Tony Castronovo's Blog (59)

Dan Hofman owner of Bonzi Sports is the new owner of Enforcer Boat Company and Enforcer Direct mail order. At this time they are making the move from Florida to their factory in Indiana. The phones numbers and website and address are going to stay the same for a while so they will port to Bonzi Sports and will the website continue to have the same address, www.whobbies.com.

It will take a couple of weeks to get the tooling and inventory situated…

Tomorrow afternoon Both Dan Hofman owner of Bonzi Sports and myself will meet with legal console to finalize the paper work and I will hand over Enforcer Boats and Enforcer Direct its the new and rightful owner.

I have known Dan since he started Bonzi Sports, and at one time I helped him manufacture some of his boat line. Dan quickly proved that he was very capable of doing so on his own, and entered the Gas Model Boating Industry at a capacity to where I believed he was Warehouse…

I am very pleased to announce that I and another manufacture in the model boating business have reached a business deal in the sale of Enforcer Boat Company and Enforcer Direct.

As soon as the deal is finalized late next week I am sure the new owner will be more than happy to meet and greet with all of you. He will also become the owner of this great Forum that you guys have made such a pleasure to come to for the past three years.

I ask that all of our Enforcer customers work…

Many people and companies have been in contact with me about possible ownership of EnforcerDirect, and all of the assets and business contacts pertaining to that part of Warehouse Hobbies Inc. There is one manufacture in perticular that I personally believe would be the best company to acquire ownership, and this individule has been a sucessful manufacture in our industry for several years. He is as passionate to the business as I am and have been, and though we are not at the stage of…

Wow, I always knew there may be a day I would have to write this, but never knew how, why, or when. First, we will continue day to day operations selling parts and products but no longer RTR boats or XForce engines. My son Tony will continue to perform engine work for everyone who wants or needs it done, for all XForce and Zenoah 26 - 29cc engines. I have set him up with a complete engine shop inclusive of all the machinery he will require. He has been building all modified engines for the…

We are about to put a new product on the market outside the hobby industry pertaining to hand gun enthusiasts and I would like to get your opinions before we launch it to the main stream gun market.

This product is called the "Pistol Pallet" and it is 22" X 20" X 1.5" produced out of 1/8" thick ABS plastic, very durable. The purpose is to enable you to clean, repair, and or maintain your hand guns in a specific tray that can be placed on the kitchen table, etc. This tray has a large…

Chris and I set up a Video / Media link that can be found in the "Media" section of our website. We think we have the "pop-up" issue under control so you can watch the shows and only have to tolerate my commercials and not sit through a Viagra infomercial. 

I have to confess haven't watching these videos in several years they almost put me to sleep! It's like listening to the music I used to sing and play 20 + years ago... Why is it that the things…

Here is number # 3 in our custom series that we are calling, "Tides of War" named "Wild Wild West". James and me sat down a few days ago and I had the idea based on the series and movies. I visioned the Gatling guns, a deck cannon, and the wooden box and threw it at him. He said "Where did that come from" ? I said I've been hanging around you and Sean too long...

James took the boat and said leave it to me, and of…

1)-Please send up to (8) pictures in jpg format sized 960 in width and it is OK for auto scale height, however for best display 960 X 960 is ideal.

2)- Provide the following information for best results:

A- Full Name

B- Model of boat

C- Year of boat

D- Manufacturer ( assuming it's not us, you can use "Brand X" )

E-Boat Nick Name ( if applicable )

F- Description for boat, captions for photo's ( If applicable )

Visit our new…

Here is a picture of our newest paint scheme dreamed up by our in-house artist James, he calls it; Geared For War. This paint scheme will be available from now until 12/31/2013, and then retired. James is a free hand air brush artist and not a decal / stencil kind of guy, so each piece is an original.

This scheme costs- $300.00…

Our new website is up and we want to build a new Gallery, and I can't think of a better way than to start by using all of you guys on the Forum.

All you have to do is email the following information to: whobbies@strato.net and we will put it in the Gallery on our site that gets on average of 500,000 hits per month, that's allot of eyes.

1)- Your name

2)- Your boats name ( if you gave it one )

3)- Enforcer model

4)- Model year

5)- Anything special…

It's been one heck of a journey for Sean and me since January of last year when the both of us sat down to discuss designing and coding our own website and hosting platform.

The concept is based on ideas I have had for several years, just not the talent to pull it off alone. Sean came to work with us a little over two years ago and his computer skills began to shine from day one. Though we were at the liberty of the hosting company we were using for several years, he put the "old"…

If anyone who is into facebook and interested we set up a facebook page for our company. To access go to Warehouse Hobbies from facebook. Let's try to use both of these types of media to create more interest in our products and sport.

I know how us guys get excited when we get new toys, and of course it's no different for me too. About five weeks ago I commissioned a brand new Thermal Forming machine to be built for our company, and like a kid I have been looking forward to it's arrival since. You would think that after all these years that the thrill of a new machine would wear off, but that hasn't happened. 

It's more than likely because I have been re-energized in manufacturing on US soil for the past couple…

Typically prior to public release advertisers receive the first copies of magazines. Not only did Maplegate Media comply with industry norm, as I now have one on my desk, I can't tell you how pleased I am with the results of their first, number 1, Ono, Model Boat magazine.

Starting with the layout...It is the utmost professional to say the least. They did a great job of positioning adds, topics, reviews through-out the magazine so it reads and flows making a Gas-man such as myself…

In a few weeks you will all be treated to a new website by Myself and Tony at Warehouse Hobbies. Tony and I are behind most of the design and concepts for his companies websites, and he has ideas for improvements all of the time. Unfortunately some of those ideas have not been practical for application in the past due to computer, hosting and software differences and limitations.

Today with speed, memory, and most important hosting issues improving almost daily, we are going to…

It's official the magazine is a reality, and now it's up to us. I lobbied very hard for this directly to Sharon Warner owner of Maplegate Media several times, not to mention many of her employees over the past couple years. I know first hand what it takes to bring something to market, and how risky it is to do-so in these days and time.

I ask that we all support Maplegates efforts and applaud them for taking on this new magazine, that was done for our sake without a very good basis…

I received a call from one of our customers yesterday, Gordon, and it seems there was a piece of steel that got into his hull and was picked up into the intake of the engine. We manufacture a difuser that was intended to keep large "gulps" of water from entering the carburetor as well as any debris in the hull.

The difuser is designed to work with our composite or die cast V Stack. Bothered by this I spent this morning coming up with a way to modify the existing part to be able to use…