I liked all of the plate-loaded Hammer pieces I used, but the ones with weight stacks usually felt very awkward, maybe with the exception of one of their pull down units. MTS Pulldown, I think? Its resistance curve was awesome, with constant tension throughout the ROM. It reminded me of some of the old Nautilus machines from the late 70s/early 80s.
Speaking of those...
I thought a few of them were gold. I trained almost exclusively on those for a six-month stint on a Mentzer routine when I was sixteen, and I got very muscular for my age, a fairly lean 170 at 5'6" (abs, very deep cuts in the pecs, slight feathering in the triceps, nice back detail). When the reigning Mr. NPC N.C. champ, Rodney Saunders, was training the same time I was, he asked me for a spot on something. When he found out I was only sixteen, he did a double take, shook his head and told me, "Damn. You must be blowing your boys away!"
Not blowing other boys, you salty pervs
It was a great compliment. And no, I don't credit Nautilus or Heavy Duty with my early gains (albeit the fact I had trained for 1.5 years previous). With the test my body was producing at that time, I'm sure I would've gained like crazy on anything that focused on strength gains/progressive overload.
