Like amateur magicians, childhood toys are full of old gimmicks and appear to wince when sawn in half. Enlist a dependable new plaything instead with today's Groupon: for $10, you get $20 worth of toys and gifts at Trains and Tiaras.

For more than 30 years, family-owned Trains and Tiaras has equipped inquisitive minds with an expansive selection of educational toys and interactive play sets. Jigsaw puzzles ($7.99+) challenge friends and family members to collaborate on revealing colorful images, and the Build-A-Road play set ($24.99) enables budding civil engineers to get an early start on constructing incandescent avenues. With miniature shopping carts ($49.99), parents instill young ones with healthy living habits while encouraging imaginative play. In addition to Lionel train sets and innovative toys by the fun-constructing team at Melissa & Doug, Trains and Tiaras stocks classic toys such as the Marble Run play set ($19.99), which offers endless chain reactions for budding Rube Goldbergs. Functional items, such as the Melissa & Doug Trunki suitcase ($29.99), diminish anxiety during travel by occupying tots with colorful carry-on luggage embellished with cartoon faces whimsical enough to turn a TSA employee's frown into a scowl.