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Tower Hobby Kits Gone!!!!!
I guess with Horizon buying out Tower Hobbies they are going to drop all of the kits
from the Great Planes & Top Flite lines and all others, can't say I am surprised. So it looks like Sig Mfg. and a very few other companies will be supplying the kit builders market in favor of Horizon / Tower Hobbies going with just the ARF's. Well I don't think the Tower Savers Club will exist much longer either, before it gets the axe from Horizon. Bill D. |
I emailed Tower about a Top Flite Contender and a Great Planes Escapade. I received a nice email from their customer service that TF and GP were not part of the merger and did not know what the future was. However, they hoped both product lines would eventually come back. Now, why the TF new Hellcat is in stock, etc, I have no idea. No telling who owns what company and how they are intermingled. I think most people agree that our hobby is in a state of change in a lot of ways. If I had to guess, I would say Horizon hit the hot button with E-Flite foamies and Spektrum. But kits, nitro engines etc are probably on the down elevator. Kids seem to have little interest in our hobby. And note that Model Airplane News is about 30 pages thinner? I see the new E-Flite Pitts is in stock so moving over to the PC to order one Regards bob |
Hate to see it. I really enjoyed building a Great Planes .40 J3 Cub kit last winter and have enjoyed flying it since completion. I certainly realize it's a dying segment of the industry, but there's a certain satisfaction that comes from building and flying that ARF's and foamies just don't offer.
Thankful for Sig still making quality kits! |
I built a Sig 4 Star 60 and the quality of the balsa and fit of the parts were outstanding. |
Conflicting information. The original press release stated that Horizon was picking up both GP and TF. My guess is the reply you received referred to kits and not ARFs. The TF Hellcat is even listed on Horizon’s website. |
The Escapade MX is an ARF and in limbo. I noted the Hellcat is available but don’t know about other TF ARF’s Regards |
Referring to kits, not ARF's
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Hi Bill welcome to the new reality and that being that there won't be any kit makers in the US but for now at least there is Sig and Balsa USA and a few Lazer cutters out there. There are very few nitro flyers at the club I belong to. It is a shame my friend may he rip would roll over in his grave to see the condition and he was one of the most prolific builders I ever knew.
Michael Johnston |
Originally Posted by mkjohnston
(Post 12472754)
Hi Bill welcome to the new reality and that being that there won't be any kit makers in the US but for now at least there is Sig and Balsa USA and a few Lazer cutters out there. There are very few nitro flyers at the club I belong to. It is a shame my friend may he rip would roll over in his grave to see the condition and he was one of the most prolific builders I ever knew.
Michael Johnston |
Originally Posted by Constrictor
(Post 12473887)
the reality is we now have more kits available than any time in history they just aren’t on the shelf. There are hundred if not thousands of kits available through kit cutters like laser works. All is not gloom and doom. We still have options for the models that we want to build, and in the size that we want to build them in. The sky is not falling. LOL |
Originally Posted by CF105
(Post 12472665)
Conflicting information. The original press release stated that Horizon was picking up both GP and TF. My guess is the reply you received referred to kits and not ARFs. The TF Hellcat is even listed on Horizon’s website. |
as with a lot of things, the method of marketing kits has changed......
where as kits were sold by retail shops years ago,.... now...., kits are being made and sold diectly by the kit cutters themselves on line. there's still plenty of kits, you just have to approach finding them differently. it would be great if there was a central on line site that listed all the cutters that have kits for sale. |
As long as there's balsa and ply available, the ability to build the airframe itself won't go away.
However, what bothers me, is the resources to support building including traditional glow power becoming scarce: i.e. hardware like spinners, spinner nuts, propellers, engine mounts, mufflers, fuel tanks, fuel tubing, fuel, and glow support equipment, not to mention all the other hardware that goes into building a model airplane like covering materials, pushrods, horns, clevises, wheels, wheel collars, canopies, fuel proof paints, decals, Hobbypoxy, Ambroid, and Pica Gluit. Also hardware from these guys: Goldberg, Craft Air, Kraft/Hayes, Klett, C.B. Associates, Fourmost, Dave Brown, Ernst, Edson, Macs Products, and even Great Planes. DuBro's still around. How do you complete the kit if you don't have all the stuff? |
We probably need to start stocking up on this stuff at flea markets. Props for glow engines are disappearing too |
The loss of hardware manufacturers is a problem, but not insurmountable. Arrow shafts and music wire are available from other sources. Some things can be 3D printed. Others can be made individually from “raw” materials (control horns from G10 fibreglass for example). Where there is a will, there is a way! |
Originally Posted by H5606
(Post 12474159)
As long as there's balsa and ply available, the ability to build the airframe itself won't go away.
However, what bothers me, is the resources to support building including traditional glow power becoming scarce: i.e. hardware like spinners, spinner nuts, propellers, engine mounts, mufflers, fuel tanks, fuel tubing, fuel, and glow support equipment, not to mention all the other hardware that goes into building a model airplane like covering materials, pushrods, horns, clevises, wheels, wheel collars, canopies, fuel proof paints, decals, Hobbypoxy, Ambroid, and Pica Gluit. Also hardware from these guys: Goldberg, Craft Air, Kraft/Hayes, Klett, C.B. Associates, Fourmost, Dave Brown, Ernst, Edson, Macs Products, and even Great Planes. DuBro's still around. How do you complete the kit if you don't have all the stuff? Why worry about it? we have plenty of parts sellers for our hobby right now. |
The sad thing is that Horizon still owns the copy rights to all of the kits that were produced by the likes of Top Flite & Great Planes,
and I don't see the likes of Lazer-Works or Laser Design Services, or any other kit cutter wanting to tread on the toes of Horizon to cut short kits for any of the now no longer produced kits. Yes many of you are right there are a lot of laser and CNC kits being cut to the likes of all of the RCM plans from the past and designs from many others that were never produced in kit form, I know Eddie @ Lazer-Works has cut quite a few for me in the past. |
Hey! What are the links to some of the Kit Cutter sites mentioned earlier? PLEASE!!!! :D
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A friend of mine in the industry says that Horizon is trying to reestablish contracts with whomever was making the TF and GP kits. Horizon owns the brands but evidently the balsa cutting came from elsewhere. Who knows, but as someone mentioned earlier, we still have Sig, Balsa USA etc. And Lazer Works is doing short kits. I recently got an UltraSport canopy from him so Eddie is doing more than just cutting balsa |
Originally Posted by johnnymax
(Post 12475434)
Hey! What are the links to some of the Kit Cutter sites mentioned earlier? PLEASE!!!! :D
https://www.google.com/search?q=LASE...hrome&ie=UTF-8 |
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If any of you kit builders out there are worrying about the availability of kits, build something from a set of plans. It's NOT hard. All you really need is an exacto knife and some sandpaper to cut out the pieces. Start with something simple like an ugly stik or a Phil Kraft Kwik Fli. Canopies are available from Park flyer plastics for many plans and cowls can be either purchased from fiberglass specialties or made from scratch.
be warned though; once you build a plane from plans, it's hard to go back to kits. carl |
National Balsa offers Hostetler and Ziroli plans kits. Precision Cut Kits has been sold to another company out in Texas, I believe......Saw that one coming.
last April at the Toledo show National had a huge stack of 1/4 scale kits , from what I heard they sold nearly all of them. One o'these days I'm gonna spring for the Hostetler 1/4 Aeronca Champ. |
Sounds like the old days when, if you wanted a plane, you had to design, gather up all the wood and build it yourself. I see the same foamies everywhere I go. I like to have something different. I'm a builder. Wish I could fly as well as I build.
Skyhawk Sandusky, OH |
Originally Posted by Hemikiller
(Post 12475471)
Google man, Google
https://www.google.com/search?q=LASE...hrome&ie=UTF-8 |
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