Other creative toys/products that come to mind would be, say, Play-Doh as a sort of children’s intro to…Clay, I suppose? But in this vein without being exclusively directed towards children (albeit I imagine many may be).
Always enjoyed a creative kind of toy to mess around with.
I still have my K’NEX
A ton of videogames fall into this category. Minecraft is probably the most well-known, but any game with a base building element is a quick hook for me.
While videogames are great, a hobby that dabbles with real things will stimulate you very differently. Touching stuff with your hands, the gap between what you want and what comes out of your work, the search for materials and techniques and other aspects of working with real stuff and not on predefined paths, will engage with your brain in a very different way.
Videogames and “real” hobbies (as in hobbies that use real stuff) are great together in my opinion, they complement and fuel each other.
I love me some Minecraft, best $10 I ever spent, 11 years of free major updates so far and still going strong.
If you like the sandbox survival games Id recommend Medieval Dynasty, been playing this for the passed year, the survival part of it is pretty tame although you can adjust the setting to make it harder but I really like the village building / settler management aspect while still being a first person style game
I like to program microcontrollers. So that’s sort of my creative toy.
The Arduino or Pi Pico are accessible and fun ones.
I like the Attiny10, but I’m some sort of cursed mercenary science hermit.
The StemmaQt or Qwiic boards from Adafruit and Sparkfun, respectively, are more accessible ways to make physical computing projects with sensors and screens.
I’m working on some simpler discrete circuits with my son, like 555 and shift registers, since he’s really good with his fingers, but only just starting to read. We get to build and test them with Tinkercad or Fritzing and then make them in real life. It’s been awesome learning for both of us.
The CD4069 and LM386 are fun for discrete projects too. Also OPA2132 :)
The Adafruit and Sparkfun stuff is great.
Accessibility is not so much a concern for me, I don’t mind reading long datasheets. That’s half the fun for me. I also like KiCAD a lot, I’ve sent off several designs to the factories to make a few units. Was a really cool experience and I learned a lot.
I’m not a super big Fritzing fan (personal preference I guess) but love Tinkercad for quickly designing something 3D printable.
I have had a few projects manufactured as well. But that was back when Eagle was the best option (Kicad wasnt as usable or stable back in 2008-9).
I’ve really enjoyed the Code simulators in Fritzing, Tinkercad (the electronics section) and there’s a Mac/iOS app called iCircuit that offers SPICE simulating with Arduino code too and makes schematic design pretty fun for beginners. Also it links to wikipedia and data sheets for all its components. The problem is it’s not extensible, so you only get what it has included.
I’m currently building a ship in a bottle. Though it’s a kit, not from scratch. But there is some micro-woodworking and painting needed.
I’m working on a wooden puzzle right now that’s a locked safe. The company has a bunch of neat products wood trick
Ah, that reminds me of some similar puzzle/kits made of metal! I’m forgetting the name for the specific one right now, but there appear to be a few different companies behind them from trying to search & find the one I was thinking of.
You mean Metal Earth? Though they are not the only ones who make those kinds of models but they are the ones that got me into it (for a few months)
