Yeah, Hobbythek was awesome, too... I remember at maybe 8 years old trying to rebind one of my own broken books after probably seeing that exact episode you mention...
It's really easy to get into this mode where you think "If it's not new and American it's crap" because the US in recent years has been so prodigious in creating such a large range of media of many different types, and because the US is not shy in "Americanizing" things from other countries and improving on them. However, there are definitely corners of brilliance lying in the past and in other countries that have been forgotten, and will be rediscovered in future years.
It's really easy to get into this mode where you think "If it's not new and American it's crap" because the US in recent years has been so prodigious in creating such a large range of media of many different types, and because the US is not shy in "Americanizing" things from other countries and improving on them. However, there are definitely corners of brilliance lying in the past and in other countries that have been forgotten, and will be rediscovered in future years.