If you’re still looking for some good geek-friendly gifts, I have a couple kits available. My Blinkybug book/kit is available at Amazon. It has all the parts for making simple little blinking electronic insects, with easy-to-follow comic book-style instructions. It’s a great parent-kid project. Here’s a review on BoingBoing.
(Book cover photos by Lenore M. Edman, www.evilmadscientist.com)
Here’s a look at the inside, amazingly illustrated by Alexander Tarrant:
Blinkybugs sense movement, wind and vibration through there antennae, which causes their eyes to blink. It’s a very simple design using a coin-cell battery, a couple LEDs, and antennae made from guitar string, yet they have a strangely life-like quality. They’ve been a huge hit at the Maker Faire, and they’re a great way to teach kids basic ideas about electricity. Here’s one of the bugs:
Also there’s my LED Art Kit, available through MakerShed. Make your own groovy light-art with this simple kit (originally created as an Instructable):
When’s the kit comin o the Uk?
Paul-
Which kit? Looks like you can find sellers of the Blinkybug kit through amazon.co.uk:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Blinkybugs-Ken-Murphy/dp/0811871401/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323200269&sr=8-1
It does have distribution in the UK so you should call around to your local bookstores. It gets carried in some arts/craft supply stores here in the US so you could try that as well.
Regarding the LED Art Kit, MakerShed ships to the UK (although I just noticed in their order form that you have to select the specific country: England, Scotland, Wales, etc., which threw me off at first).