I just got a catalog from
Enabling Devices. You might find something in their catalog that gives you some ideas.
Magnetix are really cool, but have a lot of small pieces that could be swallowed.
Duplo bricks are nice. They are
Lego's preschool brinks. They work pretty much the same as Legos, but are 8 times bigger, so they are not a swallowing risk (although some of the Duplo sets are made for 5 year olds, so may have smaller parts). We had a large bin of basic Duplo blocks and my kids both liked them.
We also had some
magnetic blocks like these. The magnets are enclosed in the block.
Also, think of some things that aren't traditional toys. I was at a communications conference recently, where one of the programs was about how to find low tech (cheap) toys and art supplies that kids could use.
One suggestion was to go to the dollar store and look for things like kitchen sponges/utensils that could have play value other than being kitchen utensils. I know some kids with autism don't like touching things like playdough, but some really like playing with things of that texture. If he might like playdough, but not like to
touch it, the dollar store might have things he could use to flatten it, crimp it (look in the area for bath/relaxation things for hand massagers - they might look like a bumpy ball or a roller with bumps or grooves).
Someplace else you may not look for toys would be a hardware store. PVC pipe might not look that interesting, but you can get a whole lot of cool pieces that are meant to fit together to make pipes, but are great as a building toy. You can get big pipes that balls would fit into. If you are a little handy, you could make a large size marble run with big enough balls that he won't put in his mouth.
There are a lot of things that would be too small for him, but someone else might like; think of things like nuts and bolts made of plastic in the fastener aisle. Some of those are rather large and cheap compared to toys.
