Here is one manufacturer's side:

We started getting a lot of requests for review planes last fall. We sent some no charge, other were paid for by the magazine reviewers. We gave everyone standard kits off the shelf just as we normally would with any customer. To date, 2 reviews have been completed and published. We never spoke to the reviewer or had a copy of the review before it was published. (RC Scale International is the Magazine). Some magazines offer to let us ok the review before it is published, but I usually tell them to publish the review as they see it. The last thing we want is for our customers to buy a kit expecting something other than what we advertise. If nothing else, a bad review would help us improve anything that is not up to standards.

I realize that different people have different expectations. We have some guys call with nothing but praise for our kits and others will call with nothing but complaints. Most of the guys doing the magazine reviews are very skilled builders. It seems they can just shake the box and have the kit assembled. I think that is one reason why a lot of the kit reviews are good - those guys never complain about anything. I could send them a block of wood and they would tell me how much fun they had sanding it into a plane!

Mike Grey
Skyshark R/C