Dennis,

I guess you're asking if I would buy the kit, with good retracts, at $280 (kit price + $100 for the retracts)?

Yup, sure would. But I would also expect/demand that the retracts work as advertised, more than a few times...

We're getting into different folks' definitions of what is acceptable and what is not. For instance, the pot-metal (and dead-soft) landing gear legs on my CG Matrix are a constant source of annoyance, and one of several reasons the model is now semi-retired. FYI, this plane has some odd-shaped (and two-piece) gear legs, so you just cannot pick up the phone and order decent replacements.

Anyway, another guy at our field has a model with landing gear that obviously came from the same alloyer; he has to bend his back after every landing. No big deal to him; he doesn't mind at all, he says. He sees nothing wrong with this weak, crap gear, that came on a high-end ARF. So, he would probably not be upset at the immediate failure of the H9 T-34 gear, and wouldn't mind tinkering, modifying, repairing, etc., whatever was necessary to make the gear work.

Differences of opinion... if I buy something, I expect it to work up to the standards of the ad's flowing prose that the marketing weenie wrote...