When I was a teen, I used to salivate over all of the Heathkit ads in the teen media I consumed (popsci and sci-fi mags, comic books, adventure mags, Boy’s Life, etc). A few friends had built their own Heathkit stereos and I envied their electronics prowessm and the depth of their piggy banks.
All of the kits I couldn’t afford to build back then are available to drool over again — now with the added nostalgic appreciation for their homely space age design — at the Heathkit Virtual Museum. The site has info on each kit, histories of the company, links to most of the manuals and other tech resources, and links to fan sites.
I have the receiver that’s pictured second from the top — it still works in conjunction with a tube amp from Heathkit. They work, but you could cook breakfast on the waste heat they produce.
For all of the nostalgia that is heaped on these, don’t forget that they were complex, prone to various troubles caused by variable assembly techniques and almost always designed with a lot of point-to-point wiring. I know my amateur radio cohorts loved the equipment they put out though.