I think that another factor was the introduction of the Bongo and SUB and the need to free up some production time to meet the orders. Given that the Super Sport was available for not a masive amount more and sales of the Sport being relatively low, they had to go.
The Axis Sports are really cool and they tend to cheap on EvilBay because they are lesser known. I think they stopped because they had the Axis and the ASS and as Phatty said they we're a big seller I think.
I've own 3 of them and I have always thought they were very under rated.
Axis Sports with MM90's are really nice. You could always get a righty and pull a Hendrix and string it backwards.