n2rc

I have 2 Lanier aircraft.. 25% Edge 540 and 60 size extra 300L, I went looking for there site and it keeps taking me to http://www.bestrc.com/index.html .... Whats the deal.... and where did they go......

*JCB*

My Feedback: (9)

they've been gobbled up by the Hobbico EMPIRE

ss40

Yes they were bought up and then bought up again along with Goldberg. They had a phenominal sale on Lanier ARF's, some about 25% of original. Go to Tower's site and search on Lanier and see what they have done to the product "discontinued" "discontinued" , etc.

NorfolkSouthern

I'm just fortunate I got what I could, while I was able. It was definitely a good call, with the prices for ARFs and kits going up like they have.

NorfolkSouthern

w8ye

My Feedback: (16)

Hobbico/Great Planes bought Lanier and "Killed" it to keep anyone else from getting it.

LuftwaffeOberst

Yep... very sad and very true. I wonder if Great Planes is going to kill Goldberg? I wouldn't be shocked to see only Hanger 9 and Great Planes out there... wonder if Sig is next to go as well? I hope not and I hope some American ARF's go into buisness one day.

It's OK to dream right?



Luftwaffe Oberst
AMA District II
Radio Aero Modelers Club
Pulaski, NY


Supporter of RedNeck R/C-Fulton, NY

da Rock

And you know this how?

Very often, companies that are for sale are on the market due to the current owner's motives. Very often, they are purchased to keep alive their one or two still popular lines. Very often, they are purchased to acquire their production capacity.

Seldom are such brutal motives made public if they are in fact the real motives. Matter of fact, when the real motive is so ugly, it most certainly is not disclosed.

I've actually only see a couple of the Lanier airplanes. They showed up before Lanier was sold. At least two of 'em had really bad manufacturing flaws. One's gear wasn't glued into the wing at all. And when the wing is covered, you got no way to know it, and no way to insurance glue it. When I heard they'd been sold, my first thought was that it wasn't a good deal for the purchaser.

But I'm like everyone else. Not in a position to know any of the motives.

LuftwaffeOberst

Come on now... everyone that has a buisness likes a Monopoly when it is in there favor. Horizon and Great Planes are buying out everyone so it seems.

You are also right, no one knows their true motives, personnly there are some like me that just can't rule out w8ye's opinion.




Luftwaffe Oberst
AMA District II
Radio Aero Modelers Club
Pulaski, NY


Supporter of RedNeck R/C-Fulton, NY

turboratt

a local hobby shop owner just picked up three trailer full of all lanier planes and motors
i think it was all the ships they had at all the shows got a grear deal and will be selling them off but dont know when

ss40

Well I bought 2 Lanier Stinger 40 ARF's cheap during the sale and I can say other than engine mounts(2 identical pieces) and one case where I had to cut a little balsa to clear a servo arm, they seem well built. With time we will see. For $75 they were very well done. Especially now since the one I hadn't assembled was put in our float fly event raffle, and I won it back(first win in 8 years!).

da Rock

Very often, the reason there are large stocks on sale is because that stock didn't sell before. Products that do not sell often are cleared out at a discount. And when that doesn't work, they are dumped to other retailers.

No sensible retailer is going to give a profitable line of goods to the competition. And popular products do not wind up for sale at give-away discounts. They've already been purchased for retail or near retail.

Where did Lanier go? Out of business.

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

Lanier was doing poorly and was going to go under, so rather than just quit, they put what was left of the company up for sale.

Goldberg, who wasn't in a much better financial position, bought Lanier in an attempt to keep their head above water - It didn't work. So Goldberg was up for sale.

Hobbico bought Goldberg. Since Lanier was a part of Goldberg, that came along with the deal.

Hobbico WANTED the Goldberg line. In fact, several people from Hobbico are former Goldberg employees and they are delighted to have the line back in their nest. Goldberg has some of the best model designs on the market and Hobbico has no intention of letting them disappear.

Lanier, on the other hand is a different story.

Put yourself in Hobbico's place - imagine that someone you know passed on and his widow wanted to sell off his stuff as an all-in-one package. This guy had a lot of really great airplanes that you really wanted, so you buy it all. But along with the really great stuff, there are some old radios, rusty engines, stripped servos, etc.

What would YOU do?

You'd keep the good stuff, sell off what is still good but you don't want, and throw out the crap. Right?

alfredbmor

Anyway, some Carl Goldberg models have disappeared (The Yak and Ultimate ARFs, just to mention a few) by now and after the Great Planes acquisition. So maybe the plan is the same, just disappear the competence.

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

I think the ARF was discontinued because there were so many inexpensive knock-offs that no one was buying it.

But the Kit is still available:

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXDJB7&P=SM

ChuckW

You'll notice that there is also a new, larger, Goldberg Ultimate ARF.

Bax

My Feedback: (11)

I don't make the decisions, and I'm not privy to them. I see the results, just as you do. However, I can state that kits that are in demand remain available, kits that are not in demand get discontinued. That applies to EVERY kit, ARF, accessory, and any other product our company makes/sells. If people don't buy them, we don't keep making/carrying them, even though there are always a few people who will lament the fact.

Over time, though, demand can change, and kits can be brought back if there's enough interest. Witness the Great Planes Ultra Sport 40 and 60, Super Sportster 40 and 60, and the Top Flite Bonanza. Unfortunately, even a reprise of a kit can only last so long before it's out of demand again. No demand, no production. It's as simple as that. Our company doesn't drop models just to do so. If people are buying them and enjoying them, then they will remain in production. If a kit isn't being purchased, it's not long before it's dropped. There's no "deep and dark" mystery or ulterior motive. It's all based upon what you, the modeling public, demand and actually buy.

ChuckW

What? Nobody on the grassy knoll discontinuing products? No grand, government conspiracy to hide the evidence of UFO's, Sasquatch and secret RC technology? Now what am I going to believe in...

What's next? Am i going to find out that those really aren't chupacabra footprints in my flowerbeds? Is someone going to tell me that the pills I bought off the late night infomercial won't really make my gut smaller?

turboratt

hey this guy who got the three semi trailers full is not going to buy junk he got the list and inspected before dropping a big chuck of change

da Rock

Right, except he didn't drop a big chunk of change.

He bought something that wasn't selling, and most assuredly bought it for WAY under wholesale. Pennies on the dollar is very often the price for products that aren't moving.

SteveW

My Feedback: (36)

Minnflyer,
Don't you have that backwards? I thought Lanier bought Goldberg back in 2002.

jbflier

I heard that Lanier purchased all rights to Goldberg, then Bubba Spivey sold out to Hobbico.

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

I dunno, maybe I got it backward. I thought it was the other way around

mimoore67

My Feedback: (51)

I remember that Goldberg got bought by Lanier and then Lanier sold to Hobbico!

LSP972

My Feedback: (13)

Yup. I got a CG Ultimate ARF right after the "sale" (although I didn't know it at the time). Mine came with the usual CG professionally-done manual, a Klett tail wheel assembly, excellent overall quality etc.

A friend bought the same kit some months later. His manual was Xeroxed (on what appeared to be the prototype Xerox machine- it was that bad), stapled pages, the tail wheel was some morphodite cheap arrangement, and the overall kit quality was pretty abysmal.

Judging from the actual Lanier kits/ARFs I've examined, I can only surmise that those who praise Lanier on these R/C boards are those who enjoy re-engineering and tweaking their models.

I'm a firm believer in conspiracy theories where The Empire is concerned; but in this case, I think the company just killed themselves by failing to even get close to the ever-improving quality of Asian ARFs.

Of course, the last few CG BIY kits I looked at before Lanier bought the company weren't the greatest, either. The wood was absolutely horrible. One hopes that The Empire has (or will) remedy that; as has been stated, CG has some of the best designs out there, that build relatively easy and fly great.

Where did Lanier go? IMO, who cares?

.

tkilwein

I bought the lanier edge 540 94" when it was on sale and it was good quality, so good I went to order another and they were sold out.
It is a nice flying plane.