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I'd say a chemistry set, but they have been completely nerfed to the point of not being interesting anymore.

Yes, there has been a war on chemistry now for at least 30 years. Most outlets selling chemicals to hobbyists have disappeared.

However even now there are some decent options.

The only chemistry set on the market worth considering is the Thames & Kosmos C3000 set for $280. The less expensive Thames & Kosmos chem sets are not bad - they all have some real chemistry in them - but too limited. The Thamses & Kosmos set might get you busted in Texas though since it contains an Erlenmeyer flask (a special license is needed to possess one).

But you can buy any chemical or equipment needed for a legitimate hobby from Elemental Scientific LLC, and there is a nice book available by Robert Bruce Thompson called Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments which tells you everything you need to get. And, even better, Elemental Scientific sells its own chemistry sets based on the Thompson book! You buy the equipment and chemical sets separately.

Where do you find actual chemistry sets with actual chemicals in them that can actually make interesting things? I have been trying to find something like I had as a kid for 10 years - with no luck. ...

Thames and Kosmos. Their Chem 5000 set is the real deal, at least equal to, and probably better than, the ChemCraft sets of yore that I loved as a kid.

About five years ago I was casting about for a chemistry set for my daughter, and heard about Thames and Kosmos. Unfortunately at that particular moment they were retooling their offerings, and none were available - but they are back on the market, better than ever.

Some brief web surfing turned up Chem C3000 as being the best available. The glassware to chemical ratio is much higher than the sets of yore with racks and racks of little bottles of chemicals. I remember chemistry sets used to be advertised by the number of chemicals -- now it seems to be the number of "experiments".

Thames and Kosmos Microcontroller Kit

Would these 150 in 1 kits be something like this?

I bought a Thames Kosmos Fuel Cell Car and Experiement Kit a couple of years ago. It's a neat little demo of fuel cell technology, and uses distilled water, a solar panel, and a fuel cell.
http://www.thamesandkosmos.com/products/fc/fc2.htm l

Thames and Kosmos already have produced a fuel cell car kit that works fairly well. (I.E. you really can use photovoltaics to split distilled 2*H20 into 2*H2 + O2, and recombine it to provide power to run the car.) This has been out for what, two years? Good to see they're getting more popular, I guess.

Well, you can't really get a Lotus Elise in America (except for the track-only models, most of which have Rover engines).

However, these guys will sell you an Elise with a Honda VTEC motor. Strangely, if you import the thing without an engine, it doesn't have to run the gantlet of US emission and safety regulations.