Best Subscription Boxes for Boys

Part of the outstanding Kiwi Crate line of subscription boxes for kids, Tinker Crate is a hands-on STEM exploration kit made with kids ages 9 to 14 in mind. Each month, a new box is mailed to you with everything your kid needs to build an awesome project from scratch, from walking robots to spin art to mechanical claws. In each kit, your child receives all necessary materials, detailed but super kid-friendly instructions, and a link to an online video tutorial in case they need extra help. They also get a copy of Tinker Zine, the company's magazine, stuffed with expanded information and facts about that month’s topic of learning and additional project ideas. Everything is constructed—and explained—in a way that makes it possible for your tween to assemble and test out their work completely solo.

These cool experiments and machines not only challenge your kiddo to think outside the box—literally—but they also teach them about science and math in an engaging and practical way. Your kid will learn about physics and engineering whether they meant to or not, and have hours of fun doing so!

Despite how much you get in the box and the possibilities for exploration, the Tinker Crate is also one of the most affordable options on the list. Crates start at roughly $24 per month, with recurring discounted subscription plans offered for three, six, or 12 months at a time. Kiwi Crate frequently runs discount promotions and offers coupons to new and existing customers, which can often lower the price even more.

Teaching kids how to design unique, customized computer programs and apps is a valuable skill, but it’s also a fairly new trend, so there aren’t many activities out there to keep coding-crazy kids happy. A Bitsbox subscription, though, gives you an endless supply! If you choose its digital subscription, it can even be extra budget-friendly.

Every month, your kid will get a new set of app-based projects to work on, covering everything from variables to arrays to motion loops. The projects range in difficulty, so your child can start easy and work their way up from there, and the kits include a grown-up guide so you can help your child too. Still, Bitsbox knows that kids are the audience here, so its makers use simple, easy-to-understand directions that allow kids to build their coding knowledge from the ground up. With this activity, your child can spend hours challenging themselves, but it also strengthens the technological tools required to grow up in an age where computers are omnipresent and necessary for everyday life.

You’ll need an internet connection for this subscription so your child can access the Bitsbox coding website and share or use its custom apps on a desktop, tablet, or smartphone. But you don’t need anything else, and the digital option, which lets you receive all your monthly projects via PDF for about $17, makes this a great budget-friendly choice for the 6- to 12-year-old kid in your life.

The benefits of outdoor play are clear: kids who spend generous amounts of time outside are not only healthier, they also have better executive functioning skills, such as planning, time management, and organization. Whether your kid already spends half their day in the backyard or you want to encourage them to get out there more often, the Think Outside box—with its outdoor gear, family challenges, and skill-building potential—is a great place to start.

The first delivery your child will receive is a Starter Box, which includes a backpack filled with hands-on activities and gear to help you start exploring. After that, the boxes are designed with the seasons in mind; in summer, for example, you’ll get gear and activities to keep you cool in the sun, while spring seasons might deliver rain gear and water investigation challenges. Meanwhile, each box also aims to teach your child an outdoor skill or concept, like fire-starting, navigation, or stargazing.

What we love about the Think Outside box is that not only does it help your kid get outside more, it encourages your whole family to spend time in nature. Many of the activities and challenges work better with more than one person; plus, you can take advantage of subscription discounts when enrolling siblings (or, if you just want your kids to share a subscription, you can order an extra backpack with your Starter Box). A monthly subscription is about $45 per month, and you can also enroll quarterly or bi-annually.

Don’t let the superhero theme of this subscription box trick you into thinking only serious DC or Marvel fans could appreciate it. Superpower Academy digs deeper into what it means to be a superhero—by sending your child a box full of confidence-building activities every month.

With the goal of helping your child become more resilient and creative, Superpower Academy packs its boxes with comics and fictional stories to enhance their literacy, STEM projects to encourage their innovative sides, and social learning challenges to grow their emotional intelligence. Since everything is superhero-themed, kids won’t even realize they’re developing important life skills as they (figuratively) leap tall buildings in a single bound.

If you have a child who loves superheroes but needs help growing their own set of “superpowers” (like identifying feelings, tackling new things, and showing empathy), this is the perfect box to make practicing those skills fun. Month-to-month subscriptions are roughly $30; there are also three-, six-, and 12-month prepay options and a variety of discounts.

Comic books often get a bad rap, even though there are just as many complex characters, plots, and themes in them as there are in traditional novels. Boys, in particular, are often drawn to comics, and then discouraged from reading them, since they’re “not real books.”

But you can absolutely foster a love of reading in your kid with comic books, and the makers of Comic Crate want to help you do just that. Run by comic book shop owners from Sacramento, Comic Crate will send your child six full-size comics each month based on your rating selection. Getting a slew of new comics every month will have your child begging for more reading time!

The rating system is the most important element of choosing a Comic Crate, so here’s how it breaks down: There is an “all ages” option perfect for young readers, with comics like Star Wars Adventures and My Little Pony; a teen option for slightly older readers who can handle more advanced themes, language, and artwork, like Batman and Fantastic Four; and a Teen+ option, which still keeps things relatively “clean,” but may sometimes have profanity or more mature themes, like X-Men and Justice League.

Pricing for all of the crates starts at roughly $30 per month, with three-, six-, and 12-month plans also available.

It doesn’t matter if your child’s favorite video game is Super Mario’s World, The Legend of Zelda, or old-school Donkey Kong—they’ll love a subscription to Mario’s Mystery Block, a bi-monthly delivery of licensed Nintendo merch including tees, hats, toys, collectible coins, and other gaming goodies.

Featuring anywhere from three to six hand-picked items in every shipment, the Mystery Block sends around $40 worth of official Nintendo gear to subscribers every other month. One month, your items may be Mario themed, and the next month it could be all about Luigi (or Link, Yoshi, or the vintage Nintendo 64 system). This is perfect for the Nintendo fan who is interested in expanding their collection beyond just the video games.

You choose a subscription box plan based on your T-shirt size, ranging from youth X-Small all the way up to adult XX-Large; you may not get a tee every month, but when you do, you can be sure it will fit. You’ll also get the option to request gender-specific or gender-neutral items in your Mystery Block. Bi-monthly plans cost roughly $30.