Estes Requests Feedback - Bring Back The oldies

Wow! This is great news! Thanks Dave.

Done, my selections emailed to him were: Maxi Brute Pershing, Saros, Photon Disruptor, Saturn 1B, Andromeda.

I did not include my first ever kit, the Astron X-Ray, 'cause I figured it is kind of a boring kit by today's standards and nobody but me would want one. Wouldn't be the same without a balsa nosecone, anyhow.

Thanks for the info, and may the Rocket Gods bless Estes for bringing back the oldies!

POINT.

There is a LARGE customer base with fond memories. They have more money than they used to. A ripe market.

Obviously not clients of Morgan Stanley.

snip

I think it's great that someone is willing to listen to us about bringing back a few of the older kits.

My list looks like this:

1. Saturn V K-36 or 2001
2. Titan III E 2019
3. Colonial Viper 1310
4. Pro Patriot 2066
5. Strike Fighter 2015
6. Space Shuttle Columbia 1385
7. Interceptor K-50

Centuri:

1. Vulcan KA-10
2. Space Shuttle KC-6
3. U.S.S. America 5310
4. F-104 Star Fighter 5320
5. NASA Space Shuttle Columbia 5343

I'd love to see a few of the older kits brought back. I'd even be willing to pre-order and pay for them before production started and I don't think I'd be alone in that either.

Randy

Fair enough.

Take the link to Jim Z's site and spend a few minutes going through all the Estes & Centuri kits listed there and then come back here and tell us you don't understand. There have been some fantastic kits that would go in a hurry, either on line or in the stores. Heck, it might even start a renaissance for model rocketry.

Randy

Yes and some willing to prepay and preorder several of each! Older kids with BUCK$!

VERY!

Randy

I told you so :)

It keeps being apropos.

Agree.

Mild agreement

Agree.

Yes.

Yes with 29mm host.

Jerry

I would rather see Estes do a Skyhook upscale (24mm C,D,E).

Jerry

Swing Wing Crusader....the coolest rocket Estes made during the 80s.

When you got your first catalog, it was printed on a stone tablet :)

OK, I'll buy that. My first catalog was the 69 Estes (IIRC), and there were a few 3FNC's in there, the Sky Hook being one that comes to mind. While I have a fondness for it like so many other BARs, by 69, it had come back to the pack.

Doug

The Sky Hook (K-8 for those counting) predates the Alpha, any of the scale kits, gliders except for the Space Plane, Gyroc, et al. When I got my first catalog, none of the 13 kits were "filler".

Bob Kaplow NAR # 18L TRA # "Impeach the TRA BoD" >>> To reply, remove the TRABoD!

I've still got my original from 1963. The engine block is a drilled out balsa nose block. Original (and badly degraded) shock cord. Painted by a 10 year old kid.

Me2...

Bob Kaplow NAR # 18L TRA # "Impeach the TRA BoD" >>> To reply, remove the TRABoD!

I wouldn't mind seeing many of these come back - especially the Cobra 1500 and Pershing 1A. Always liked the Defender, too.

I would comment that it is unlikely you'll ever see the Scud-B return. Years ago, I had a conversation with Mary Roberts of Estes that went something like this:

"We only ever made one run of 20,000 Scud-B kits. The things wouldn't sell, so every time we got requests for giveaways for the next three years we sent them at least twenty of the things. We finally got rid of all of them."

The plastic nose cone lived on for a while in the DART kit; I don't know if the nose is still available or not. I cannibalized a DART to build a fun-scale Scud-B, complete with Iraqi flag (pre-Saddam tricolor version) that is starting to look like crap but that I still fly pretty often. The nose cone is in good shape so I suppose I could always build it a new body. Great fun to bring out and run in drag races with folks who have the BT-60 Patriot missile kit :-) [Although to keep things in scale, the BT-20 mini-engine Patriot is closer to the right ratio]

MJ

My first kit, too. I remember finding rocket kits at the hobby store and there was a rocket which could launch payloads! I wanted that X-Ray sooooo bad. I started saving for it and walked to the store every day to make sure it hadn't been sold. I finally got it and I don't think I've been so careful or meticulous in building anything since.

It might be a "boring" design, but it could DO something other than simply fly. No matter that I wasn't exactly sure what to loft with it, it was the possibilities which kept me interested (and significantly reduced the local insect population). Then I got an Apogee II for my birthday and promptly put a beetle into orbit on B-14 power.

First rocket, first rocket loss. Its amazing the particular things you remember.

Huh. I'll have to look in that BAR box again, because when I opened it the first time on top was a new in package Scud missile and I thought "who the heck bought this?". I don't recall every buying it and had to look in catalogs to see if it was really available in the late 70s.

Joel. phx