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As seen at http://www.samstoybox.com/toys...

Christmas present sometime around 1975 when I was 9 and had just been bitten by the computer bug. It really was beyond me at the time, but I didn't care.

They advertised in the back of comic books. A couple dollars a month got a incremental kit every month for a year. The bulk of it was an electronic subsystem progressing through amplifiers until built a whole ham radio. I remember a dry ice cloud chamber too. Good enough to help me get into M.I.T.

I am jealous of what kids got today. All the science kits have been dumbed down for safety reasons, I'd be hacking together computers and software. Which I do now.

We've had this for over 40 years. It was called a Mattel Power Shop. There was no revolution then, and there won't be one now. You can't possibly stockpile all the chemical feedstocks required to make usable products. It's a hobby, that's all it'll ever be. It won't be this big, great revolution. And can we stop calling things "3D" now? EVERYTHING is in 3D. You don't see me calling my breakfast 3D. Can we just stop with the hyperbole and look at things rationally? I know that's asking a lot from a bunch of Space Nutters, but COME ON.

This sounds like American Basic Science Club, San Antonio, Texas. I convinced my folks to subscribe to the first 4 kits (electronics series). I probably still have a couple of the components. Yes there were dangers as there always were with B+ supplies for vacuum tubes, and AC mains power, but learning to deal with those was part of the learning experience. Here is one of their brochures: http://www.samstoybox.com/toypics/ABSC/ABSC1.html

Okay: http://www.samstoybox.com/toypics/TiltNRoll.jpg (too lazy to do a proper link)

Check out Sam's Toy Box at:

http://www.samstoybox.com/

He even has a Mattel Powershop!

LEGO Robotics Invention System 2.0
It looks like a big claw/arm
Picture

Back in my day it was called the Armatron
I didn't know that they made a Mobile Armatron

Since battery rechargers were pretty bad back in the day, I killed an excessive number of alkaline D-Cells playing with my Armatron.

Commodore computers, particularly the Commodore 64... C64 + 5 1/4 floppies = Pirates Wet Dream.

Robotix, like Lego with motors... these are great for robot wars, stick all the pieces in the middle, everyone takes turns picking a piece from the pile till they're all gone, 15 minutes to build your robo-gladiator, and last robot standing is the winner.

Armatrons, one of which I recently scored for free when a buddies GF decided it was time to clean house. My daughter loves this one, we play a game where one of us uses a remote control robot to try and steal small objects from the Armatron, and the other uses the Armatron to try and catch the "thief" by grabbing it and lifting it off the ground. We take 3 turns as each robot, and whoever scores the most loot wins :)

Potato guns. Ok, they're not very technological, but with hundreds of shots from a single potato, you had to love them.

Here's a link with the pics.

• The Mattel Thingmaker to mold those Creepy Crawlers. Wondering if that plastic goop causes cancer.
• Classic Lego bricks, not those new shapes. Hours of imaginative entertainment.
• Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are. Do children still read books?
• Kenner Spirograph

The Tracer Gun is sort of like this, on a much smaller scale.

MMm.. All the way From 3Mhz to what? 6Mhz? :)

I recommend you break out the Armatron to hit those keys. We all know robots are intended to serve in dangerous industrial environments that aren't safe for humans. :)