Remember that this was before (or the beginning of, my memory is a bit sketchy) the Squier Vintage Modified era. I think we're kind of used to Squiers now being pretty nice guitars for the money. That you could get something that was good for $150 (later $129 and $99), was rather surprising. Lots of people used them as modding platforms, spawning the Squier '51 modders' forum which had a lot of activity back in the day.