I have always built my own kits. I have owned a few ARFs. I got my twinstar about 6 months ago. Just got around to getting it in the air. When putting it together i noticed alot of unglued joints,and the cheap sticky covering. I wrote HOBBICO some e-mails about it. They never replied. What poor service. That will be the last HOBBICO plane i own.

Pull back the covering on the horizontal stab and you'll see that the wood is press fitted, not a drop of glue!

The best thing I did was crash my twinstar and rebuild it right with glue in every joint.

Its not a bad plane, its cheap and yes, its quality is definitely inferior to a other ARFs out there. Its no longer made from what I've been told. Good luck with yours.

I absolutely love my Twin Star!!! I've had it for four years, and my only regret is that it's not larger. I have to fly ARF's because I'm allergic to the new glues. As a common practice, I beef up everything if it looks suspect. I will admit the covering is the cheezy shelf paper. I plan on recovering mine with Ultra-Cote as a winter project..........John

I had a twinstar, loved it. Flew it for about 8 months before I "dumb thumbed" it into the ground. (inverted flight, showing off for a crowd at less than 1 mistake high oops ). I have thought about rebuilding it, and may do so one day, as those engines are still waiting for a twin.

My only problem was the cheap covering. I would have gladly paid an extra $20 or so for some mono-kote or similar shrinkable covering on it.

Tim

I've had two Twinstars and loved both of them.I sold the first one to make room,and bought a second because I missed the first one.Get realistic for a minute,what do you expect for $110.00?The covering and glue for most kits cost more than that!I agree that Hobbico ARF's may not be the greatest quality,and the covering is cheeesy but for the price it's not bad,never forget the age old saying"you get what you pay for".We have a Twinstar at our feild with 3 40 LA's and it is still together after several punishing flights.I say for $100.00 it's not bad.

Ive got one too, twin LA.40's on it, Alot of fun, and never had a problem yet, wish it had retracts.

It's not that I think it should be deleted at all, everyone is entitled to there own opinion, but I think that this could be approached in a more helpfull manner rather then to just say 'they suck' Write your own review and post them within the reviews section of RCUniverse. Then anyone else who has an opinion about said airplane can leave there comments adn then the person looking for info on said plane can make his/her own mind up about it. If this happens I almost guarantee that it will not be deleted.

Hideho all,
And FWIW, Gastroms right on the money.
I am the one who has deleted Chris's post's. Calling all Hobbico's junk is a violation of the rules.
I didn't pm Chris, and won't. He above all knows the rules, and from where I sit have enough to do without taking the time to pm him and explain that which should be abundantly clear to him.

So, today I deleted both of Chris's replies, as Gastrom has copied it becomes clear to me that Chris is stirring the pot and that cannot be tolerated, from him or anyone.

Take Gastroms advice and do a review and post it where it belongs.
Special note, please review the entire line of Hobbico's before stating the poor quality of the whole line.

Hobbico ARF's are a value line. They will fly as advertised. They make no claim to high quality.
High quality has a price, as does value.

The Hobbico Twinstar that John V has I sold to him. I got it from someone in Alabama who flew the heck out of it. Then, I flew it till I was tired of it.
Was it beautifully constructed? Nope.
Was it designed to crash?
Nope.
It was as advertised, a first twin to teach you the ropes of flying a multi engine.
Worth a hundred bucks?
Dam skippy it was.
No, it's not Ultra or Monocoat.
Sticky back...don't like it?
Spend the money, honey.

I paid 60.00 shipped. It came with the throttle servos too.
Flew a gallon through it, had a ball.
Bought two plastic fuel cell covers and a plastic nose for it.

Sold it to John for 60.00.

One of the better deals either he or I made.

Moral of the story?
Value. Or rather perceived value.

Most Hobbico's are not what you call high quality. Cheap? yup.

Cheap junk? Not for what your paying it's not.

Arf's have come along way in just the last 5 years.
As we demand quality, the manufactures deliver it, at a price.

You want a high quality multi engine Arf? Try the world Models P-82 Mustang. Beautiful twin, and priced at what, $429.00?

That's all for now,

For gods sakes...I'm not trolling...

In the other thread I clearly stated what I thought was wrong with HOBBICO planes. Exactly what Mister drlsgt7 has done here. I still want to know why my posts were deleted!!!

I have not seen the original posts but will trust the judgement of the moderators and that they are trying to make the best calls in sometimes difficult situations.

We don't allow company bashing and voicing an opinion on a product without name calling or "going over the edge" in bad taste is always permitted to warn others of what may be a less than perfect product. Again I had not read what was here but these are the guidelines we have chosen to implement to make it as fair as possible to the users and companies alike.

Well, I just bought (maybe the last) Twinstar ARF NIB in the country, and two new GP42's for it last week. I had two Twinstars over the years, and really enjoyed them, so now I'm looking forward to another exciting adventure!

Junk? Well, last week I flew the new Kyosho Pitts ARF. $220 for the ARF and what did I get? A month of dealing with poor instructions, formers that interfered with the Y rods for the elevator, mystery covering that peeled off during the first backyard taxi, and the worst flying airplane I have ever had at any time in my career. Flew it five times in one day, and stripped it down that night. Disgusting! Super Quality my *****$!

Give me the Hobbico $100 ARF any day!

I'm disappointed to hear Hobbico doesn't glue their joints. That concerns me because I'm a nut on making sure my bird won't come apart when I build a kit.
However, I have to say I've been lucky in that regard. I've been in RC for 10 years now. I've had three Hobbico planes. My second plane was the Avistar, which I flew for a long while. Finally drilled it in while practicing low level inverted flight.
Then I had an Extra 300S (AWARF). Nice flying machine. Doing end to end hammerheads, wind was blowing me out, got too low on second one, spiraled in rather quickly. Still, lots of good flying.
Presently have the Twinstar with LA 25's and about 25 flights on it. One engine quit on an early flight - wasn't sure until I flew by and saw the prop stopped. Not bad for engine out emergency.
The arfokote gets loose on a hot day, but all you have to do is stick it in the refrigerator when you get home.
But now I'm worried about no glue on the joints. I hope they know what they're doing when they build these.

Do you guys think that the twinstar would be a good second plane after the superstar trainer? I heard that the Declathon would be.

Since the Twinstar is discontinued, it's an unlikely choice.

While I have to agree with some of the other posts, the Twinstar would have probably never won an award for the best made ARF, I think it was worth the $110 or so. I have 2 of them, well, had 2 of them, loose nut working the control sticks took care of one! I had installed an extra aileron sevo (for flaperons), and retracts! Man, did it look great climbing with the gear going up! 2 LA40's with 9x6 3-blade props really took care of any climbing problems. With the extra weight, one engine out was a bigger handful and my lack of twin experience did it in. I have another "stock" one and it flies great. Have one more in the box (after I found out they were discontinued, I searched the internet and found one) that is around for the future. So if you can find one, buy it! It's a great twin trainer and just an all around fun plane.

Twinstar !!
Nope,, not much glue.. Guess what, not much price either...
Like anything, supply and demand come into play.. So perhaps
if we all send nice note to Hobbico and request they do another run of this excellent twin trainer that is a royal blast to goof off with and leave a ton of possibilities in which to do different things with, maybe they re think their position..
Buy it,, fly it,,, munch it...
Take it home and,, rebuild it,, recover it, LOVE it...

Robby

I will agree with everyone, i am on my second Twinstar and love it . The plane flys very good, Its my (no fear airplane )dont have big bucks invested.

Just finishing mine this long weekend. Its my third, this time with twin TT 42s. Can't wait to hear those babies whine!

I forgot how much detail work was done on this ARF. How many ARFs have the CA hinges already glued in and the control rods assembled and cut to size?

Another guy at my club just finished his second Twinstar. Made it a tail dragger and packed in two OS 46 FXs with three bladed 10x8 props. With those 4 ounce tanks the flights are short, but very quick!

I'd much rather do that myself..it's not very hard to do.