Sadly I have only been in the astronomy hobby for half the time of Laurie and yet I have owned more than double the number of scopes in that time so I am clearly destined to never pay off my mortgage.
Ironically, akin to Larry my worst experience with a Telescope was also a Vixen - a NA140 - however also akin to Larry it wasn't terrible but simply disappointing in terms of performance for something sporting such spec's. The ideas/theory was attractive but the reality simply didn't work
Some folks seem to think that if it is made in Japan or it supposedly has some sort of changed coatings this has a greater effect in improving it's image over the laws of physics and optics in terms of refraction, focal length ratios etc