Without going into much emotion here.......
OUCH !!!
boy that sucks. I hate when you cant quite figure out what happened either!
As for a replacement - assuming quick and somewhat easy.... and relatively affordable..
The Cermark F-16 obviously - always a good choice.
It appears that the Vmar F-4 and Mig-21 seem to be reasonably well built - and fly well.
No doubt the retracts, radio and engine would fit well in any of the above.
The Cermark Alley Cat would be fun too. Just need to add the muffler extention kit.
Dan over a Carolina Custom Aircraft has lots of great classic pattern kits. I highly recommend the Brushfire
But as you noted, its a bit of a winter project.
Bob