It was somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something
like:

Regardless of the brand, I've been *very* happy with the build quality
and the decently-managed charger on these;

Same here - I'd buy more AEG/AtlasCopco.

but cheap they weren't.

Heh. 15quid at a bootsale.