RE: Ikon N'west kits
Often, as in this thread, when I hear the term "builders' kit" this is just code meaning "poorly engineered and/or unnecessarily difficult." The Stafford models also seem to have this reputation. By this standard, we could just agree to call all the shoddy kits being offered by AZM "builders' kits." It's certainly true that one would have to be a master builder to make a worthwhile model from one of the AZM kits (as demonstrated by Don Coe with his AVRO), but we shouldn't think of them as "builders' kit." A builders' kit is to my mind something like a "pilot's pilot," that is, it would refer to a kit that people who love kits would love building. It might be a bit beyond the ability of most average modelers (perhaps like the MR kits), but it shouldn't be a shoddy kit which requires the skills of a master builder to set right.
From everything I've read here the Ikon N'west kits were just bad kits.