I bought a Tica reel a couple of years ago.  I was looking at it in the shop and I had heard about problems with them so I asked the guy in the shop about it.  Turned out he used to work for kilwell I think it was and he had been involved with the tica reels from the start.  He explained the problem that they originally had.  I can't remember exactly, but was something to do with clearances on the main shaft not being right.  When the reels got worked hard they got warm, which lead to them locking up.  They eventually worked the problem out and re-designed the man shaft to be much more robust.  He said there were now no problems, but unfortunately the bad name has stuck a bit.  I've not had any problems, but sadly have never had a fish big enough to really work the reel hard yet.