I love seeing new shapes and innovations come out. They're not always to my taste, but it's nice to see something diffrerent being attempted. Reverend guitars seem a good example; a lot of their stuff is inspired by classic shapes, but they're putting interesting spins on mass produced, quality, affordable gear.
A friend of mine picked up a Variax when they came out. He was a huge Line 6 fan and already had a POD among other things, and once he had a Variax the variety of tones he could get was unreal. The sound was so convincing. Bloody heavy though!