E.D. recently wrote about Nostalgia and Freedom and that got me to thinking about the various toys from when I was a kid (and from when my parents were kids) that just aren’t around anymore. The WHAM-O Water Wiggle. Chemistry sets. Jarts.
There was one toy, however, that I remembered from the 70’s that I googled and was delighted to see that it was still around:
The Elenco 130-in-one Electronic Playground and Learning Center. My goodness, this thing was fun. You started off building a simple circuit (a bird noise, I think it was) and worked your way up to making timers and AM radios and what they purported to call a “lie detector”. At the time, this was an entry-level engineering toy. (We have simpler kits today that are perfectly good and make wonderful gifts and, indeed, we’ve bought several for our nephews… but they just don’t feel the same.)
If you’re looking for a spectacularly awesome toy for your kids who aren’t put off by a challenge, you could do a lot worse than to pick one of these up. Plant a seed today and find an engineer tomorrow.
So that’s my recommendation for you this week.
Ugh, I remember one year for Christmas I received a modeling kit of a working engine. I never built it. Now He-Man and Legos, that the stuff!
If you’re wondering if we will continue to give such gifts to nephews:
We will. Oh yes.
The snap circuits are way more like legos that do stuff and way less like those modeling kits.
I had the Radio Shack version, what fun. We also have a set of Jarts (with the original box!!), can’t wait until my daughter loses her first eye.
For the build it kits, check out this neato electronics kit
http://www.thamesandkosmos.com/products/mc/mc.html
The Radio Shack version may have been what I played with, now that I think about it.
I had a version of this, though made later I think and most likely a knock off. It came with a seperate box and some long wires and you could wire the bugger up to be an intercom. Good times!
The updated snap kits are a *LOT* of fun too. We buy them for the kids and, of course, spend most of the time playing with them ourselves.