Solder-free Robotics For The Holidays

unteer writes: "As holiday season shopping commences in the US, I find myself wanting to scratch a robotics/AI programming itch. However, soldering is not a priority. Considering there seem to be many toys these days that come with some form of SDK or specialized language, I'd like to get some feedback from fellow Slashdotters: which robotic toys offer the best value in terms of cost and programmer accessibility for just noodling around with simple but fun robotics/AI programming?"