a welcome home in the hands of appreciative young strategists. Being a traditional game, Catan requires little setup, no power, and has outstanding portability. This gift works especially well if your 12-year-old likes strategy games.

Every boy loves drones. Every boy loves cars. Put them both together, and you come up with this majestic piece of toy engineering. Be zooming along on the asphalt one second, and be coursing on the air above it the next. A natural evolution to both the drone and the RC car, this original toy gives kids the best of both.

Skateboards are fast becoming a bit too "early 2000s" for some people's taste. As with any technology, things evolve, and Enkeeo's Caster Board is the latest of the next generation of skateboards.

Compact, portable, and with some sick light-up casters, this thing would be a blast to take to the skate park at nighttime (provided he has parental supervision, of course).

Music lovers need their ear candy, and one of the things that get in the way of that is wires. Hand him this pair of Bluetooth headphones and instantly brighten his listening sessions. It also comes in handy if he’s the type to watch videos late at night and sometimes ends up waking people up. This pair of headphones makes use of passive noise isolation, which doesn't use up the battery and ruin sound quality like active noise cancellation does. The ear cushions are immensely comfy, and it's got great longevity with 20-hour battery life.

Finding your sport as a young’un could be difficult for some. That’s why encouraging your kids to pursue the one they’re passionate about is important, as you don’t get many chances when you’re older. If your 12-year-old boy suddenly finds interest in archery, start him off with this training set.

It’s more than a mere toy, however. Both the bow and the arrows are built to be almost as durable and powerful as the real thing. If the arrows had real arrowheads instead of suction cups, this could very well pass for an actual bow and arrow. Brilliant for Olympic archer hopefuls and Legolas wannabes alike.

Star Wars is a passion that affects people young and old. Once you find your kid bitten by the Star Wars bug, it goes without saying that he’d be thrilled by any Star Wars gifts that comes his way. This Yoda Starfighter model will certainly be met with just that.

It features folding wings, a cockpit that opens from the front and the top, and dual spring-loaded laser cannons with extra laser ammo. It also includes a Yoda and an R2-D2 minifigure to complete the set. Minifigure Yoda even has a little lightsaber in his tiny hands!

How do you improve upon a drone? Slap a camera on it, yeah, but what else? RED5 answers that question with this transforming 3-in-1 drone. With its traversal modes, it can travel to just about anywhere that’s not outer space.

You’ve got the standard quadcopter mode, a wheeled mode that offers tight turns and jumping, and a tracked mode to trundle over difficult terrain. With these three modes of traversal and a smooth first-person view, this drone maxes out the usefulness of having a remote-controlled camera. And it does it in a cool way, too.

Mobile Suit Gundam Models have fallen a bit into obscurity in this day and age, but it’s still a cool hobby to get into. That goes especially if your 12-year-old is into anime. Building one of these colossi would be a very rewarding feat, and he’ll get an epic-looking action figure out of the deal.

This particular model is patterned after the iconic Gundam look, featuring the trademark GN swords, the GN shield, and a bunch of other effects parts. It’s a solid figure all around and would make a terrific first model in your 12-year-old’s Gundam collection.

This zippy racer is perfect for LEGO enthusiasts, as its compatibility with other LEGO parts is virtually assured. Though it's run by a simple pull-back motor, its power is nothing to scoff at. This toy is built for speed through and through, as evidenced by its low profile and aerodynamic spoiler. Its engine also pops out on impact to prevent damage.

A solid speedster in its own right, it can be combined with its sister model – the LEGO Technic BASH – for a more customizable pool of parts with two powerful engines rather than one. You can also build over it with your own LEGO parts to create custom vehicles.

Robotics enthusiasts, needless to say, are crazy about all things automation. If they had their way, even their odds and ends would have robotic qualities.

That's precisely what this doodling robot from 4M fulfills. It's a random implement without much use other than being a robot and being fun to watch as it spins in the mechanical way that robots do. It's easy to assemble and needs only one AA battery for power. Just insert three colored pens into its holders and watch it spin and draw circles as it goes forth.

This is no ordinary building blocks set. This is a puzzle designed to give players an intimate understanding of balance. Featuring 60 meticulously balanced structures divided into six levels of complexity, this spatial reasoning puzzle ought to present a worthy challenge to any smartypants kid.

This is an excellent way for aspiring architects and engineers to experiment with equilibrium and make it second nature. That would be an invaluable trait when they eventually end up with a career in those fields.

This build-your-own maze kit is one of few competitive puzzle games in which you can be the architect of your opponent’s challenge.

Using magnetic blocks, players build the most difficult maze they can devise. Then, they swap with their opponent and try to get a ball through the maze first by tilting it. This game enhances both creativity and reflexes in an immensely enjoyable way.

Got a preteen who can't stop gaming on his mobile device? Enhance his gaming experience with this Bluetooth game controller. It can be used separate from the phone or mounted on it to give it this handheld game console feel. It truly feels natural and improves upon the standard mobile gaming experience by a lot.

What gifts and toys can you gift to a 12-year-old boy who’s mastered almost every ball game that’s graced the playground? Give him a ball that spins and bounces like nothing else he’s ever played with.

The Waboba Moon Ball makes use of these crazy round craters (hence the name) to bounce and spin like no other ball. It even makes a fun noise as it bounces off of things. It’s also lighter than most balls to boot, making any game played with it a fresh new challenge for the regular ball-meister.

MMA is another trend that’s been sweeping through the minds of youngsters, with such powerhouses as Connor McGregor setting an admirable example for young world champ hopefuls. That’s why things like this Punch Bag set would be a blessing for all of those who have a big itch for dishing out a few haymakers and roundhouse kicks.

It's a great way to get some exercise and release some of that attitude teens are infamous for. It's best for those who are currently getting martial arts lessons.

One day, one lazy body sat down (or sat up, because he was probably lying down) and thought long and hard how he could set up his computer or TV in such a way that he can do it while lying perfectly flat in bed. After realizing that duct-taping his TV to the ceiling won't work, he came up with a simpler solution: the Horizontal Lazy Glasses!

Okay, that might not be the exact story behind this cool invention, but it’s probably close. With its viewing prism working like the ones in submarine periscopes, your 12-year-old can watch TV in bed without breaking his neck from being propped up for too long on a pillow.

Has your young MVP been bugging you to get him a new ball? This premium NBA basketball ought to satisfy him. This baby's been crafted according to the NBA standard, meaning that handling and dribbling will be more than optimal. Ballers from all over will feel euphoric to have this thing in their hands. Once he gets this, he wouldn't be able to resist bouncing over to the court and land a slam dunk with it.

Add some much-needed firepower to rubber band blasting with this build-year-own rubber band blaster. Like the ballistas of old, load up your rubber bands, cycle the crank, aim at one of the included zombie cutouts, and let ‘er rip.

It's a great little tabletop toy to keep your son occupied during idle downtime between study sessions.

All 87 keys of this compact keyboard was designed with one thing in mind: gaming. Whether it's to win or to have fun, this mechanical keyboard will carry your 12-year-old to the ends of the virtual worlds he visits.

With unbelievably fast responsiveness and great durability, this keyboard will serve your young trooper for a long time. The keys feel fantastic, they sound crisp, and they look good while doing it with the RGB LED that’s easy on the eyes.

Anyone other than hardcore LEGO architects need not apply. This LEGO kit is for the most committed builders only. This scale model of the US Capitol Building numbers at 1032 individual pieces, and measures 6 inches high, 6 inches deep, and 17 inches across.

It’s also fully compatible with other LEGO pieces, in case you want to do some redesigning. Included with the kit is an info booklet about the architecture that went into the real Capitol Building, as well as its history.

Another classic gift. What 12-year-old wouldn’t want something as cool as a foosball table around the house, or even in his very own room? Foosball is the tabletop game for the sporty types, allowing them to experience the fun of kicking a ball around on the field in a smaller package. This model marries the classic aesthetics of standard foosball tables with the modern design choices that manufacturers have picked up through the years. This foosball table is more stable, has ergonomic grips, and a frictionless field, so the ball flies across the board without a hitch.

take the ring to the bedroom with this nifty gadget that automatically returns the ball to the shooter, wherever he shoots from in a 180-degree angle.

The hoop is designed to fit onto any door and has an adjustable height to accommodate kids of different heights. The automatic ball returner needs four C alkaline batteries to operate. The returner can still work without power (although it wouldn't detect the shooter and swivel the returner to point at him).

Some of the coolest things to give as gifts are those that use the latest tech to overhaul an existing toy in a novel way. That's what this motion control drone does. This drone makes use of a motion control device shaped like a computer mouse to easily and intuitively fly it.

This tiny hummingbird of a remote-controlled drone has a range of 50 meters and a battery life of 8 minutes. Small, comparatively speaking, but given its size and the tech that goes into controlling it, it's pretty decent. It's a great novelty toy to have just lying around.

Saving up money can be a hassle sometimes. Give your 12-year-old some added sense of achievement in saving up with this digital coin bank. Once you pop in two acai batteries, it automatically detects the money you put in (provided it’s US coins) and keeps track of how much you’ve saved so far. The lid twists off easily to retrieve your savings.

This toy is for all of those who like assembling their toys and are crazy about robots or the cogs-and-gears aesthetic. This nifty little bot is sleek and stylish. Wind it up and watch its machine heart light up to the tune of "Can't Take My Eyes Off You." This posable, musical automaton would make a fantastic gift for the DIY enthusiast 12-year-old. It makes for a great room ornament too.

A team-based spin on Frisbee, this creative game challenges players of one team to get the disc into a can while the other team tries to stop them. Frisbee meets basketball in this simple yet gruelingly competitive game.

This would make a fantastic gift for a sporty kid with a bunch of friends who are just as sporty and competitive as he is. Another good thing about it is that it's compact, easy to transport, and easy to set up. It's a fun day at the park in a can.

The Dragon Ball franchise has recently been reeling in some new fans with their new series. If your 12-year-old happens to be one of those who have gone Super Saiyan, he'll want to learn more about the Dragon Ball Lore.

Show him what went down on Earth back during the good old days when Goku and Vegeta still called one another enemies, and the whole planet was under threat of annihilation at the hands of the evil Frieza. Whether it’s to add to his collection or to start it, it’s a terrific gift for any Dragon Ball fan.

If you're the kind of parent who waited to give your 12-year-old his computer or similar device, this is a great one to start with. The Amazon Fire Tablet is a formidable little gadget. With this zippy-fast device, doing research for homework and keeping in touch with friends will be a breeze. All of this on a lush LCD, for up to 12 hours on a full charge.

It’s got all of the capabilities of modern tablets: browsing, using apps, even watching TV. And since it’s geared towards kids, it’s also got parental controls to give parents that peace of mind.

inspired by a Southeast Asian sport, this fusion of badminton and football is a fresh new game for outdoor plays. Practice manipulating it like a hacky sack by using your feet and elbows. Once you get the hang of it, enter in competitive games that work like badminton but using feet and elbows instead of rackets.

The Ukick improves on the original design by adding variable weights using disks that attach to the bottom. Making it lighter makes it float in the air a bit more, making it easier to practice with.

Adventurer Extraordinaires would lack without their trusty compass! Get him one of these National Geographic compasses, used by their field operatives during their adventures. It's got standard features like a sight wire to pinpoint landmarks for triangulation, coupled with neat extra features like a centimeter-measuring scale and a carry case.

Kickstart your 12-year-old's chemistry career with this comprehensive chemistry set. By the time he's done with its gamut of 125 detailed experiments, the lab coat, safety goggles, and gloves, your young chemist will be using will be like a second skin to him.

This kit's got all sorts of experiments ranging from surface tension to air pressure, as well as some cool practical know-how like how to make invisible ink.

Boomerangs have always captivated some part of children’s imaginations. They’re like Frisbees, but with a funkier shape and can return to you from a much farther away. However, you have to know exactly how to throw them, or else you might lose yours sooner than you think.

Luckily this Polypropylene boomerang brought to you by a former boomerang world champion is geared towards beginners and comes with some instructions on how to use it from the master himself.

Little can compare to a nice game of air hockey. The smoothness of the table as you intercept the puck to send it gliding over to your opponent’s side; the sleek white surface of the table that’s easy on the eyes; the bragging rights you get after winning a match.

It's been a special part of the childhoods of many of us, and now it can be brought to your 12-year-old's bedroom with this 40-inch model.

Got a kid interested in joining the school band? Familiarize him with composing for orchestras with this set of prefabricated musical measures printed onto transparent cards. These can be arranged into his very own musical score. Renowned composer Philip Sheppard will be guiding him along as he crafts his masterpieces.

After it's all been arranged, you can go online and give his creation a listen. All of these measures have been pre-recorded by a real-life orchestra, so it'll sound like a real-life composition once you go and listen to it. After that, your preteen maestro can name his composition, download it, print it, and show it to his music teacher. He'll be a shoo-in to the school band by then.

EDM has been the hottest music sensation for a while now, and it's only natural that a lot of kids want to get into that craze. The LaunchPad is a staple of the music genre, and if your 12-year-old has been wanting to get into EDM, chances are he's asked for this. If he hasn't, well, all the better to surprise him, right?

Think your 12-year-old has outgrown comic books? Introduce him to the more mature world of graphic novels with this classic from Neil Gaiman. In case you’re unfamiliar, Neil Gaiman is the author of many bestselling novels. As a testament to his skill, The Sandman is one of the few graphic novels that racked up enough sales to be considered a New York Times bestseller.

Set in the mystical space between dreams and reality, The Sandman does away with the traditional concepts of black and white and exposes the dark that exists in the light and vice versa. This book is perfect for kids with ever-evolving literary tastes.

It's a bike horn and a headlamp in one neat gizmo. This horn has 25 different sounds to fit everyone's style: from police sirens to a lion's roar, and of course, the good old-fashioned ring of a bicycle bell. The light can switch from white to green and can be flashing or steady.

The device fits smoothly onto any handlebar, and there’s even a remote trigger that you can mount to the handle to easily turn it on/off.

Tons upon tons of kids dream of developing their games someday. Introduce him to the wonderful world of coding with this game-based teacher. Using the included gamepad, play through 15 game levels on an iOS or Android device, all the while learning about all the programming that went into each level.

The Code Gamer Coding Workshop teaches kids all they need to know to make games using the Arduino programming language. Once they have it down pat, they can move on to the 34 included experiments and make their game projects.

Kids who are into multifunction tools are admittedly a relatively small niche. Still, that doesn't mean this nice little 6-in-1 whistle from NatGeo won't make for a great gift for just about any 12-year-old boy.

The whistle unscrews and comes apart into three parts: the first part is a flashlight that also houses a compass, a thermometer, and a mirror. The other two parts are a magnifying glass and the whistle itself. This neat gadget is just about everything you need to navigate out in the wild, although it’s always better to have dedicated tools on hand too. Perfect for the trekking type of kid.

Like Star Wars, Lord of the Rings fever is something that’s been taking the world by storm for the better part of the last century. With its rich lore and uplifting storytelling, it’s only natural that Tolkien’s brainchild captures the minds of young and old alike.

For the kids who have just gotten into the magical world of Middle-Earth, gift them this Atlas to serve as their guide before they go on adventures with the likes of Bilbo and Gandalf. Mordor, Mirkwood, or anywhere there be dragons, he’ll know all about them in this book.

Put together by the most hardened survivalists, turn your 12-year-old into a grizzled zombie-smashing veteran with this comprehensive guide to surviving the zombie apocalypse. Everything from how zombies' bodies and minds work to efficient home fortification is detailed in this big book.

Wherever he goes, whoever he may roll with, you can rest easy knowing your son will have everything he needs to survive. With this much know-how about how to make the undead re-dead, how could he not?

Has your 12-year-old made it a habit to press the snooze button? Does he need to wake up to make the alarm clock wait ten more minutes?"

This reflex movement he developed might’ve made him miss the school bus one too many times. If that's the case, you and he might agree that he needs a bit of extra challenge, shall we say, in interacting with that alarm clock. This flying alarm clock delivers just that, by taking off as soon as the alarms go off. Annoying, maybe, but it sure gets them out of bed.

Some kids want to be astronauts. Some kids want to be pilots. Some kids want to be rockstars. Some kids, instead of traveling space, flying the skies, or surfing crowds, want to surf cyberspace instead.

With this step-by-step guide, he’ll be armed with all the coding knowledge a 12-year-old needs to know to get by in the modern digital world. For budding programmers and computer scientists, this book would be a decent headstart.

This is for the puzzle fans who also like to have a bit of a fright from time to time. This is made for one to four players. This creepy, little tabletop game transports you to a sinister-looking mansion (you can see where the title came from). The hosts seem gracious enough at the start, but then they force you to play a twisted game.

Time is a luxury, and you don’t wanna know what happens if you don’t finish the puzzles on time. Can you find your way out?

Ping Pong pros have gotta practice constantly to keep their edge. Keep him ready for a table tennis emergency with this instant table tennis set. With its retractable net, just about any table within 75 inches in width and 1.75 inches in thickness can be turned into a ping pong table.

The net automatically tautens to accommodate the table width, so you don't need to adjust it. The easy-to-store set also makes it insanely portable.