All this talk about soldering irons makes me think how crummy too much American industrial design is.
Some US industrial design looks great but some looks downright, well, Russian.
Sure you can see crap-looking design in western Europe too but there's a lot less of it than in the US.
Take soldering irons for example. An ordinary soldering iron in the US with unregulated temperature still has great big mofo screws holding the tip.
By comparison, my 30 year old British-made basic Antex is a sleek looking baby and those Antexes are not particularly expensive.
Don't start me on the looks of cars!