Craig,

Your post helped crystalize my take on these "designer's special" type boxes. I started out as a BAR by building three kits and resurrecting three others from the attic. The Estes Designer's Special was helpful both in rehabbing the attic birds as well as letting me explore my own scratch and cloning ideas. No doubt this box was truly helpful. And I gladly paid the outrageous price at the B&M hobby store.

But once I got going, I pretty much moved beyond the Designer's Special. I could get plenty of balsa sheets from lots of stores. I picked up a stash of tubes and rings from TT and a stash of cones and rings from BMS. Cutting my own parachutes from many plastic bags was easy enough. (Glide floss makes great MR suspension lines

The point was that, once I got going, my bulk purchases tended to be more specialized. So I agree with you that these type things are mainly starting points. After that, it's hard for me to see much market for a "super duper gigantic deluxe designer's special". I don't see one as a starting point - it's too big - and I think most builders will be more specialized when they begin supplementing their stash beyond their first designer's special. (Plus, it's obvious that getting agreement on what goes into the super-duper box is about impossible

I'd say, after the basic designer's special type package with a sampling of everything, that the next best things would be ring packs, nosecone packs, body tube packs, etc. I think builders will see these as less wasteful and hehce more desirable.

Doug