My go-to gift for any aspiring engineer or maker would probably be one of Simon Monk's books, such as his 15 Dangerously Mad Projects for the Evil Genius or one of those shown below. Arduino Robot Bonanza and Make: Electronics are fantastic as well.

Similar to some previous comments, my brother and I used to love the idea of turning two of our little RC cars into machines of destruction to recreate our own slightly less intense version of the Battle Bots show. Unequipped as we two young children were with any real robot-building knowledge or equipment, we would use duct tape, wires, and screws to attach makeshift weapons to our bots before pitting them against one another in typically anticlimactic battles. Years later, after pursuing an engineering degree, I finally received an Arduino starter kit, the Robot Bonanza book, and Programming Arduino Getting Started with Sketches from my parents, and it significantly jumpstarted my tinkerer education. The projects contained within these types of introductory books and the doors that they open for aspiring makers to pursue their wildest ideas are gamechangers. I hope that everyone, young or old, is offered just enough exposure to such topics if they have even an inkling of interest, because I feel that I would have benefitted greatly from such exposure at a younger age.

Here's a photo of the Arduino-controlled bot I've been building with guidance from McComb's book, online resources, a hacked NES controller, and a few of my own ideas in the works. After a few more aggressive modifications, maybe I'll be able to challenge my brother to one more battle...

Would like to revise my above answer.

I'm been thinking, if someone wants to start with a topic- whether that's a Pi, Arduino or FPGA, you should get them a not too expensive low cost one.

One of my friends,like me, is also wanting to start in FPGA so I decided to get 2 of the same board, one for me and one for him for the holidays.

Raspberry is for me the most suitable gift for every curious person. You can use it as a small PC, you can build a Smart TV or a media center, you can manage the security of your home, you can automate simple operations such as watering the plants when they need them or creating home automation applications ...

For example, I am building a security system for my home. I think it is a beautiful gift as those who receive it can use it for their own needs.

I don't think there is another gift so suitable for every person.

Carlo

Awesome ears, Kringle!!!

Alas, no go to electronics gift - yet.  I'm still hoping to find someone in my life that gets bit by the electronics bug.  The oddest electronic gift I've given was an Arduino Uno to a random gal (same age as my daughters) that I chatted with while waiting for a flight.  She saw the Uno as I was digging in my backpack and told me her Arduino story.  She said that she was in school so they were still expensive to her - so I gave her mine.

My son and son-in-law are gamers so they know what RetroPi is - but that's where it ends.

Once COVID backs down, my local ham radio club hopes to get the middle school radio club off the ground.  Maybe there will be a future Engineer or two there.

I come from a fairly large family (one of eight).  As a result I have 15 nieces/nephews and 12 great-nieces/nephews (and counting).  One of my go to gifts for those kids that like science and/or robotics is a robot kit.  I have a very extensive collection of robot kits (more than 8 boxes full, plus many loose kits).  When I need to come up with a gift, I go through the collection looking for duplicates that will best match the interest/age level of recipient.   Below is an example of contents of one of the boxes (just opening the box today was like a trip down memory lane).

To date, I estimated that I have gifted at least 20 robot kits over the past 10 years.  Sometime I help them with the assembly, sometimes I just fix the units after mis-assembly/accidents.

I recently started gifting my grandchildren with robots (ages 4 and six).  My granddaughter (age 6) 'helped' me with the assembly, while my grandson (age 4) was not able to stay focused.  I love this fun and highly mobile robot.  They are bluetooth controllable, which the kids love (especially to get them to quickly sequence through/repeat music tracks).

So far, these guys have been back in the shop for a few visits (jammed servos, some reassembly).  I recently bought some new servos, with metal gears that I plan on using to try and make these little guys a bit more bullet proof (at least that is my hope).

If you packaged all those devices into a single kit, I bet you could sell a bunch of them.

DAB

I just gave to my son a raspberry pi 4, he loves minecraft then I bundled the pi with the minecraft book as well.

I hope it inspires him.

There are so many great ideas to work with now a day, but if there was one I would choose it would be a RPi RTL-SDR Scanner.

There is nothing more heartwarming than to watch future engineers trying to solve problems through teamwork and cooperation.  This is what First Robotics is all about.  Get involved!

Oh the memories and thank you for allowing me to share.

Stay Well,

Gordon

1. P.S.  Maybe E14 could add a MultiComp MP780402, LCR handheld meter to their equipment list (hint, hint).

My Go-To would be a raspberry Pi. A 0, or a 4.

But, I'd also consider some MCU dev boards. Maybe an adafruit feather? A cheap but powerful ESP32?

AVR dev boards are definitely in my Go-To list, but also some ARM ones.

Oh, but some components are always useful.