ESTES vs. C....?

As soon as I hit send I figured it out: "CENTURI"
I remember, as a kid, really liking their rockets quite a bit more than the ESTES kits.

Centuri

This brings back memories:

Even at their worst, I think Centuri is far better than the Estes of today. Looking through the last few current Estes catalogs, I am appalled at the lack of "kits". Everything is geared towards pre-fab, plasticized garbage aimed towards the current Gen-X, video-game, and "Boyz In Da Hood" markets...nothing that looks like a rocket with some historical background and significance. I long for the days of such cool kits as the Estes "Aerobee 300", the "Honest Johns" the really cool "Thor-Agena", etc....Gee....I would even settle for a balsa nosecone...lol.
Thank goodness for the "cloned kits" industry!!

You're thinking of Centuri, but the answer to your question is Damon Corp, which owned both, and 99+% of the market
Bob Kaplow NAR # 18L TRA # "Impeach the TRA BoD" >>> To reply, remove the TRABoD!

Try some Semroc kits if you're after retro-style kits with nice modern improvements (like kevlar leaders for example).
If you're after interesting model kits, more than likely Estes aren't the ticket - FlisKits et al have got far more interesting stuff.
Still, I am partial to their motors ;)

Centuri always had better designs and the materials the rockets were made out of were a little bit better than Estes. For one, most Centuri kits came with plastic cones vs. the balsa that the majority of Estes kits of the same time period. Centuri had thicker fin stock, better shock cord mounts, better parachutes, better engine mounts/locks, and although I've seen some say both companies engines were manufactured by the same factory, I always had better luck out of Centuri's engines, and damn sure better luck out of Centuri's igniters.
Just all around, Centuri was the superior company...interesting how they seemed to disappear into Estes when the companies merged.