I think Ron's second paragraph says it all. There has always been moderate interest in building. But convinced pre-builts were the future, the majors switched over to ARF's almost exclusively and abandoned us kit builders to nothing but Stick40's and other boring toy planes in kit form. Today RC websites are full of people buying plans and balsa to fill this void and the classic designs that have a legendary reputation for flying enjoyment are what people have been choosing in the greatest numbers (Kaos, UltraSport, Aeromaster).

Lucky for us the manufacturers are starting to realize there is STILL a significant market niche for more challenging, larger displacement planes in kit form. Notice when Great Planes recently came out with the Skybolt ARF they left the kit version in production. They also recently reissued the US40/60 and SS40/60 in kit form and it appears those products are doing well despite zero promotion on their part. If a product manager happens to read this maybe they'll consider releasing some even larger planes in the 90/120 displacement range?