What Was Your "Best Gift Ever" Under the Tree?

I would not consider them irresponsible toys. By today's standards, they might not be appropriate for over protective and pampered kids. It's toys like these that nurtured the next generation os engineers and scientists. I'm sure Edison and Tesla and countless others got more than a few cuts, burns and scrapes to become fathers of science and industry. I've brought up my kids to experiment, make mistakes and learn from them. No wonder this country has fallen from #1 in the engineering field.

BTW, my favorite gift (not actually under the tree) was an 11" Delta drill press when I was 12. Other great gifts were; Lionel trains, Erector sets, Chemcraft sets, Lincoln Logs and American Bricks. Back then, we didn't need no stinkin video games or Ipads and we still had lots of fun.

My membership to CR4, wait that was free, and I signed myself up. How about the 3 years in a row I got Erector Sets. I remember building a high tension tower in the front yard that stood about 5 foot high. Do they still make Erector sets?

The 8-1/2 set was the largest set I got. They went up to #10-1/2. I remember seeing them later on made of wood strips, but I don't think they are still being made.

An entry-level electric train set. Tri-ang Railways. Just a circle, a black engine with four wheels, a single coach (red with a yellow upper) together with a battery controller and a bottle of oil. It cost 29/6d (£1.48GBP) in 1962. And grandmother probably went hungry for weeks saving up for it.

It's in a box. In the loft. It gets opened and cherished from time to time.

Wish I would have gotten one of these :

It actually came with uranium! Wonder why it was only available for 2 years, 1950 and 1951.

That was probably around the same time when wrist watches had luminous dials that were radioactive.

Are you still "glowing in the dark"? LOL

Bricktop, Kaster Kits are still available as collectors items. I have seen prices from $50 to $200USD.

http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/1282931

Best gift I ever got was a new Smith O/A torch set. I was about 11 or 12. Started welding aircraft tubing very shortly after that. Been doing that ever since with the same torch, almost 50 years now.

Wow... this has brought back some old memories.

Two gifts come to mind...

1) A small single cylinder steam engine that ran of solid fuel pellets that were burned inn its firebox. The name "Esbit" comes to mind for the fuel pellets. I hooked that thing up to all sorts of things, small winches on dinkey toys... small DC motors to generate power (I loved powering a walki-talki with it) with and use on things.

2) A erector type set. Instead of being all metal, this oner had alot of plastic components to it. It was great. It had motors and lights and lots of things to build.