When I started soldering everything was big and had leads that went through holes in the board. You inserted the leads, bent them over to hold the component, flipped the board over, soldered everything, and trimmed off the excess leads.
Now I’m soldering things down to 0402 SMDs (1/4 the size of the smallest component in the picture) using a needle point soldering tip and a microscope.
A pair of 2N2222 transistors, one SOT23 and one TO-92.
I still have an actual solder gun I inherited from my dad. It works great, but there’s not much I can use it for now unless I take up wood burning.
Those things were awesome. My wife found one of Facebook Marketplace and sent me a link to the ad. I was like, “What they heck am I going to use that for?!?” She just laughed.