Phil was just trying to soothe his male psyche with the proven therapeutic power of buying some tools.
There's an old adage about how men don't grow up, they just bigger toys.
This is very true, even for men who don't go the tools and cars route, men always will have their thing. Geeks build robots, rednecks trucks, city folk cars or bikes, and even the real losers with playing table top games are making their own minis, terrain, and kit bashing shit to the extreme. Even those with digital hobbies will take of 3D modeling, making games, or even 3D printing.
Seriously, 3D printing is basically having a carpentry shop, but for men who are more nerdy.
It's not tools the male psyche craves, it's something simpler. We want to do work we enjoy to see the results of it. That's why so many men make and fix shit, then find excuses to fix what ain't broken just so we can keep working on something we care about.
Anyhow, now I'm going to go pull out some breadboards, wires, speakers, sensors and microprocessors and make something that chirps like a bird when it hears the high pitch of my cat, but then stops when motion gets within 3 feet of it. Not for a good reason, but because I'm a man, I have a pointless idea and I want to make it.