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Tower Hobbies

Old 02-23-2018, 06:18 AM
  #51  
fourstar40
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Pretty much Omni models is Tower. Same products, same prices, same availability. Shipping details are about the only difference.
Old 02-23-2018, 06:42 AM
  #52  
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Originally Posted by fourstar40
Pretty much Omni models is Tower. Same products, same prices, same availability. Shipping details are about the only difference.
Yup. I haven't noticed Omni being mentioned in the bankruptcy proceedings, but I believe Hobbico purchased them 20+ years ago.

In my experience, if Tower was out of something, Omni was, too.
Old 02-26-2018, 07:59 AM
  #53  
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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.
Old 02-26-2018, 12:25 PM
  #54  
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There are also some train related sites that are through Tower, see the emails all the time along with plastic models ads.
Old 03-07-2018, 11:42 AM
  #55  
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Well, at least Tower's customer support is still as good as ever. My Hobbico fuel pump died after 9 months of relatively little use. I called them up and they are sending me a new one. They will have my business as long as they are around.
Old 04-07-2018, 06:50 AM
  #56  
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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.
Old 04-07-2018, 06:17 PM
  #57  
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Horizon had taken over the Hobbico booth at Weak Signals Toledo. They knew well before it was announced it was a done deal.
Old 04-08-2018, 10:27 AM
  #58  
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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.
Old 04-09-2018, 11:10 AM
  #59  
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Certainly the end of an era. I started ordering from Tower in the mid-80’s... I never thought I’d see the day when they folded.

Man. I need to go to the SIG fly-in this year, while it’s still healthy.
Old 04-09-2018, 12:03 PM
  #60  
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Yeah, don't know what will happen when Hazel is gone, that is still her field. I just have a few things to finish up and will be ready for the Flyin.
Old 04-09-2018, 12:12 PM
  #61  
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Received an email from Tower saying that we needed to opt out from having our customer data sold to Horizon by April 06. Email was received April 06, 8:12 pm Pacific time! Wonder if Horizon will accept Tower gift certificates.
Old 04-09-2018, 01:20 PM
  #62  
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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 ..
Old 04-09-2018, 01:42 PM
  #63  
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Originally Posted by RC_Fanatic
Received an email from Tower saying that we needed to opt out from having our customer data sold to Horizon by April 06. Email was received April 06, 8:12 pm Pacific time! Wonder if Horizon will accept Tower gift certificates.
My email came on April 07. It reminds me of something Hobby King would do.
Old 04-09-2018, 02:08 PM
  #64  
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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.
Old 04-09-2018, 03:18 PM
  #65  
tailskid
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wow! That took some time to post....THANKS for doing that.
Old 04-09-2018, 04:45 PM
  #66  
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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.
Old 04-10-2018, 05:17 AM
  #67  
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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.
Old 04-10-2018, 08:22 AM
  #68  
JNorton
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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?
Old 04-10-2018, 08:31 AM
  #69  
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Swap meets mostly. Hobbytown in Rockford carries a somewhat decent collection of hardware too.
Old 04-10-2018, 11:20 AM
  #70  
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Originally Posted by JNorton
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?
I believe DuBro sells direct you may want to check out their website.
Old 04-10-2018, 01:15 PM
  #71  
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Originally Posted by GallopingGhostler
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.

WOW! That took some time to put together, I'm sure. Well done!!

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.
Old 04-10-2018, 01:33 PM
  #72  
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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.
Old 04-23-2018, 11:42 AM
  #73  
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Sure hope Tower's new ownership works on getting all these products back on stock...
Old 04-23-2018, 01:09 PM
  #74  
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2 weeks after I produced the kit status list, a quick spot check, no changes.
Old 05-23-2018, 08:06 AM
  #75  
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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.

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