actually this may be the exact set

sort of. More like this. not quite exactly right but this is quite close

easyejl Was it this kind? https://littlebits.com/

Clem

I can't seem to find a picture of the kit I got as a gift, but it was sort of like this

except it was much blockier - all the pieces were either rectangles or squares about 1"x1" or 1"x2". It wasn't super complex, but it got me started down the path of electronics being interesting. This was back in the late 1970s, so part of why it is hard to find a pictures It wasn't complicated, didn't have a lot of stuff in it, but it got me started.

It was sort of nice for being so simple - pieces clicked and locked together, you could try different things. Back then a photo sensor that made a buzzer go off when you covered it felt like a big deal and it taught how a transistor actually works, how the difference between wiring in series vs parallel affects voltage + amperage, etc.

Saved up money doing lawns and such, and at 13 bought myself a TI 99/4A, then a C64, amiga, etc etc. I shudder to think how much i've spent on electronics in my life, mostly for entertainment. I've got a raspberry pi running recallbox in a full size cabinet, among other things

Great question.  I really had to think.  I got started in electronics a bit later in life - just after getting married.  I also started a new career field shortly after that.  My wife (bless her heart) had to endure all of my geeky chatter.  She knew I needed one of these "things" I didn't have - so she took me down to Radio Shack and bought me something she still to this day isn't quite sure what it does.  33 years.  She's awesome.  She's also done with buying me electronic stuff.  Once was enough.

My best memory was a learning experience wrapped up in an electrical device. When I was young and somewhat foolish, I disassembled an electric alarm clock. I cannot say it was electronic because everything in this clock was electro-mechanical. However it did plug into the wall which of course means live voltage. Did I mention the young and foolish part yet? Well in the process of exploring the wonders of this device I managed to test how well fuses work to save lives. After the pretty impressive spark that was generated I quietly reassembled the clock, went downstairs and tried to watch some TV, which happened to be on the same circuit I had just shorted out. I developed a great respect for AC lines that day.

I wasn't initially sure I had a comment for this, but posting a blog this morning about a PS I realised that I did!  My best gift was just over a year ago - a copy of Charles Platt's book Make: Electronics:

My wife bought it for me after I mentioned that I ought to try and learn a bit about electronics to help with working with the Bombe at the National Museum of Computing (that's actually electrical, not electronic, but by-the-by for this purpose.)  I got hooked pretty much straight away and went through it page-by-page.  I ended up emailing with Mr Platt about alternative approaches I'd worked out given the lack of availability of some parts and unfound errors - he's a very friendly, helpful chap.  The rest is history: I devoured his Make: More Electronics, which I was given for Christmas, joined Element14 on the back of making purchases from Farnell, and started working on my first major project.  I also remember taking one of the little projects in there for randomising dice throws and extending it to two dice to play 'Snap' with logic ICs to detect matched dice to confirm a Snap when a player pressed their button, increment scores and locking the other player out.  Crazy really - it ended up stretching over 4 breadboards arranged in a T shape, but great fun.  Soldering with the cheapest iron Amazon had available and working with a fairly cheap multimeter as well.  It was those little steps and taking them further that made it all so interesting.  In fact, it generated one of my earliest questions on Element14!!  I keep thinking of going back to it and actually creating a cheap build on vero board and a project box. 

Best gift would have to be an Elk Pi Hat for Raspberry Pi, it is a dev kit for Elk OS. Elk is an ultra-low latency OS that lets you run VSTS on Linux. I need to get a Raspberry Pi 3B+ to run some of my audio programming doodles.

My first Radio Shack 10 in one kit, I got it in 1975. And my first multimeter, bought a few years later, for the price of 35 guilders it was a big attack on my piggy bank. Luckily I still have them both.

I remember my first Radio Shack Electronics Learning Lab in the 1980s - I need to head over to my folks house to see if they still have it.  Needless to say, this is what triggered my interest in electronics.  The best part of the electronics lab was building a radio transmitter that I could transmit a signal to my sisters radio (it was only 10 ft away and I'm sure she could have heard me speaking just as fine without the radio) but that got me excited about the world of electronics.  I also remember being fascinated with the digit LEDs when they came out and that was my first breadboard project.