Elenco still makes and sells similar kits:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00000IUD2/ (50 in 1)

http://www.amazon.com/Elenco-Electronic-Playground-Learning-... (130 in 1)

My apologies - I think I accidentally downvoted you. Just to make up I upvoted two of your other comments. I am sorry

As well as the "Radio Shack 150-in-1" springy terminal kits, I also had a Germany kit with white squares that connected together magnetically on a metal base, where each block had the component's symbol printed on the top.

The biggest bit I remember though was the instruction book, which explained each component in terms of diagrams of "electrons" with legs and a set of various structures/obstacles - diodes were just one-way gates, transistors were gates with a rope going from the base which pulled open the collector/emitter shutter...

Thanks to Google, I now know you can still get them:

http://www.lectron.de/index.php?option=com_content&task=blog...

There's a small sample of the instruction book on this page: http://www.lectron.de/index.php?option=com_content&task=blog...

(My dad was an electrical engineer, so I guess it was obvious I'd get this stuff for birthdays, but he also built model plane (control line when I was around 10, radio control gliders when I was an older teen), kites, sailing boats, model trains, slot cars... - he was a great guy, I'll raise (another) glass in his memory when I get home tonight. Thanks Dad...)

I had one of these are a kid, around 10 or 11 years old. I did a few of the experiments, soaked up all the knowledge I could get out of the limited documentation, and then didn't touch it for a long time. When I got into electronics again (and for real this time) at around age 17, all of that knowledge amazingly still stuck to me. I had to look up how to actually wire transistors to be useful, but I remembered how they operated, and what they were capable of (except for the book didn't cover amplification). This is one of the reasons why I think kids should be exposed to as much as possible. Even if they drop it later, if they ever pick it back up, they will be significantly more prepared, and hopefully can learn the rest on their own

Oh man, i loved those things. I tried to make sure I got some variant of one of those for at least one holiday a year.

I still managed to start a very small fire by hooking up a 9v battery to some steel woold that had been soaked in some chemical (thanks, chemistry set!), but that's hardly their fault.

I credit my 150-in-1 kit (and the 8th grade buddy who let me borrow his until I got my own) as part of the ancestry of a career in software development. Not just for what I learned about electronics, but what I learned about experimentation, and what I learned about constructive play.

Yes! the no-solder thing made my parents very happy, and I could take it with me on long car rides. Mine was the earlier 100-in-1; my favorite (though limited) were the Radio Shack P-Box kits and are highly collectible on EBay. I did get a hold of a few hundred volts generated from a AA cell; that was the Eureka moment.

My parents got me this one:

http://www.generalatomic.com/teil1/index.html

Although I could build the circuits and had a great time with it, I didn't understand much of the German and had trouble figuring out why they worked. I still have the remains of the set somewhere in the basement.

Kosmos was nice enough to let me scan and host the manual.

For me it was a similar no-solder-required project book called "Dick Smith's Fun Way Intro Electronics" (the cover project being a "beer powered radio"!), I think at about age 6.

There was a volume 2 which introduced more advanced projects and soldering, and a volume 3 which introduced integrated circuits.

I wandered over to find Dick Smith's somewhere in silicon valley (first US store?) at some point. Other than that, it was an Aussie thing, right?

It was an Australian thing, although it's (sadly) gone now.

It's in a better place now. We can remember it as it was, back in the glory days, instead of the failed Harvey Norman wanna-be that it became.

Jaycar took up the mantle of the hobbyist electronics store years ago anyway.

Does anyone know how Jaycar are doing these days?

Apparently OK:

http://www.afr.com/real-estate/jaycar-founder-offers-way-out...

I remember those books from my childhood too. Definitely helped foster my interest in electronics and programming, it's a shame that they are less common now than they used to be.

It was also great for father-son bonding, having him help my with the projects and teaching me how to solder.

Yep, I remember having one of those too. Poor DSE, having to be a second-rate consumer electronics store all these years.

I had the springy thingy kit, a soldering iron and access to deadly tube based electronics, wire strippers and motors. I would get "broken" electronics as Christmas presents along with a SAMs.

The real gateway drug was "Understanding Solid State Electronics" by the TI Learning Center.

That kit was a key part of my engineering education. Yes, low voltage, but that didn't stop me from hooking my own wire from the meter to an electrical outlet. In a snap and a flash, I learned about max ratings on circuit components. I loved that kit.

I remember seeing this kind of kits ads in magazines back then. Somehow it never appealed to me, I though they were too opinionated of what you can or cannot create with. But there is a good chance I was wrong and they may have been an excellent way to go further when you improve your skills

I learned a ton from one of these myself back in the days when Radio Shack sold actual electrical components.