Ultimate Collectors' Forums

From Kit Rae's Website...

UNITED CUTLERY BANKRUPTCY
As many of you may have heard, United Cutlery, the distributor of the Kit Rae Fantasy Art line of knives and swords, filed for bankruptcy late in 2006. United was purchased in January by Bud-K, a large cutlery retailer and wholesaler operating out of Moultree, Georgia. Kit has not decided if he will stay with the new owners of United or move to a new distributor. We know many of you retailers and wholesalers want to know who to buy products from going forward, so we will announce news here as soon as the decision has been made. STAY TUNED!

Yes, it is not a great name for the fantasy and collectible weapons category. Bud-K is a large knife retailer out of Georgia and was a huge seller of LOTR. They intend to run United as a separate company and keep United name, and continue the direction UC was going. Hopefully they will stay focused on the main business this time.

Sounds like there is an afterlife for UC once the dust has settled. Unfortunately, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Kit mentioned elsewhere that UC no longer has the LOTR license to manufacture replicas from the movies, so unless Bud-K negotiates to reacquire it from New Line somehow, this is the end of the road.

Bud-K does indeed sound like the name of a beer. I always thought there was something odd about it, but hadn't quite put my finger on it.

While they're at it, they should hire a new marketing rep and come up with a better name for their company.

New Info - The owner of Bud-K is the one person who purchased UC. He was a longtime seller of UC products. He will run UC as a separate company out of Thomasville Georgia. He wants to get UC focused back on what it did best, getting back to the core business. They are looking at picking up some of UC's movie licenses. There is more info on my news page.

http://kitrae.net/news.html

thanks for the updates kit... its good to know that there is light at the end of the tunnel and your line and hopefully the LOTR line will continue

Thanks for the update!

This news is definetly good. Perhaps this is an even better change for us as collectors. For a long time, I know I've been frustrated with UC's choices of products and various decisions. New ownership might mean a change of pace from what we've been used to over the years.

The next couple of months should be very interesting to see how things progress.

P.S. My obsessive hopes for Guthwine have just gotten a little better!

I am Adam Wu from Daekoo Enterprise Inc. and even a vendor of UC. It is so nice to learn here that UC will be on track. Thanks for Kit to his post.

I've been prayin' for someone to continue the LOTR line and realize some of the great ideas that were proposed before the meltdown. I wish the new owner all the best! Hopefully, we'll get some news to cheer about in the not too distant future...like a MC Andúril, for starters.

We are vera pleasure that BUDK will bring UC back.

We are very pleasure that BUDK will bring UC back.

I wonder if BudK will be able to get the LOTR license back for United Cutlery. And I read on this forum that the swordsmith facility that made the original LOTR swords is closed down. If they do get it back will the quality be the same? Will they make the same blades? Will they have the same UC stock number(I cant imagine they would)? I am sure the original first editions will be the better quality.