Or, has it been licensed out to cbid et al?

I do know that the scary place sells them, so I don't know how they would still be a CI exclusive. Main reason I'm back here. I won a few 5vers over there, and realized I missed them as a decent everyday cheap smoke. Not the regular MOW, but the Ruination, etc. I also came back for the Genisis Project, but man, has that thing turned into a turd.

David

The Man 'o War line was always one of the "branded-house-brands" only available through CI and the CI-related companies. It was always an "under contract" cigar not available at a B&M or from other companies. But, as far as I can tell from several searches, they are still made at the Tabacalera location. If they are available from a non-"Scandinavian" outlet, that would be interesting. Dumping excess? Bad batch even by CI standards? Here is an interesting blurb I found.

While Fernandez has his own brands, like the vaunted San Lotano, 60 percent of the cigars made at this factory go to Cigars International, a giant catalog company owned by Scandinavian Tobacco Group. About 10 percent of his production is dedicated to private-label brands and the rest of the workforce produces Fernandez's own brands. If Cigar International's catalog customers don't know A.J.'s name, they know his cigars, most notably Man O' War and Diesel—two brands that have become immensely popular with budget conscious fans of full-bodied cigars.

Cigars International keeps the factory in business, but the catalog company has no direct financial stake in the operation (despite industry whispers that they've bankrolled the factory). Tabacalera A.J. Fernandez belongs to Fernandez alone. The steady flow of massive business from Cigars International allows Fernandez the leeway to be creative with his own brands. Lines like San Lotano (Top 25 cigars of 2012, 91 points), New World and Enclave, which scored 92 points in Cigar Aficionado for its Churchill size, are emblematic of Fernandez's acumen as a cigar maker. And while his large operation requires him to buy a lot of third-party leaf in bulk, he uses mostly tobacco that he's grown himself for his own brands.

Note that last bit with the third-party leaf. As stated, that does not go into his own brands but the stuff made for CI which opens up a lot of possibilities for variations in quality, flavor and even burn.

I have always liked the Puro Authentico ones when gotten here at Cbid fairly cheap. Pretty sure one of the old Blendlabs that I liked and bought a bunch of was a prototype of this offering.

Eh.........don’t know about that.

I like the MOWPAs after a long nap, and I used to like the Ruinations after a good nap as well.

Still have plenty of MOWPAs with years on them, but ran out of Ruinations a few years back.........kinda forget about them................so maybe that’s a tell, in and of itself.....heh heh.

I just remember liking them, and was gonna grab some.

But then thought I read/heard that the ManoWar and Diesel lines are now made under contract.

Hoping that it was just a rumor...

Good info.....thanks fellas

As of this moment, the scary place has multiple lines of Diesel and MOW up for auction. Unless I'm completely out of the loop, they are still non-Scandinavian. Maybe the cigars are no longer an exclusive, the scary place is no longer non-Scandinavian, OR CI's now selling cigars to their competition. Uhmmmmm.

David

You know, I have never been certain which place people are referring to when they say the "scary place" LOL, but STG has in the past year purchased some additional outlets including the Machine-gunned themed store based in Tampa.

That’s a bit troubling.........seriously doubt Diesels and MoWs are going to be as solid as they once were.

And DP finding quality issues with recent shipments isn’t a good development either.

Think I’m gonna pass on those Ruinations...........10-packs going for $26 on FF?

That’s another red flag imo.

The well known scary place, the MB3 place, and a short list of smaller other players is all that is left of independent online shpos doing a decent volume of sales.

If the Wellknown and MB3 place get gobbled up?

We’re kinda scrood...

Ya know, although it doesn't quite specifically state this, the blurb implies that there are even different rollers and others that make the CI offerings when it says "the rest of the workforce." Training people on the CI blends?????

Seems like a lot of the buzz with aj for a long time was that he had a bunch of aged tobacco... Can't imagine he's been keeping that store and age process up at the rate he's been selling... I'm sure he's still got access to quality tobacco, but do you think he's putting it in anything that sells for $3?

On a similar note, the mb3 place - which is usually at least $1/cigar over priced when stuffs not on sale - sells all the Undercrowns for $3.50 a pop now... Never thought I'd see the day when some of my favorites became unsmokeable...

Hahahaha!

Delta! You funny!

What did you put in your bong this morning?

$3.50/ea for all Undercrowns at MB3??

I’m not seeing that..................and never saw that.

Maybe I need to smoke your stuff?

Not seeing it now either, but I saw it multiple times on the weekly special in the last 2 month's... $3.49 a pop... All 3 kinds...

Ok......got it.........I thought that you meant all the time.

Must have missed the sales............I like the Shade line for A Connie