Sadly, no. I see they go for good prices on EBay if they are in good condition.

The best electronics present I ever had was a Sinclair ZX81. It was the first thing I ever took apart, looked it over, pulled bits out and off, stuck it all back together and IT STILL WORKED!

I was hooked after that, shame about the TV

Cenydd

Do you still have the kit(s)?

I waited in giddy anticipation to open gifts under the tree Christmas of 2018. My wife and daughter know daddy always welcomes electronic toy for Christmas. The girls, not being technically inclined, are given my wish list of selections complete with part numbers and vendors, with no substitution instructions. Don't just just hate getting a toy that needs batteries on Christmas morning and you have none.

  After all the gifts under the tree are distributed and thank you’s are on the wind, it is a seasonal right to take one’s spoils from Santa and finally make real the dreams the present has danced in your head. Ties are great. Socks are a yearly staple. The want for new underwear is felt most during the snows of the Christmas season. But a toy, something that can be assembled and made to work is joy in its purest form.

  Selected from my list of like to haves was the Adafruit Animated Eyes Bonnet for Raspberry Pi Pack https://www.adafruit.com/product/3813?gclid=EAIaIQobChMItMTXg5365QIVlpOzCh3_ZQwSEAAYASAAEgLBRfD_BwE

  When people asked, “What did you get for Christmas?” I gushed “Electronic eye balls! What more could you ask for?” The gift provided a trifecta of Christmas joy, with assembly of the kit (some soldering required), installation on the Raspberry Pi and downloading software and programming the unit to work. In addition the product support site provided the necessary resources to modify the code to change the eye images.

  The gift went on giving long past Christmas. The moving eyes became a computer science demonstration piece at a High School Career Symposium in the spring and a during the fall a Halloween prop in a grocery store.

Oh, yes, I remember they provided little red plastic "sleeves" to put over the transistor leads to try and keep them from breaking. Although, with a Dad who worked for Philips, replacement transistors were easy to get (but I remember that one transistor cost about £2 in those days!).

I also had one of the Phillips kits. I made a bunch of stuff with it. The board layout made the project seem more finished that the radio shack 100 in 1 kits.

I eventually broke one of the transistors.

I have been mad keen about electronics ever since my Dad (who was an electronic engineer for Philips Electrical) bought me a Philips Electronics Engineer kit when I was around 10 years-old.

This was an inspired gift. I remember making an "eavesdropping device" (a microphone on the end of a long cable, connected to an amplifier/speaker) to listen in on what was going on downstairs when I was in bed. Then, there was the automatic night-light (an LDR, connected to a circuit that iluminated a bulb). My favourite was the radio receiver (see the circuit in the picture above, with the ferrite rod aerial), that allowed me to lie in bed and listen to the radio.

This led on to many electronics projects (including another great gift from my Dad - the Sinclair Micromatic Radio kit) - and I ended up studying Electronics and Physics at University.