The winner for March 2012 is MegabytePhreak! congrats, email me for your prize.
The ware is a Zhaoxin 868D hot air rework station, which combines both a soldering iron and a hot air gun into a single box. I purchased it for about US$19 in the Shenzhen electronic market.
When I travel to Shenzhen, I find it more economical to simply purchase equipment and dispose of it upon leaving, rather than the alternatives of paying bag check fees, or dealing with interrogation by security screeners. The iron actually has a nice bit of empty space on the inside, and the reason I had it opened up was to hide some valuables from cleaning staff while I was out. ‘Safes’ in Chinese hotels are often times not bolted to the walls, so putting your valuables in them is a bit like putting a big red arrow on your stuff that says ‘this is the box you should take’.