Good building toys for a 2-3 year old?

[IdentityCrisisMama]

I want to get my niece some building supplies for a gift. Any suggestions on some good ones for a 2.5 year old with strong play value? 

[mommariffic]

We love building materials - are you looking for blocks or in general just building kits or something? 

I love the wooden rainbow blocks from Magic Cabin. We had the plain wooden blocks but DS is getting the rainbow colored set for Christmas -- you can find wooden blocks for cheap anywhere really but I splurged on these when I had a coupon + free shipping. They are so so vibrant in color and DS loves to build castles with them. 

Tegu blocks are also pricey but really popular in this house. They are the magnetic blocks -- they make a smaller travel set which would be a neat stocking stuffer and a nice way to see if he's into them. 

DS also love Legos -- he gets the bigger sets and "does them" with DH. 

[JudiAU]

Lego duplo blocks are really wonderful and among the only plastic toys we embrace. You can buy basic bricks for building and then supplement with some animals and people. Or expand to include the real well designed train set, which is again easier to use than wooden train tracks. They last forever and will be in great shape after 1-10 kids play with them. And then you can sell them on ebay for a surprising good return. They are much easier to construct/learn from then traditional wooden blocks or even magna tiles, which are both awesome in their own way. Most pieces are made in Europe. 

Haba and Grimm and Uncle Goose make particularly nice wooden blocks that are durable and non-toxic. And I find that younger children really prefer the more colorful pieces in lieu of plain wooden pieces unless you are buying true unit blocks which are very large. Etsy has a lot of good blocks too but for a younger child remember that more of something is better than less.

[sk8boarder15]

My 2 year old, loves plain old wooden blocks, mega blocks, and his trains (building, but not as open ended). 

[SunRise]

Yeah, my 2.9 year old loves the bigger duplo blocks & wooden blocks. I also just bought her a Lincoln log house building set for christmas

[mommariffic]

I finally remembered the name of the raddest blocks every we saw at the Maker Faire.

http://www.murrahwoodcraft.com/pages/thinker-linkers-main.php

My kids were drawn to them and played for a looooong time. They are beautiful! They made a fairy tower, a serving station, a trap for DS :) So enthusiastic and wonderful for indoor play. I wanted to mention them in my original post----we just got the set today as a Christmas gift 

[Mama4life14]

My son has wooden blocks from "Discovery toys" they are colorful and have different textures. My boy is 3 and still plays with them in all sorts of ways!