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Haven't been on here in forever (long, long, long story), but I can't imagine anyplace else I'd get much to work with on this one:

My 5 yr old gifted/ASD crazy child who wants to be an inventor is in need of projects that I can walk (the f#$%) away from, for, you know, at least 30 seconds at a time.

Mechano, not so much, because it takes him 3 seconds to loose all his screws and that makes him tantrum. Lego, similar.

The crystal radio kit, on the other hand, he pretty much put together while I was trying to find the English section in the instructions, and then played with happily and safely for well over half an hour while I made a portrait of the cuteness.

I think the ASD makes him better with more closed projects (make a radio vs make something with meccano), at least when I'm not there to scaffold, but there needs to be a fair bit of real content to hold his interest. Water filtration failed because he understood it almost immediately. Trying to understand the finer points of embedding data in radio-waves... that kept him going enough he could think it over after I went to get the camera. He's not awesome on the dexterity thing, but he can pull of feats-well-ahead-of-age if he only has to do it a few times and he cares enough. He follows Ikea instructions well (and with aspie-accuracy), but does not read yet.

And GO!

-Mike (the one with a thousand impossible questions)

snap circuits (probably the junior version would be better) and little bits are both great and you can walk away! both are pictures and letter coded.

Not sure if this would work but here it is anyway. Dd4.5 also loves to invent and build. Instead of buying expensive kits, we collected two build-a-bear boxes, other packaging boxes, toilet and kitchen paper roll tubes only, duct tape, and glue. No instructions- just have fun. Dd built a game with an incline in a box and cut a hole and made up a game where you roll the marble, make it roll back after hitting the edge of a box wall and fall into the hole- you win! It was pretty engaging even for adults. Then she built ( this one with my help) a long inclined tube, hid it in the box and you roll marble from one end to collect from another. She even taped a funnel to collect the marbles on the other end so clean up would be easy.
I don't know if my post is even making any sense.

Ditto. My kids do a lot with cardboard tubes and boxes. They often get frustrated with duct tape, so blue painter's tape is our go-to sticky stuff. Plus they can use it on the walls without me throwing a fit.

The paper rolls and stuff fail because there's not enough outside input. He's extremely creative within certain bounds, but there needs to be some pretty solid structure.

Do snap-circuits come with project books?

How are the fine motor skills? The larger K'nex sets have instructions...

I feel your pain. Our ODS has been similar at times, in that he is not particularly interested in anything that requires instructions or seems like it would be more fun with an adult around. Lots of failed toys/guides sitting on shelves around here.

Does he like building? We have had continued success with MagnaTiles and with the large wooden building blocks (DS is now 7 and has enjoyed both for years.) Legos really only started to be fun for him in the last six or seven months. Something was too frustrating (without us there to help him recreate the picture on the box) until he was ready.

Snapcircuits worked well. The big K'nex rollercoaster is mostly in the box still...

Lego makes a brick separator, btw, that helps a kid whose brain is ahead of his hands be successful independently. If you have two of them you can break apart most anything.

http://www.amazon.com/Lego-Building-Accessories-BRICK-SEPARATOR/dp/B000L7IEVE

Sorry, to clarify: DS needs instructions. He can't organize himself without them. Legos don't work because once he's built the model once, he gets stuck & can't get unstuck without help.

I guess I'm thinking more like "Try building an XXXXX" or "there's this great kit for making a XXXX" One-offs, not so much open ended toys, he can't really manage those without me.

Erector set has tons of individual projects in one kit, some motorized. The nuts and bolts are a bit small, but once the handling is down, projects go smoothly. I'd hazard to guess there are many online resources for additional things to build.

Scratch for programming can fill the same brain space; also videos of different progams to do. The nice thing with programming, is he can explore a few variables here and there to get a sense of experimenting without the same sort of load Legos or trying to freeform with an Erector set does.

My DS was mixed on Snap circuits, really liked them around 4 or 5.

On Amazon search for Erector Super Construction Set 25 models