(If you use any or all of these reviews, please mention that they are from the Make: Ultimate Kit Guide 2012 and link it to kits.makezine.com. Contact Keith Hammond at khammond@oreilly.com if you have any questions)

Top Kits from the Make: Ultimate Kit Guide

Highlights from the 175+ kits in this special issue:

WHEELS

Rally Fighter Off-Road Vehicle - from Local Motors, $74,900

Radical, street-legal rally racer you build yourself in their micro-factory in Arizona. A unique experience for the maker who lives and breathes automotive.

TOYS AND GAMES

The Dice Kit from Spikenzie Labs, $20

Fantastic introductory electronics kit that's fun to use -- drop it and it randomly displays between 1 and 6 LED lights, like dots on a die.  Get two and "roll" them for party and board games.

Pendulum Challenge by Ken Delahoussay, $26

Featured in MAKE vol 26, this is a fun and clever handheld game that you assemble on a printed circuit board. The game’s arc-shaped array of 15 LEDs, simulate the path of a swinging pendulum.

Drawdio from AdaFruit Industries, $20

Turns your pencil into a musical instrument! The graphite in a pencil lead conducts electricity — who knew? — so you can draw crazy patterns on paper to create your own wild sounds.

ELECTRONICS, LEDs and CLOCKS

TV-B-Gone Kit from Adafruit Industries, $25

Tired of all those TVs while you're trying to eat? This little remote will zap any screen, by running the "power off" code for every TV brand on Earth. A classic!

Red Blinky POV from Wayne and Layne, $16

This kit is amazingly cool and easy to use. POV(persistence of vision) displays show words or patters that seem to float in mid-air.

Solder:Time Watch Kit, $35

Solder:Time is an easy to solder real time watch kit with a unique laser cut acrylic casing. Four individual acrylic parts are cut to fit the internal PCB, battery and switch perfectly.

Defusable Clock from Nootropic Design, $35

This functional alarm clock lets you practice defusing simulated explosives. When the red button is pressed, the clock starts a scary countdown like bombs in Hollywood movies.

Bulbdial Clock from Evil Mad Scientist, $90

The Buldial Clock displays analog time, without any motor, movement, or screen. The 72 LEDs cast shadow hands across its face, with red, green, and blue for hours, minutes, and seconds for a beautiful effect.

Boe Bot Robot and Gripper from Parallax, $160 and $56

Nothing fazes this tough little robot, and it's got great add-ons like a servo-operated gripper that makes it look like a nasty pincher bug. Good for first-time robot builders.

ArduCopter 3DR Quadcopter from DIY Drones, $589

Make your own robot helicopter that'll autonomously fly any route you tell it, just like the military drones. An incredible kit developed by the gang at DIY Drones.

Herbie the Mousebot from Maker Shed, $40

Great for kids, with fun instructions for soldering it together. Herbie scoots around following flashlights or laser pointers, with whisker and tail sensors so he can avoid obstacles.

ROCKETS

Compressed Air Rockets Kit  from Maker Shed, $50

Kids love this launcher that's always a hit at Maker Faire. The rockets fly amazingly high, and they're just paper and tape. Pump it with a bike pump and blast off 200-300 feet!

Astra 1 Rocket Kit from Quest Aerospace, $11

Get into real solid-motor rocketry with this easy first build that still provides some challenge. Goes together in 15 minutes with crazy glue.

FOOD AND BEVERAGE

Mozzarella Cheese Making Kit from Leeners, $25

From hot milk to pulling mozzarella in under an hour. Perfecto!

Grow at home mushroom garden from Back to the Roots, $19.99

This Grow-your-own Mushroom Garden lets anyone, anywhere; grow their own gourmet oyster mushrooms at home, at any time of the year!

Beer Making Kit from the Brooklyn Brew Show, $40

The Brooklyn Brew Shop 1 Gallon Beer Making Kit is the perfect introduction to brewing. With this kit you will learn the true steps of brewing by making a grain mash, sparging, hopping, yeasting, fermenting, bottling, and then drinking your delicious homebrew.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

Saga Electric Guitar, T-Style from Saga Musical Instruments, $179

Easy to build and fun to customize, this kit takes you from making to rocking in no time.

ARDUINO MICROCONTROLLERS

Getting Started with Arduino Kit from Maker Shed, $65

Microcontrollers are tiny computers that give gadgets a brain, to sense things and react. Learn to use them with this popular, plug-and-play kit and book from the makers of Arduino and the team at MAKE magazine.

DrinkShield for Arduino from GfxHax, $28

This kit turns the popular microcontroller into a breathalyzer -- complete with party game. Blow and prepare to relinquish your keys!

Arduino ADK TinkerKit from Arduino, $359

Android phones and tablets can now talk to Arduinos, meaning you can control almost any gadget from apps in your pocket. Explore the incredible possibilities with this seriously geeked kit.

SIEGE WEAPONS

F.A.T. 3000 Guillotine Trebuchet from RLT Industries, $169

A thoroughly impressive wooden catapult, this floating-arm trebuchet stands just 34" high and hurls projectiles 200 feet.

WORKSHOP AND TOOLS

MakerBot Thing-O-Matic 3D Printer from MakerBot Industries, $1,299

It's your own little factory for printing out solid objects in plastic. Great kit instructions, and a groundbreaking new build platform that makes things automatically, one after the other.

The Phlatformer from Phlatboys LLC, $300

A hobby vacuum-forming machine that quick-melts plastic sheets into form-hugging shapes. Stormtrooper armor, anyone? See the project build at makeprojects.com/project/t/1203