You know, I've worked in labs which employed actual minions and actual doomsday devices (well, maybe not, but they were more than deadly enough to destroy all of us minions if something went wrong) ... and the excitement wears off. Eventually you stop being awed by the doomsday device and start being annoyed that its repair bills are so high and that you have to keep filling it with liquid nitrogen in the middle of the night.

Whereas putting something together in your garage from flea-market parts has a certain pleasure all its own.