Some of you will recognise me from another forum.
My first machine was one of the first 16K Spectrums Sinclair pre-ordered back in May/June 1983 (mail order, brown cardboard box). We were going to get a ZX81 but happened to see the cover of Sinclair User in WH Smith when we went ot buy it, and figured we'd wait for the shiny new release. And wait. And wait. Think it arrived about October. We even got a discount voucher for the ZX Printer because of the massive delays. I can still smell the burning aluminium.
Unsurprsingly, it died after a few months. Rather than get it repaired, my dad demanded a refund (big mistake in hindsight, given the light grey keyboard). We bought a new 16K from WH Smith, about a week before Sinclair cut the prices and we could have got a 48K for the same money.
So, my early Sinclair ownership was not exactly lucky.
Fast forward a decade or four, and my collection has grown slightly (most of it even seems to work):
ZX81 with 16K rampack and ZX Printer
BNIB ZX81 kit, unbuilt (old stock found in a US warehouse about 20 years ago and shipped back to Blighty)
Several Spectrums and Spectrum+, Interfaces and Microdrive
QL
Couple of Z88s, with EPROM packs and eraser
My lad's now got the Sinclair bug and is building a repro ZX80 kit. So of course I've got to build one as well.
But more of that little project later...
Standby alert 