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Anybody remember this toy?

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metomeya

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I got a toy when I was young, probably around the early 90s late 80s.

It was a learning system on how to build electronics.

It was a panel with a picture of a robot, and metal prongs you could connect by little wires they had in the toy.

It came with a book that showed you how to build alarm system, motion detectors, and such, all by connecting the wires, but it also gave you a blueprints of how the circuit worked.


I wish I have one now that I was older.

Anyone know what I'm talking about?
 
not really...probably one of the Salter 101 electronics kits or something...
look in the scientific/educational toys section of a good catalogue....I think they still sell them...but perhaps nowadays they will have a small breadboard rather than a sheet of plastic with springs on em...

If I remember correctly they had little coiled springs that you bent back to connect all your components together...some of the better kits even had an opamp as opposed to just a transistor or two !!
 
They're collectibles now :)

I remember really, really wanting one of these back in the day [shamelessly ripped from an ebay ad].

I guess they still exist though:
**broken link removed**

More practically, a standard white nylon breadboard, some solid hookup wire and a couple mail-order catalogs from your local electronics distributor would probably serve you better (unless you're purposely going for the nostalgia angle).
 

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It won't matter if your 9 or 90, the principles it teaches you and the knoweledge imparted remain good. Ok, so you might feel a little silly at 45 going into a shop to buy it for yourself...so you actually go and buy it for your Nephew, or Grandson, and play alongside the kids...
Once they figure it all out (about 20 mins), they can teach you :D

Actually, there's no shame in buying one for yourself, these kits are extremely educational, and in my opinion every engineer should have one to refer to when their memory fails them...(no pun intended ;) )
 
Yes, I quite agree - I started with a Philips Electronics Kit when I was about 9 or 10?, it was great fun - I wish I'd still got it, I don't know where it went?.
 
tunedwolf said:
Time to take that Grandson of yours shopping then Nigel ;)

My daughters only 16, and (unless she's kept it VERY quiet) she's not got any kids yet! :D

Anyway, I'm a 'grown up' (supposedly) adult, I can go any buy what I like! :D
 
wow, I remember those....christmas...when I was 8. Begged my parents for one...never looked back. I've still got a couple of them floating about somewhere, but they're the cheap ones on thick card as opposed to plastic, and I canibalised them for parts a looooong time ago. There was also a really expensive one that was in kit form, it was a blue breadboard, with pots, variable caps, lots of transistors and opamps, put me off analogue for life :D

These things are deffinately still around, very cheap as well. Its a good thing that 'Tandy' (Radioshack) went down hill here in the UK, they charged ridiculous money for them. I don't have kids, but if I ever do (god help us) I'll certainly be pushing a kit like that, like any self-respecting 'techie' father would :D

Blueteeth.
 
it's like when you see lego technic in the shops and compare it with the simple blocks we had years ago (all this were fields, you know)

every year, my lady gets me some for Christmas. i have the dining table, the lego and some of scotlands finest export;)

she watches the Christmas Eastenders/Emmerdale/Corry 'specials'
 
lego technic? try mindstorms. I "bought" my kids a set. heh heh. lots of fun but the micro in version 1 was utterly pathetic. still, my kids did get a sense of programming.

I got one of those radioshack spring things when I was like 10-12 and thought it was pretty pathetic. I don't think this one even had transistors in it. But then I was checking out books on integrated circuit design at that point. I did get a radioshack shortwave radio kit. it worked suprisingly well for a 3 transistor design. I used to piss off my dad by tuning radio moscow (he was an officer in the USAF).
 
I had a "radio shack spring thing" when I was a kid too. Problem was I was never interested in the how and why of things, I just made the projects in the book and never learned much of anything from it. I ran across it in my folks basement a year ago or so and took it home to discover I managed to kill most of the semicounductors as a kid. :( lol
 
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