@freaksofature, I recently observed that too because of the uncanny resemblance in both the systems. I’m currently using a hakko 936 as well which is performing amazingly well. I’d suggest that whoever tries to buy a soldering iron shouldn’t worry that much about cost and make sure that the materials used in manufacturing are up to the task. The quality of these materials obviously is directly related to the cost of the soldering iron. Since a soldering iron is the most used tool in most labs, it has its own level of significance.