Comet kits need another chance.

[NcGunny]

Since Guillows owns Comet I see no reason why they couldnt rerelease these kits. Offer them on the website only,hell they could even be packaged in plastic bags without boxes. Whole kit wouldnt even have a production cost of 10.00 for the smaller sizes. Somehow Comet has snuck in and become my favorite build,then Vernon,Guillows. Been buying and hoarding from scamBay for 2 months and its getting sickening. I literally just paid more for the shipping than the kit sold for. Just one person churning out printed wood a day would be alot of kits. ..my 2 cents

[elkhart]

I agree, I like the comet kits. It would be nice to see Guillows expand their line with Comet models, and I'm sure they've studied the option. Unfortunately the results, from a business standpoint, didn't support our wishes. But at least we can download plans and scratch build!

[NcGunny]

Might be correct Elk, but sometimes companies are bought out to end your competition. There is a big swing to nostalgic builds atm going on. The UK and Germany being in the forefront of it, but when I can buy 2 Comet kits for the price of 1 new Guillows...guess what I am going with?! Its a bang for your buck for me thing. Gotta be another reason other than business, like I said..a generic no frills Comet kit could be made for a few dollars.

[WIDDOG]

I also agree, I believe Comet kits where designed for rubber power. I think that the Multi purpose kits should be replaced with rubber power designs. They don't even make Co2 or Cox motors anymore.

[NcGunny]

This isnt meant for a bashing thread, but I dont care for LC kits. Something is lost in the build process when do punch out parts,but from a business point it makes alot of sense. People build the kits 3x as fast as die crunch,and then.they are forced to buy more kits... Offer the Comet kits in models Guillows doesnt already offer if they are afraid of losing sales. But I agree Wid,the basic kit info hasnt been upgraded in YEarSsss! But it does still offer the box instructions where it can be run on engine if you buy a antIque Cox.

[Steve Blanchard]

For those of you who are unaware, Penn Valley Hobby Center kits many of the old Comet kits as well as the Megow kits. They are excellent wood quality too. Just remember many of the kits of that era had stabilizers that were a little small. Bump them up a little and you have some great planes that will go OOS when trimmed properly.

Steve

[scigs30]

Comet kits are great and I think I have built most of them. The original kits can still be found on ebay for at a decent price, but the wood can be dicey. Or you can just buy from Penn Valley, great kits. What about Sterling kits? Does Guillows own them or does Estes still own them?

[NcGunny]

Just lost a whole big write up about Sterling buy out. Yes Estes still owns most but not.all the kits.As far as I know it was never made public.who had bought some of the dies and kits that werent sold to Estes. As most probably know a warehouse fire claimed all the dies and most of the inventory Estes had bought..but..Estes had supposedly received 1 shipment of kits that just happened to be all of Sterlings worst sellers..lol. Rumor was that Estes was supposed to input lots of.money into the Sterling plant to include kits of planes that would use their rocket engines,but the day after.the sale production was ceased. I have heard it mentioned that the buyout was to put Sterling out of business,retool select planes for rocket engines and.junk the rest. The fire made it unfeasible to remake dies and make a fast buck. Somehow I think their failing to purchase Sterlings boat company Chris Craft (another whole story itself) made somebody mad and they got even. Wish I knew what dies and kits were sold to the mystery company.

[scigs30]

NcGunny, I would be interested in seeing the write you had for the history of Sterling buy out. I am everywhere, the RC builders forum, plastic plane forum, freeflight forums and of course model rocket forums. Estes has really turned things around from a few years ago. Estes had a pretty poor kit selection until recently and did not listen to its customers. Now Estes has brought back many of their famous kits and introduced a lot of new ones. Estes biggest sellers are the RTF rockets, just like the airplanes but they still keep us builders happy by producing kits. I wish they would bring back some of the Sterling kits, but I doubt that will ever happen.

[NcGunny]

Well they own the rights to the planes,but its of little value if you have no dies to crunch your wood. They were all destroyed in the warehouse fire along with pretty much all the stock. A friend said there was some kits that survived the fire and they were sold as/is or damaged. They called them "fire sale" kits..lol. He said you could smell the smoke on the boxes.

[scigs30]

Here is my Sterling ME109 built right out of the box with old die crunched balsa.

[elkhart]

To minimize tooling, Guillows could offer the Comet kits with good wood and printed sheets, no die crunch or laser cut. Cost could be kept low, plastic parts, plans, etc are easily produced.

[NcGunny]

My way of thinking Guillows may end up being the last balsa company. Except for the Mom and Pops garage kits. I have seen some excellent garage kits lately for cheaper than the 500 series planes shipped to my house. But that was what I was thinking, printed wood. Even if it wasnt the best grade balsa I would be okay with it,I constantly hand cut parts so I wouldnt want my fingers to get used to a easy time..lol Scigs..that isnt kit tissue is it? Looks way to good to be old kit stuff. On Thursday I had placed a call to Guillows design department to see if anything could be done with some of these Comet kits. It wouldnt even kill them to run a poll to see how much interest there might be in buying the stuff if it were to be produced.

[scigs30]

It is just red domestic tissue from Peck Polymers. There are a ton of old balsa kits for sale on eBay for decent prices, also Dumas has real nice kits.

[NcGunny]

I have a few Dumas tucked away for a rainy day. Storch,Dornier,Waco glider, Texans x4. We hit up a hobby shop that had all their stick kits on blowout. Think I paid 5.99 each and was pleased to pay it..lol. If I went back in time I would have bought the whole aisle today. Even the big Great Planes and stuff were like 10.00 ea. That shop carried the most stick kits I have ever seen stocked in 1 place. I remember the owner was in a rocket club and had some license to launch liquid fuel types.