Realest comment here. I have a few drawers full of these kind of toys I used once and forgot about. Right next to my serial cables and bits of wire.

Your post inspired a random but genuine question:

Does anyone have a good use for obsolete cables?

Like, I've got some serial cables, some co-ax, a bunch of old TV cables, some audio cables.

I tell myself I'm keeping them because if I ever need them I'll never be able to (or want to) buy them again. Moreover it feels like such a waste to throw them away.

Maybe a makerspace could make use of them?

I have a box in my garage and if cables start overflowing I go through and toss anything that makes it overflow that seems the least useful or likely to be used. It keeps me from starting a new box. :) . I have another box of old gadgets in static bags but I still have a ton of room left in that :)

I'm holding on to my coax for a few more years and then getting rid of all of it (electronics recycling, probably). I am so looking forward to never using coax again.

You could make some sort of art - in the climbing community old ropes often become chalk bags or carpets etc.

You've made me imagine a doormat made out of old cat5 and usb cables, and I'm horrified in an amused kind of way.

My local search and rescue team made door mats for their station with old 1/2" ropes. They came out really nicely.

Doing so with serial or coax cables seems like an invitation for bits of the plastic sheath breaking off in a few months and polluting the ground around your door though...