Well... unfortunately you had to pick a POS like the H9 Super Stick for your first ARF, from which to form you opinion on ARF in general. It's the bottom of the barrel of what H9 sells. They called the "Super" series of ARF their "Value Series", as supposed to H9's Ultra series which are their higher rung "Premium series". Had you asked around a bit and spent just a few more buckaroos on the Ultra Stick (or any of the other better ARFs), your impression could have been entirely different. Many of the newer ARFs show amazing quality and craftmanship. Case in point, the Sig Kadet Sr. ARF I just put together is every bit as well built, if not better, than the one I kit-built 12 years ago. IMHO, it's also built better than every kit-built Kadet Sr. I've seen in the past 3 years (probably 6 total).

Then again, why do I get the feeling your mind was already made up even before you decided to buy that first ARF?