Price Drop ARF Flite Streak Nobler @ Tower

LAST EDITED ON Apr-21-04 AT 04:08 AM (CDT)
 
Nobler $84.99
Flite Streak $49.99
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So far,
Hyper Viper $39.99 (Initial pricing)
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.04.21.04

Dang! Another month and they're gonna pay US to takem off their hands!

I wonder if they are trying to pre-empt Brodak as his new arfs should be out shortly. My real question when they are selling these for less than kit prices is where are they cutting their costs? Hardware for one. Gotta be cuts in structure as well. But you still have to ship stuff to China and back. I bet the Chinese are getting rich off of these (tongue in cheek),

I imagine, since most of us have bought one or two of these airplanes, that the demand has about dried up. The market place at work I guess.

>I wonder if they are trying to pre-empt Brodak as his new
>arfs should be out shortly.

I doubt it - in fact, if they are aware of Brodak at all, it would be somewhat surprising. Far more likely, saturation is setting in and they are trying to keep the sales up for a while longer, or at least until this batch is gone. Then, who knows.

They are pretty good deals, get one while they last.

I also noticed in the new Tower catalog that they are offering a $5 rebate on the ST 51 in addition to the "regular" $89 price.

That is awfully tempting, I must say...

What really makes it tempting is that the LHS sells the Brodak nobler kit for $79.99, and you have buy finishing materials, find time to build it, and actually get it done.

I will have to check and see if that last E-mail from Tower for $10 off has expired, that will cover the shipping charges. Nah- I think I'll still wait for the Brodak stuff.

Those prices just blow me away. I have built several Flite Streaks and Noblers through the years and as much as I hate to admit it my Nobler ARF is probably the straightest and lightest version I have ever owned.

Brett is correct in that it would really surprise me if Brodak and their upcoming releases are any factor at all in the thinking and marketing at Hobbico/Great Planes/Tower. This is merely conincidental in that Hobbico and their umbrella companies, as the Big Dog on the block, pretty much do what is in their own interests, leaving the Brodaks and many others of the world to worry about them instead.

It's spring, folks! Flying season is either here or just around the corner, depending upon where you live. How many times do we have to see appropriate products marketed at the appropriate time of the year for an attractive price to get it?

Having said that, even I am somewhat taken aback at the quoted prices. Excellent value, maybe it's time for me to finally get an ARF Nobler.

I have generally found that when Great Planes/Tower offeres a truly low price on an item it is best to buy immediately.
Case in point, Tower offered their 40 for $39.95. I said that they were going to discontinue them and bought 6 of them. They were discontinued about a month later.
Point is if you haven't got one and want one and don't want to be left out it might be time to step up to the plate and get it while it's there.
Dennis

Dennis,

You may be right, but the 40 was a mature product by then and they had a replacement all lined up and ready to go. The ARFs are still pretty fresh and it's not like they can replace either of them with comparable product, even if I would love to see an ARF Gieseke Nobler.

Also, I have a sneaky suspicion that the price points on Brodak's upcoming ARFs are being held down due to pressure from those of Top Flite. Were we to lose ready access to ARF Flite Streaks and Noblers we might end up losing on both ends of the deal.

Still, as mentioned before, the very existence of ARF CL models comes simply from the RC ARF business maturing in many ways, virtually every niche market having been addressed, in some cases to the point of over-kill. When that happens, companies begin poking around the margins looking for more business. We neatly fill the bill, can't get much more niche market than the CL business.

There is a chance that our purchasing power is not enough to hold the attention of Top Flite. I don't think that's the case--witness dedicated CL engines in the LA line--but have no way of knowing the true situation as they see it.

From my experience in the firearms business, the Chinese will make darn near anything you want and do it cheaper than anyone else on the planet and still not lose in the bargain. I suspect that GP could sell these for half the current marked down price and still be turning a profit on them.

Jake

LAST EDITED ON Apr-22-04 AT 02:24 PM (CDT)
 
One other thing on Great Planes or Top Flite or any other business.
If you have saturated your market with the product and your clearing them out then the price reduction is certainly the way to go. Now the optimism sets in for me.
Obviously they have had a fair amount of ARF's that were in their line over the years that were discontinued and replaced by something else.
Ive been blitzing them for a Peacemaker, and I know that the Tudor has been mentioned several times. You could even see a Combat Streak,
or something completely new. If nothing else they have proven that the stuff will sell, I doubt that for the cost of production for them that they would now neglect a niche market that they spent some effort developing.
Dennis

Definitely market forces at play. Brodak vs GP CL ARFs is not even in the noise level of GP's financial status.