Originally posted by flatfour
The fact is, if you buy in the US you will not be able to "escape" Hobbico or Horizon. They are the exclusive US distributors of their respective product lines.
No matter where (in the US) you buy a Saito engine or JR radio, it comes from Horizon. The same goes for Hobbico and OS engines / Futaba radios. If you care to see all the brands involved, look here:
http://www.gpmd.com/product.html
http://www.horizonhobby.com/horizon/index.asp
I wouldn't be suprised if both are owned by the same holding company. Actually it is possible to avoid their products completly. If you do you sorta limit your choices but it can be done. But that is not my objective, you see you can't get everything at there site's or even on the phone, just their stuff plus a few others who tote their line and therefore in jepordy of being eventually owned by them. I do want to limit my exposure as much as possible, but I will buy thier products from time to time. I own a GP DR1 ARF I am building, but that is cause I got a great deal at National or I probably would have bought one from Arizona Models, or most probably a Modeltech P47.