Not all Maplin is crappy surly,
I know my irons were but I made the mistake of buying the cheapest, I know Maplin knew one iron was pretty crappy as they soon withdrew it from sale. My iron mistake was in thinking an adjustable temperature was what I needed and buying the cheapest. My Metcal iron has a fixed temperature, yes I can change the tip for differing temperatures and I did buy a few different Metcal tips but in reality one tip has been in the iron for some considerable time, it can flow solder around the biggest ground plane or heat sink tab or a SMT 0805 device that's just 2.0 × 1.25 mm. All one tip.
I also have a Maplin multimeter from about 1988 and its still going strong, no Ultra fast HRC fusing but not a lot did back then and I always use GS38 leads these days anyway.