What sort of toys would magi make for there apprentices?
IMO, none.
- The Master's time is too precious to make them.
- The apprentice's time is too precious to use them.
There were no teenagers back then... If you were old enough to be apprenticed to a master of any trade, then you were responsible enough to act like an adult. Nobody would take care of your need for leisure time/toys/games.
An alternate answer now would be: educative toys/games that would develop useful talents or memorize songs that serve as reminders for useful information.
Maybe,but there is always the chance of it happening & if it happened then wizards probibly made at least some of them.
Thats just wrong.
Try find an era in history where humans have not made toys for both children AND adults, one sort or another.
Just try.
That however, i agree completely with.
Your alternative answer is unlikely but possible, while an additional answer to it might be, anything easy to make that could be sold for a fortune to some rich mundanes.
Then an apprentice might be given it temporarily to see if its good enough to sell.
Craftsmen throughout history have always made toys and games. I don't see any reason for magi to be any different. It is also not just children that would be interested in toys. Covenant grogs, and even other magi would be interested in clever toys.
Enchanted items with imaginem effects seem the most obvious (dolls, puppets, models, musical instruments, etc). Rego effects to manipulate other toys could be fun too. But almost any item or spell effect (baring lethal ones, obviously) could be possible toys.
Also, older apprentices could perhaps make toys for younger ones.
Maybe, but I'm sure that some magi and apprentices would be just as interested in toys that were primarily Fun.
you mean like the self-moving chess pieces in "harry potter"
While time spent making something for the apprentice may be unlikely. It is likely the apprentice is given a lab and time to himself. In many professions part of the apprenticeship is learning your tools and how to make or repair them.
The primary tools magi use, outside of magic itself, are in the laboratory. I would fully expect that an apprentice may be given time to make something himself. Maybe not much Vis and maybe not a very good lab. But a paren could have lab notes for a toy and give the copy of the notes to the apprentice for him to make.
Toys could be quite useful in getting apprentices used to "moving" things with their mind or other forms of control. In the core rules, learning magic seems to happen late in the apprenticeship. This allows the apprentice to "practice" skills they don't possess, as real apprentices practice their real skills under their master.
No, afai can see it happens when their arts are opened, which is the very event that makes them an apprentice. Their magic may be dreadfully poor at that time, but its there.
One of my NPCs made a toy knight that moved on its own for a local noble's son. Of course, the sale and use was bungled which caused a problem that only the players could solve...
Hmmm, let me rephrase then. I do not dispute the fact that adults would have some games, or that magi might want to make toys for young children. What I disputed was apprentices as a likely recipients of magical toys intended for entertainment's sake, since they're supposed not to get distracted from studies. I could see stern masters playing games and refusing access to them to their apprentices until their chores and studies are done, by which point they should be tired enough to go straight to bed 
Instead, with an apprentice = adult paradigm, I think they would have to procure their own games with their own time or money. Sure they could buy a game of chess or quattro from an artisan, but a season's worth of lab work from an hermetic magus?
I hope this clarifies my extreme view.
Eh, well...
Is what i already wrote...
The last character I played spent a season of lab work making magical dolls/toys for his "daughter." (apprentice)
I didn't regret the season "lost."
Then again, I tend to always play magi that dote on their apprentices.
No reason why the occasional "doting" magi would exist as well.
But i doubt they would be the norm.
Yes, but the question is "what kind of toys would they make". I'm going to stick with educational ones. Dolls that move and talk and act like people do around the gift, for example. Get your apprentice used to dealing with the loathing in a private setting. Toys that move at voice command. Get your apprentice an idea of what their voice range is, before they are in a duel. Maybe a toy that tries to hide if you are looking at it, to give them a better understanding of line of sight. These are all low level affects, and may be more common then we were thinking. I can see a Verdi apprentice making several items of this power level and use before starting on their masterpiece.
Note these dont need to be made in a lab, they can be made with a spell store Vim effect i think.
Dribble Cup. Cup with a hole in it near the top, with an imaginem effect to look like the hole isnt there.
Same thing with a spoon, holes in spoon, but imaginem to cover it.
Peeing Poppet. A Poppet that wets itself at sunrise and sunset, imaginem to make it cry too.
Purring Cat Poppet. Cat purrs when snuggled x times a day, Imaginem again, sound and touch.
Fountain pen: Rego Aquam, metal pen that keeps ink in it when held upside down. Command word to "de-activate" and drain. Great for learning to scribe.
Hovering carpet or broom or wood horse. Not powerfull enough to fly, but powerfull enough to hover someone childsized and move slowly.
Chess pieces that cry out, "Arg you killled me" when the piece is hit with another of the set.
3rd edition had mentioned a Craft Ability in reference to toys. Forget exactly how it went, but she specialized in "painful ones".
A Simple toy with a magical property is a good test object for an apprentice. It is something that if failed proves the apprentice hasn't learned the lessons and if successful, is innoculous enough that nothing is going to be hurt.
It can eventually be sold to someone or used to entertain the children of the grog turb/support village.
Certainly true, but i still doubt it would be common.
A good item that is based upon a toy from our world could probibly be exa-scetch type of item that allow the users to comuicate across long distances(think continentale for example.)