Amyk you are right. What I meant to say was Hakko uses the same general technology that made their low end station famous: a temp-stabilized ceramic heater driving the core of a tip; what's special about it is Hakko build quality and materials used in at least the ceramic element and tips. The electronics, handle materials and accessories like iron stand are all fairly generic you can get anyone's that suitable. If users are looking for a station that was like the 936, the FX600 or even 601 are the 'reimagined' version. AFAIK the 936 heaters are 24VAC, the 888 is 26VAC and the 600 is 120VAC, plus all have different mounts.
Given the smaller form, the 600 or 601 are also easier to ship direct from Japan [ or China] to countries where Hakko's have been expensive when bought locally, so now you can buy them for prices similar to say the USA.
I'll teardown the 600 and post waveforms and results when I'm able as I see it has not been done anywhere [ the iron was release in 2015 or older ].
Solder stations in the IPC J-STD-001E standard
used to require handsets be low voltage [ for safety] but I think its no longer mentioned, so the 120VAC heater
maybe acceptable, should not be an issue if used nonprofessionally; also potentially the higher driving voltage for the heater could shorten its life [ my guess] but at least it heats up faster too.
it uses the same tips and heater as the 936 or the 888.Tips I can see, but I strongly doubt they use the same heater, as the 936/888 use 24V elements and have a rather large transformer as a result.