Bob Vila Launches His Own Branded Tool Line
By Chuck Cage
According to the Bradenton Herald (via Newsday), Bob Vila’s launching his own tool line. Really. From their coverage:
“Designed to be user-firnedly enough for the average homeowner, piece range from $16.90 for a utility knife to $79.90 for a 300-piece drill accessory kit.”
The tools are to be sold via the Home Shopping Network and directly via Bob’s own site, so we strolled over to BobVila.com to check ‘em out. At first glance, they appear to be similar in build quality to the “celebrity” brands created for and marketed to women recently. One major difference: Bob seems to have put some real thought into the accessories provided with many of the kits.
For example, a 220 RPM, 22 in-lb-capable cordless screwdriver ships as a 120-piece kit including six 1/4″ drive sockets, seven nut drivers, three Phillips bits, four standard bits, four Torx bits, four hex bits, three square bits, and hell — a bunch more. Good stuff, not just ten slightly-different-sized screwdriver bits, all for under $40.
One struck me as a bit funny, though: the Bob Vila 25′ Tape Measure with Voice Recorder. Wow.
Bob Vila Launches Tool Line [Bradenton.com]
Bob Vila Tools [BobVila.com]
December 31st, 2006 at 6:42 pm
That is defanitly not Scottish.
January 1st, 2007 at 6:12 am
Looks like a Ryobi to me. Vila must have lost his gig with Craftsman.
January 1st, 2007 at 11:51 am
Dude, I’ve had my fair shares of Ryobi, and that is not even up to Ryobi standards - that looks like the models I see at Harbor Freight! The only difference seems to be the packaging.
Yep, not Scottish.
January 2nd, 2007 at 3:20 pm
I don’t know about the rest of yawl, but I’m going to take some vacation time from work and start watching HSN now. I might miss it when they go up for sale, and I’ll bet this will mix a 5-gal bucket of cement at least as fast as my DeWalt cordless does.
January 3rd, 2007 at 9:45 pm
Yeah, your DeWalt 12V non-XRP drill.. the little compact one… hehe.
Then you start smelling the nylon gear’s in the Vila going up in smoke.