The real problem is that people think a small engine should have a proportionally small price. A nice engine could be produced, but if you are not in the business of making engines producing engines can be a daunting task. I've examined very closely Norvel engines and other small engines. Norvels are produced very economically. You just can't get any chepaer than that with a high quality product in my opinion. TT can produce very good engine but blew it with the .07. Why is anyones guess. Is the new revised version any better or different?

Just how big is the 1/2A market today? 1/2A is fading quickly into modeling history. I would be scared to invest in tooling for a 1/2A engine to find out there are only a handful of buyers.