OMG, that's awesome....
Back in 1982-83 my dad built a Heathkit H89 microcomputer. It was similar to the early TRS-80s with the Z80 processor and 4k of RAM. My dad was a copier repairman for 3M but super-talented in digital electronics. He soldered that thing together (like 300 pieces), tested it and ran it. Oddly, I can't find any information about it on their official site. If I had the chance to own this computer now, I would probably jump at it. It's the system I learned BASIC on at age 9. Kids these days are too used to pre-packaged software, but, I guess when you look at a game that requires four DVDs to install, they get a pass. ;-)
Dad also built a Heathkit oscilloscope (5 meg bandwidth baby!!) in 1979-80. It was with this o-scope, a surplus signal generator and a home-built audio power amp that I learned the differences between sine, square, triangle and sawtooth waveforms. (They sound different at the same frequency too, which I found interesting as an 11 year old.)
I remember the first computer show I went to in 1984-85. My dad was probably looking for a deal on a Commodore 64. Atari came out with their 1200XL that year and they had THE greatest graphics demo. It was a red and white beach ball bouncing in front of a grid. I thought it was SO cool.
My dad finally bought the Commodore 64, our first "real" computer to replace the Heathkit. After about two years of playing games and BASIC programming, I started to lust after the Tandy HX1000 (basically a PC jr.). Ummmm... I believe this computer was used in the movie "EXPLORERS," about the kids that build their own spacecraft, might have played a role in my lust for it.
I finally had my own HX1000 in 1994-95 or so, I worked at a computer store and a customer came in wondering if he could upgrade. The answer was no, so he gave it to me in exchange for a discount on a new PC, which I was glad to give him.
In later garage sales I picked up a Sinclair computer (one of those miniature computers I also lusted after as a kid), and one of those "lightweight" Tandy laptops, which was basically a small dot-matrix LCD attached to a keyboard. I actually used it for a number of years to take personal notes and make shopping lists and such. (Prolly a reason why I was single until age 26.) I even brought it to bars.