Behold: The 10 in 1 Junior Electronics Lab!
So yes, I was a nerdy kid. But this "laboratory" was a wealth of technological whizzyness. Not only was it crammed with 14 crazy electronic components, it was chock full of fantastic, almost Confuscian, worldly advice: "most of the interconnecting wires can be the short ones; in cases where the wires do not reach, use the longer wires." And my other favorite "this will assure that a leaky battery will not damage your unit." Not sure I was worried about my unit at such a tender age, but their concern was comforting nonetheless.
And the point of this marvel? 10 different projects, ranging from a simple crystal radio to a broadcasting radio station (less impressive than it sounds, sadly) to a high-falutin home burglar alarm.
Heady stuff.
I can clearly remember hurling a damn long piece of wire into a very tall tree in my parent’s back yard and actually being able to hear european radio on my bakelite headphones (hey, I’m not _that_ old, they just happened to be lying around).
Jokes aside, this little kit rocked. It’s probably the clearest thing I can point to as the starting point of my interest in all things technical.
If I ever find it again, it’s going in a shadow box on the wall 😉