Tower Hobbies
#52
In my experience, if Tower was out of something, Omni was, too.
#53
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Milan,
IN
Posts: 233
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Tom C. You are right. In reading the fine print in the bankruptcy filing, Hobbico declares Omni to be part of their retail arm. They probably just provide a front end to towers website and the orders go straight into Towers fulfillment log. Since the don't have their own inventory and probably few assets and no liabilities, they are not included in the filing directly.
#56
Just got the email that Tower has been bought out by Horizon. Hopefully they will maintain the hard copy catalog and the customer interfaces Tower had, as all that worked well, at least for me. Horizon is looking like the biggest firm in our hobby.
#58
I posted a link to further news on the Hobbico purchase of Hobbico in this post here: http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/club...l#post12420378 .
It explains a little on Hobbico employees applying for positions in Horizon. Don't know how things will look after the dust settles.
It explains a little on Hobbico employees applying for positions in Horizon. Don't know how things will look after the dust settles.
#62
Bye Tower Bye Hobbico.. maybe you should have paid your bills came up with a better business plan and not stolen Other Rc makers ideas even after you where warned for years.. you really wont be missed ..
#63
My email came on April 07. It reminds me of something Hobby King would do.
#64
Those of you who are interested in the kit status of Tower Hobbies, I've attached a spreadsheet as jpg images. Green means "In Stock", Yellow means "Available in near future". I left the other statuses in Pink, because I've seen stuff with these statuses for a long long time, such as Super Tigre engines. Unless I see a change, I've interpreted those as a good possibility they will never be stocked.
Last edited by GallopingGhostler; 04-09-2018 at 02:14 PM.
#66
Well SIG kits are available, just not through Tower. Reason to buy through TH for the SIG is to get easy credit, otherwise best to go direct to SIG.
I would think a viable company could be created to build kits on demand. For the most part the hardware is all the same, so would be a matter of printing plans, laser cutting the parts, packing the proper sized sheets and sticks, and having a supply of canopies and cowls. The company would need to have molds and forms to make the plastic and glass parts for each kit, but with the right planning, they should be able to put together any kit made by any company that no longer exists such as Pica, Byron, ETC. provided of course they can get the rights to do it. The key though would be to know which ones would still be popular to sell enough to offset the plug and mold costs, and the time needed to convert line to raster for the lasers.
I would think a viable company could be created to build kits on demand. For the most part the hardware is all the same, so would be a matter of printing plans, laser cutting the parts, packing the proper sized sheets and sticks, and having a supply of canopies and cowls. The company would need to have molds and forms to make the plastic and glass parts for each kit, but with the right planning, they should be able to put together any kit made by any company that no longer exists such as Pica, Byron, ETC. provided of course they can get the rights to do it. The key though would be to know which ones would still be popular to sell enough to offset the plug and mold costs, and the time needed to convert line to raster for the lasers.
#67
My Feedback: (6)
It seems to me there are more designs coming available as short kits thru different laser cutting services all the time. Laser cutters have come down in price and a lot of services are popping up as side businesses. I think it is these small 1 and 2 people shops who will keep building alive. I'm waiting for a big supplier like Tower, Horizon, Hobby King to develop a cut on demand kit service like you see in book publishing. There are several on demand l publishers that now print when the order is placed. I suspect they may have to have a certain number of orders to make it profitable but I see it could work for kits. The order process could be fairly automated with subsets of parts like cowls, canopies, windows, hardware, wire, and pushrods all package separately. An order prints out listing the cut file name and wood sizes required along with subset part package numbers and plan number. Once the wood is cut an order puller drops the pieces in the appropriate size box and the kit is ready.
#68
My Feedback: (2)
I like to build. My local hobby shop changed owners. Went up their last week. Almost nothing is available to build with. No hardware or engines. They had a bucket with some Monokote in it. Now Tower is basically gone. I did order a BTE Venture 60 kit from Bruce. I've also purchased short kits from Eureka Aircraft. So I'll ask, where are you guys buying hardware from?
#70
My Feedback: (6)
I like to build. My local hobby shop changed owners. Went up their last week. Almost nothing is available to build with. No hardware or engines. They had a bucket with some Monokote in it. Now Tower is basically gone. I did order a BTE Venture 60 kit from Bruce. I've also purchased short kits from Eureka Aircraft. So I'll ask, where are you guys buying hardware from?
#71
Those of you who are interested in the kit status of Tower Hobbies, I've attached a spreadsheet as jpg images. Green means "In Stock", Yellow means "Available in near future". I left the other statuses in Pink, because I've seen stuff with these statuses for a long long time, such as Super Tigre engines. Unless I see a change, I've interpreted those as a good possibility they will never be stocked.
Seeing the SIG group not being restocked is rather sad, but at least we still have SIG active and doing their thing still.
Kinda looks like I need to grab a couple kits while they're still available. There ARE a couple I'm interested in on your list.
#72
You're welcome, tailskid and Dave. Took some work but didn't take as much time as you suspect. I did a copy of the text on their web page, pasted into a plain text editor. Then deleted the superfluous info, created a comma separated list, imported into a spreadsheet. Format and label, voilà! Work came easy creating something out of nothing being a paperwork jock for the gubmet for 28 years.
#75
Not sure about kit availability, but engines and other items I have been trying to order are back in stock, so I sent an order in today. Hopefully they will get their stocking situation straightened out now that they have been bought out. I'm encouraged.