Fractured Axel

One of my team mates got one of those HQ Crackerjacks that were (very briefly!) offered on amazon for about £70. Really nice kite, and most definitely worth the £70! As we were trying out and discussing the kite, the conversation went to the HQ Chrome. Does anyone know what actually happened to that kite? As far as I'm aware, it was for sale quite briefly on a few German kite-shop web-sites for something like £250 or so, and then completely disappeared. Did they sell many? Was it a bad kite? If it was a bad kite, I'd have expected to see them offered 2nd hand by people desperate to get some of their money back, but don't remember seeing any coming up ... Clearly, if you're going to spend £200+ on a kite, you're more likely to go for a Benson or something at that high level. Did that kill the Chrome? Anyway, we were just curious, and if someone has a Chrome for £70, I'll take it

The Chrome was HQ's attempt at a proper high end kite. It looked good, it was supposed to perform well enough and the spec was good - nothing outstanding- but high end standard ( Icarex sail and Dynamic and ( I think) Skyshark frame). The problem was the price - £250ish - not excessive for high end but spend £250 on a Benson and you know what you are going to get, but spend £250 on an HQ?....I like HQ kites but it's a lot of money on a bit of a gamble. This wasn't helped by the fact that HQ let out almost no information about it, there were only a couple of unofficial videos which weren't very helpful and no kites for testing. When Flying wings released the Soul ( their high end bid) they sent test kites everywhere and got some good feedback but HQ didn't and so very few were sold as not many wanted to take a risk. However if you can hold of one for £70 I'd bite their hand off!!