Farmer Ted

My Feedback: (5)

I've always wondered what the history is of the Great Planes/ Hobbico/ Tower Hobbies conglomerate and the Horizon Hobbies conglomerate. It seems that it's too much of a coincidence that they're both located in the same town in Illinois. Does anyone know the story behind this or just behind the two companies in general. I've also always wondered whether John Redman from Horizon is the "JR" in JR radios and how that all fits in. I'm sure this has all probably been discussed to death in the past but since I've only been flying for the past 5-6 years, I've never heard the stories.

Kmot

My Feedback: (24)

JR is Japan Radio.

Horizon evolved from "Indy R/C"

Tower merged with Great Planes and it then started buying up smaller companies and became the Hobbico conglomerate.

s. wallace

My Feedback: (24)

I know in the mid 80's Hobby Dynamics took over from Circus Hobbies as the JR importer and went after more market share aggresively. At the time mainly JR was high end radios used by pattern and scale fliers, and some very basic 4 and 6 channel stuff. I know the first JR radios I bought around 1982 didn't have servo reversing yet! Once Hobby Dynamics took over JR distribution in the USA they soon released the original Max 6 computer radio (one model memory) and it was a huge success and JR become more mainstream, subsequently releasing many very good 6-10 channel radios. Ironically they seem to have come full circle, today you can buy a 9, 11, or 12 channel JR but if 5, 6, 7, or 8 channels will do it's either Spektrum or switch to another brand.

I recall that Hobby Dynamics and another distributor merged and morphed into Horizon but I dont know the details.

Free Bird

I heard that Horizon was a break away of some unhappy employees of Great Planes. They didn't like how things were being done and figured they could do a better job. That's why both companies are in the same area.

FB

tailskid

My Feedback: (34)

i remember purchasing a VK Cherokee Babe for $13 from a new company called Tower Hobbies in the early 1970's....1/6th page ad in RCM at the time!

Ken Erickson

In 1978 we visited my wife's sister in Champaign, IL. I had purchased from Tower Hobbies and wanted to visit the "store' . The addresss was a rural mailbox on the fence of a small apartment complex.

Ken Erickson

tailskid

My Feedback: (34)

I think about 10 years ago the company was 'sold' to its employees or something like that......

bullseye000

Isn't Advantage Hobby, also in Champaign, a venture started by an unhappy employee that worked for both Hobbico and Horizon.