Bauer Turbo - I couldn't go back to these now, but when I got my first pair of them, Christmas of '87 when I was almost 13, I loved them more than anything; they were my most prized possession. I'd wanted some since Christmas of '84 when my old brother got his. Plus many of the best skaters at the rink had them, and I'd looked through old hockey cards and found a few NHL players wearing them, or similar molded plastic skates.
We always opened presents on Christmas Eve (after eating supper, so around 7 PM), and as soon as I got them I went over to the rink (along with a new Vic hockey stick that I also got) and skated around by myself until after midnight. It was snowing that night, several inches had accumulated on the ice by the time I left, but I didn't care. They were so comfortable, and actually had ankle support. This was a major improvement over the "Sherbrooke" skates I had previously, i.e., crappy vinyl Chinese torture devices with zero ankle support.
They were size 7, and in '89 I got another pair, size 9. I was always perfectly happy with them, but I still wanted to try something better, so in '90 when I was 15, I saved about $150 from my part-time job and had my mother take me to Goldsmith's Sporting Goods in Bangor, and for $120 I bought:
CCM 251 Tacks - These were amazing, and I could easily go back to them today. At the time, the 251, 451, and 651 Tacks were all made the same way and of the same materials (full-grain leather and ballistic nylon mesh), though the 651s had the Vacu Tack or Custom Fit ankle padding which the 251s and 451s didn't have. These had the best tongue ever. The ankle padding and heel lock in these (absent in the Bauer Turbos) brought my skating to a new level immediately.
CCM 652 Custom Fit Tacks from '92/'93 - I actually liked the 251s better, but they were still good skates. I regretted not getting the Vacu Tack version of them.
Bauer Supreme Composite from '95/'96 (known as the Supreme Composite 5000 the following year) - I still use these. Slightly better than the 652s, but not better than the 251s. That's probably due to how they fit; i.e., I don't think they are deep enough. With the CCMs I could lace every lace tight and be in perfect comfort. With the Bauers, I have to be careful with the middle laces or I quickly get arch pain. The Tuuk Plus holders/blade seemed to be shorter than the SLM holders/blades on the CCMs, which makes the boot more likely to hit the ice during aggressive crossovers.
I have some like-new Micron Mega 10-90s on the way, the version like the ones Ray Bourque used to wear, so I'll have to see how those pan out.