Bombers are good and remain quite popular.
I used to smoke the fish in Gansett dead sticking the B-17 Baby Striper pattern but I have not been able to get that size in a while.
Overall, the Black Purple A-Salt and the Yellow/Pearl A-Salt are very popular in Rhody.
The Schoolbus, All Black & Blue/Silver are quite popular in Jersey and NY. The custom Bombers are also very popular. The Blue/Silver is good around here when there are herring around.
They are the best swimmers in the under-$7 price range but that is not exactly elite company. I've noticed no manufacturing changes as off late. The increased failings are most likley because people are using heavy braid with the drag socked down around 20#-30# - I would not sugest subjecting a stock Bomber to more than 10# of drag.
The stock hooks will bend after even a modest fish of 15 pounds or so. The lips have been known to come off in a current. I've heard of the joints failing but I've only gotten one or two back out of hundreds. If you have any damaged Bombers lying around, Pradco (the parent company) will replace them. Swap out the hooks for VMC and back off the drag and they are capable of handling a pretty good fish.
I sell a lot of patterns -
SRI Bomber Page