The last few weeks I've wanted more and more to have the free time of a teenager. There are lots of toys out there right now:
There's an open hardware/microcontroller platform:http://arduino.cc/
An open programming language with an art bent: http://processing.org/
An open mote platform: http://www.libelium.com/squidbee/
Swarm robots: ($800): http://cs.gmu.edu/~eclab/projects/robots/flockbots/pmwiki.php ($200): http://www-bsac.eecs.berkeley.edu/projects/cotsbots/ http://www.swarmrobot.org/
iRobot opened up their platform: http://www.irobot.com/create/
Open humanoid robot: http://www.symbio.jst.go.jp/PINO/OpenPINO/open_pino.html
An open mobile platform: http://www.openmoko.org/